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

How to display DATE and TIME in all inbox emails?

  • 7 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by parkes41

more options

My Email does not display the DATE until a day old. TIME displays only. If printing for discussion, filing, attaching to drawings, letters, other etc, emails quickly become confused. I have been handwriting the date... this hasn't happened with other email programs I have used for over thirty years? Why would the date be excluded?

Please help. How can I include DATE and TIME in all my INBOX and SENT emails.

My Email does not display the DATE until a day old. TIME displays only. If printing for discussion, filing, attaching to drawings, letters, other etc, emails quickly become confused. I have been handwriting the date... this hasn't happened with other email programs I have used for over thirty years? Why would the date be excluded? Please help. How can I include DATE and TIME in all my INBOX and SENT emails.

Chosen solution

parkes41 said

Thank you for suggestion. I did not find "mail.ui.display.dateformat.today" in the Config.Editor file.

Same result here, so I followed the instructions to create a new preference, restarted TB 68.7, and saw today's mail Date the same as for older mail.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (7)

more options

Tools/Options/Advanced/General/Config. editor, right-click the preference mail.ui.display.dateformat.today, Modify, set it to 2. If the pref. doesn't exist, right-click in the editor, New, Integer, name the pref. and set it to 2. Restart TB and today's mail will show the same date as older mail.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Date_display_format

more options

Thank you for suggestion.

I did not find "mail.ui.display.dateformat.today" in the Config.Editor file.

I have attached screen dumps as follows:-

1 Thunderbird Beta Version No. 2 "mail.ui.display" not shown in config list 3 Search for "date" result screen.

more options

re : If printing for discussion, filing, attaching to drawings, letters, other etc, emails quickly become confused.

Date in column header and in header display will only show the 'time' when it is for today by default. But that is only shown in the Thunderbird UI view.

But if you were to 'Print' an email or attach email to another, or forward etc etc, then the full date is always shown because it is in the headers of the email and is not a 'view'.

Which therefore makes me wonder, what exactly are you doing when you want to print ?

It sounds like you are taking a screendump image of the view of a Thunderbird window and printing it instead of printing the actual email.

Are you saying you are not using the correct method to print an email ?

Right click on email in Thread Pane list and select 'Print Preview'. The header section will show the correct full date. If all looks ok then click on 'Print'.

more options

Chosen Solution

parkes41 said

Thank you for suggestion. I did not find "mail.ui.display.dateformat.today" in the Config.Editor file.

Same result here, so I followed the instructions to create a new preference, restarted TB 68.7, and saw today's mail Date the same as for older mail.

more options

THANK YOU SO MUCH sfhowes ! I was too hasty and a bit nervous so did not follow your instruction to the end. I have now created a new integer, named it and changed the preference to 2. IT WORKS! Thanks so much again. Really appreciate all the help here.

more options

Sfhowes info is good as that will display the date & time in the column header, but it does not explain why you had a printing problem.

The info displayed in a printed email is specific to the Date in the header content of email and nothing to do with the UI view in Thunderbird. I only see the time in the Date column header, but obviously I see the full date when printing the email because it prints the date using the email header information. Hence why I asked what you were doing when wanting to print an email and to test what you see in a 'Print Preview' window.

more options

Thank you Toad-Hall. I print from the menu - More, Print. So your problem description had nothing to do with my problem. I can now see the date along with the time in ALL menus, and of course it prints as well. Thanks for your help.