Thunderbird - add ability to manually sort (order) folders in folder pane

[Itagaki]

Thunderbird can move folders to different hierarchies using drag and drop. However, it is not possible to move them within the same hierarchy, i.e. reorder them.

The "Manually sort folders" add-on had helped to sort folders, but with Thunderbird 115 (Supernova), it is no longer available. It is time to make it a proper feature.

I was involved in the development of the add-on to make it Thunderbird 78 compatible and later as a collaborator. So, as an option, I have considered developing another add-on for Thunderbird 115. This may not be impossible. (John is providing a POC.) But I would like to consider implementing the ability to sort folders properly in Thunderbird.

My current thinking and the work required has been described here.

1846550 - add ability to manually sort (order) folders in folder pane (mozilla.org)

[Itagaki]

@pjpac No, it will reorder the accounts, but it will not allow you to change the order of the folders and subfolders within each account.

[wsmwk]

@pjpac what you are referring to is ordering accounts. But the OP is requesting to reorder folders.

[pjpac]

OK, fair enough, apologies for the confusion.

[BillF]

I have an email account with folders in it. A few folders have subfolders. I would like the ability to sort the subfolders alphabetically. This used to function. It no longer functions. Is there an add-on or a newer version that will resolve this? Thank you.

[Itagaki]

My patch to allow users to change the order of folders in the current Thunderbird was not accepted. The reason is that the Thunderbird team is currently working on refactoring the folder structure and mechanics. Once that is done, I will probably have to revise the patch again.

[Piccoche]

"... the Thunderbird team is currently working on refactoring..."

your post is 5 weeks old! The team is certainly working very hard 😂 but nothing happens.

[Piccoche]

6 weeks later nothing happened. But the Thunderbird team is obviously working hard so let's hope that their work will be done in time.

[Itagaki]

There is no doubt that the Thunderbird team is hard at work.
1921394 - Database structure for folder hierarchy 

My patch is blocked by the above issue.
1846550 - add ability to manually sort (order) folders in folder pane 

Their issue has a target of 134. I recently checked the release date of 134 on MozillaWiki and it was January 2025. (However, I just checked the wiki page again and the calendar does not appear with an error.)

The 134 beta is scheduled to start next month. We can only hope that their work will be done in time.

However, I am not even sure that their work will really solve the problems exposed by my new feature that I submitted a year ago.

[HF]

One year has passed since the discontinue of the extension: Manually Sort Folders.
I cannot get accustomed to the alphabetical order of my mail sub-folders. The current folder display has puzzled me a lot! I need the function to sort the mail subfolders as I want.
When can we regain the funciton again?
I need it!
 

[Stekar77]

@HFHi, my solution has so far been to downgrade to version 102.15.1 and wait until manual sorting is either supported by Thunderbird or by a new version of the add-on. Check out the instructions here:

https://www.companionlink.com/support/kb/How_to_downgrade_ThunderBird_Supernova_115_to_Regular_Thund...

The  --allow-downgrade option was necessary in my case and also I had to block automatic updates, as you will find below.

[Stekar77]

@HFI had to downgrade to version 102.15.1 and I am waiting until manual sorting is either supported by thunderbird or a new version of the add-on can be released. Here are the instructions:

https://www.companionlink.com/support/kb/How_to_downgrade_ThunderBird_Supernova_115_to_Regular_Thund...

Option 2 was necessary and preventing automatic updates as well.

[damufo]

Hello: 🙂

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1921394

[KWolf]

I took a look at damufo's comment. It appears that there is activity on folder order choice. I did not understand much of the entries concerning the programming of this request. I DO appreciate that there is activity on the folder question. And DO hope that there is a workable solution for end-user choice for folder order.

[Hunker]

Yeah.. things are rolling. An hero have emerged.. The "DarkTrojan" and he is slaying it! The dragon is going down. In my opinion this is the only function that is truly missing in Thunderbird. And since so many years. It will be a party of organisation of important information all over the world!!  

Thank you DarkTrojan we love you in our hearts and minds !

[JimScherrer]

Need this feature again. Manually Sort Folders. 3rd Party. When is this going to be added back. I need "Manually Sort Folders" feature in Thunderbird which was previously available by a 3rd party. When is it coming to newest versions of Thunderbird?