This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

"Show new message" Option for the folders does not work properly for subfolders

  • 1 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

more options

I have set up several folders and subfolders, with auto filtering in my Thunderbird. When a new mail goes to a subfolder that is nested in two or more folders, the display for new message on the side does not appear. For Example: "Grantparent Folder" (1 new mail)

     |-> "Parent Folder" (doesnt display the new mail is here)
            |-> "Child Folder" (displays there is a mail here after i open up the Parent folder)

This is a problem because there a several Parent folders and I have to open up each one of the in order to find in which Child Folder the mail went to.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thank you in advance

I have set up several folders and subfolders, with auto filtering in my Thunderbird. When a new mail goes to a subfolder that is nested in two or more folders, the display for new message on the side does not appear. For Example: "Grantparent Folder" (1 new mail) |-> "Parent Folder" (doesnt display the new mail is here) |-> "Child Folder" (displays there is a mail here after i open up the Parent folder) This is a problem because there a several Parent folders and I have to open up each one of the in order to find in which Child Folder the mail went to. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thank you in advance

All Replies (1)

more options

re :This is a problem because there a several Parent folders and I have to open up each one of the in order to find in which Child Folder the mail went to.

When you have a load of nested foldered which are in a collapsed state then you are not going to know exactly which folder has mail mail until you click to open and drill down folders.

But you could use a much easier option.

  • Edit > Find > Search Messages
  • search for messages in: select the mail account name not a specific folder
  • Select : Search subfolders
  • Select : Match all of the following
  • 'Status' 'is' 'New'
  • click on 'Search'

Now you see every new mail. If you want to know which folder they are in then enable the column header 'Location' But you do not really want to do this every time you want to find new mail so do this:

  • click on 'Save as search folder'
  • Give it a suitable name like 'New mail'
  • Create as a subfolder of the actual mail account name so it becomes a top level folder.
  • Click on 'Create'

Now you will have a special saved search folder as a top level folder in the account. You do not select to save anything in this virtual type of folder. Whenever other folder indicate new mail or you just want to quickly check - use this 'New Mail' search folder.

From now onwards all new mail should be quickly visible via the search folder called 'New Mail' If you select another folder and read a new email then the search folder gets updated automatically to not include that email. If you select to read in the 'New Mail' folder then it's also not new mail in original folder.

This is how to get a quick view of what is new without ever needing to hunt it down. In the 'New Mail' folder you can easily enable the column header 'Location' to see which folder it is in.

Try it out, it's really a game changer.