How to Mark All Messages as Read Quickly in Mozilla Thunderbird

Use your keyboard to mark them fast

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Updated on November 11, 2021

What to Know

Select the message or folder and use the shortcut SHIFT+C. Alternatively, select the emails, right-click, and select Mark > As Read.
To mark as read by date: Right-click a message and select Mark > Mark Read By Date. Enter a range of dates.
To mark a message thread as read: Select a message, right-click, then select Mark > Mark Thread as Read.

If you like to keep your Mozilla Thunderbird Inbox and other folders sorted by what you have read or haven't read, at times, you might want to mark all of them as read. There's a speedy way to do this.

Mark All Messages Read Quickly in Mozilla Thunderbird

To mark all messages read in a Mozilla Thunderbird folder quickly:

Select the folder or any message in the folder.
Press Shift+C.

For earlier versions, such as Mozilla Thunderbird 2 and earlier or Netscape 3 and earlier, use Ctrl+Shift+C.
Alternatively, select all of the emails, right-click, and choose Mark > as Read.

This trick can be handy when you have many messages in a folder, and you haven't had time to read them, but you don't want to delete them or archive them to a different folder. By marking all of them as read, you will be able to sort and prioritize the incoming messages you haven't read.

Mark as Read by Date in Mozilla Thunderbird

You can also select a date range of messages to mark as read.

Select any message in the folder.
Right-click and select Mark. Alternatively, choose Message from the top menu and select Mark.
Select Mark Read by Date.
Enter the range of dates for messages to mark as read.

Mark Thread as Read in Mozilla Thunderbird

You can also quickly mark a message thread as read.

Select a message in the thread.
Right-click and select Mark, or select Mark from the Message menu at the top.
Select Mark Thread as Read.

Sort Messages Read/Unread in Mozilla Thunderbird

When you open a message to read it in Mozilla Thunderbird, the message subject, date, and other data change from bold to regular font. Also, the green ball in the Sort by Read column changes to a gray dot.

You can sort your messages in a folder by clicking the eyeglass icon at the top of the Sort by Read column. Clicking the first time places the unread messages at the bottom of the list, with the newest at the bottom. Click again, and the unread messages go to the top of the list, with the oldest at the top.

Restoring Messages to Unread

If you want to return messages to unread, select the gray ball next to the message in the list to change it to green (meaning it's unread).

To change a range of messages to unread, highlight the range and then right-click, select Mark and As Unread. You can also use the top Message menu, choose Mark > As Unread.

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