Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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

when I click on individual mail in search results it opens the whole thread not just the mail I want

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Paul Smith

more options

First step is that I type text into the search field and press return. A new tab opens with previews of the emails that the search has found. I click on the header of the email which I can see is the one I want. At that point, that email should open, it used to. Now, when I do that I get another tab showing one entry which is the first email in what Thunderbird has decided is one thread (not necessarily the same subject line). I have to then open the thread up which gives me a list (no previews) so I have to go back to the previous tab and look at the date on the email I want, then back to the latest tab and select the one with the correct date (of which there may be many) and finally I see the email I wanted to see 5 clicks earlier.

I would like it to be fixed so that when I select an email preview, that email is displayed, like it used to.

First step is that I type text into the search field and press return. A new tab opens with previews of the emails that the search has found. I click on the header of the email which I can see is the one I want. At that point, that email should open, it used to. Now, when I do that I get another tab showing one entry which is the first email in what Thunderbird has decided is one thread (not necessarily the same subject line). I have to then open the thread up which gives me a list (no previews) so I have to go back to the previous tab and look at the date on the email I want, then back to the latest tab and select the one with the correct date (of which there may be many) and finally I see the email I wanted to see 5 clicks earlier. I would like it to be fixed so that when I select an email preview, that email is displayed, like it used to.

All Replies (2)

more options

I'm not having the problem with threaded view auto enabled, I just get a list of any emails which were in the thread, so unthreaded list. But the one I selected to see is not highlighted so basically I have no idea which one I selected. All the From is the same and so is all the subject, so like you I have to recheck the date and sometimes time as well of the one I selected. It's just a painful process which did not occur in 102.15.1

Either way - I would expect:

  1. Unthreaded list
  2. Email I clicked on to be highlighted
  3. Email I clicked on to auto open and display contents below.

I've just created a bug on this issue.


Do you have the auto threaded view switched off ? I have done the following and do not have a problem in the search results window. See if it helps you.

  • Settings > General
  • Scroll to bottom
  • click on 'Config Editor' button - It opens in a new tab
  • In search type: default_view
  • You will see this line: mailnews.default_view_flags - It will have a numerical value of 1
  • click on the 'pencil' icon on the right to allow an edit.
  • Remove the number 1 and type in a zero 0
  • click on the 'tick' icon to save your settings.

You will now have: mailnews.default_view_flags - It will have a numerical value of 0 This will now mean any new folders you create, they will not have threading by default.

See if setting this preference helps to stop the threading in search result.

more options

I've made that change and hopefully it may help in the future, but the behavior with existing folders and the search behavior is unchanged. Hopefully the bug report will result in it getting fixed. Thanks