How to Group Messages in Mozilla Thunderbird

Group by sort order to focus on the most important emails

By

Heinz Tschabitscher

Updated on June 4, 2021

Email

What to Know

Open the folder that contains the messages you want to sort.
Select View > Sort by > Grouped By Sort.
Choose how you'd like the folder sorted.

This article explains how to group messages together by a parameter of your choice in Thunderbird.

Use Grouping to Organize Your Email

Here's how to organize your emails more efficiently in Mozilla Thunderbird by organizing them into groups based on your sort order. For example, if you choose to sort your emails by date, grouping them will separate them into groups based on dates.

Open the folder that contains the messages you want to sort into groups.
Go to View > Sort By and elect the parameter by which you want your emails sorted. In this example, we'll choose to sort by whether the emails have attachments.

Thunderbird's main menu is also accessible through the three-line menu button near the upper-right corner.
Select View > Sort by > Grouped By Sort from the main menu,
Your emails will now be sorted by the parameter you set and put into groups—in this case, Attachments vs. No Attachments.

Not all the options by which you can sort a Thunderbird folder support grouping. For example, sort orders that do not allow grouping include Size and Junk Status. If you cannot group your messages according to the current sort order, the Grouped By Sort menu item is grayed out.

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