Thunderbird Email Hacks

Disable Sort View by Threads

I found this option is available through advanced configuration. Here's a quick guide:

* In Thunderbird, go to 'Tools' .. 'Settings' (not: 'Account settings')

* Scroll to the bottom and click 'Config Editor' button

* In the box, type 'mailnews.default_v'

* Below, click the pencil ('Edit') button next to 'mailnews.default_view_flags'

* Change the value from 1 to 32 (also set to number)

* Restart Thunderbird.

All your folders should now be sorted unthreaded.

How to Change Default Threading Mode in Thunderbird?

Users can change the threading mode in Thunderbird for their new folders without affecting the existing folders, with the help of the below-mentioned steps.

    Click on “Menu”, go to “Settings” and from the bottom right corner navigate to “General” section.
    Click on the “Config Editor” button and then open the “Advanced Preferences” tab.
    In the Search preference name search box enter “mailnews.default_view_flags” and then click on “Edit”.
    Enter the value for preference “0” for Unthreaded and “1” for Threaded, after this press Enter or Save button.



Pjotr.

Disable Updates

== DISABLE AUTO UPDATE VIA "REGEDIT" IN WINDOWS: ==
In windows, if you want to make sure, Thunderbird app update is  completely disabled, then for both 64bit & 32bit Windows or TB,  follow below steps:

* runregedit.exe, ( reg =registry ) , accept the RISK related warnings, 
   and find/browse to below reg key location:[[BR]] 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Mozilla\Thunderbird 

or

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Thunderbird

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox

If any one of the above/below (Thunderbird related) reg keys does not exist
in Windows Registry,then Create them with a right-click on  the previous key
(for example: "Mozilla"), and then selectNew>Key> specify key name 
(for example: "Thunderbird" or "Firefox"), then right-click on the key Thunderbird
to configure TB, or, right-click on key Firefoxto configure FF ,
and again selectNew>Dword(32-bit) Value > 
name it DisableAppUpdate

set its value to1
to disable TB/FF app update & auto-update.

( If later you want-to/need-to enable app update, then you may set!DisableAppUpdatekey value to0. )


 * After above setting is done, user will see a line[[BR]]'''''"Updates disabled by your system administrator"'''''

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla\Thunderbird /v DisableAppUpdate /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f 

Disable / Alter Max Size Limit without Warnings

Goto Config Editor

mailnews.tcptimeout = 600

mailnews.tcptimeout_append = 600

mailnews.tcptimeout

set 1000 / 2000 etc

Overall Display Screen Size Factor

In config editor

layout.css.devPixelsPerPx

(-1 is default, change to 1,1.3 etc)

Disable / Enable Signature --

mail.identity.id1.attach_signature = True

or

mail.identity.default.suppress_signature_separator = True

Reading Pane

layout.css.devPixelsPerPx = 1.1

add to css file : c:\<thunderbird app dir>\chrome\userChrome

/* Thunderbird userChrome.css */

@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");
@namespace html url("http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml");

html|div#threadPane {
  min-height: 300px !important;
}

toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets = True


/* Thread pane - reduce min-height*/
#threadPane {
  min-height: 150px !important;
}

Sort Defaults

Type mailnews.default in the Filter bar to bring up a small list of preferences to configure. It will display similar to below:

Preference Name                      Status       Type        Value
mailnews.default_news_sort_order:    default      integer     x
mailnews.default_news_sort_type:     default      integer     y
mailnews.default_sort_order:         default      integer     x
mailnews.default_sort_type:          default      integer     y

In the above, replace the x and y of the value by double-clicking the name of the preference and replacing it with one of the following values as required:
x (see https://developer.mozilla.org/en/nsMsgViewSortOrder)

1 = Ascending
2 = Descending

y (see https://developer.mozilla.org/en/nsMsgViewSortType)

17 = None
18 = Date
19 = Subject
20 = Author
21 = ID (Order Received)
22 = Thread
23 = Priority
24 = Status
25 = Size
26 = Flagged
27 = Unread
28 = Recipient
29 = Location
30 = Label
31 = Junk Status
32 = Attachments
33 = Account
34 = Custom
35 = Received

So if you wanted to sort all mail by Thread, Descending (newest at top), the preferences in the config editor will look like this:

mailnews.default_sort_order:    default     integer      2
mailnews.default_sort_type:     default     integer     22

There are also default_(news_)view_flags settings (for mail and news), which allow to turn on the "Threaded" flag:

view_flags -- the second group of values can be added to one of the first group to combine effects, with several limitations:
  Unthreaded       0
  Threaded         1
  Grouped         64  [mail only (?)]

  ShowIgnored      8  [news only]
  ShowUnreadOnly  16
  ShowExpanded    32  [doesn't seem to work]
ShowUnreadOnly will check the View|Threads|Unread menu; this will cause only
unread items to be seen, but doesn't force a threaded view.