Bump - anyone else noticed sort sequence problem?

Also IMO the View: Show Name As option is not sensible. It would be much better to have First, Last and Display Names as individually selectable fields for sort key (View: Sort by) and in column headings selection. As the moment display and sorting of name fields is mutually exclusive which is no good when trying to view/organize a large address book database.

In 'Address Book' Selected 'All Address Books' 'View' > 'sort by' > Selected 'Email' and 'Ascending'

Topmost 'Email' blank for those missing email address and Mailing Lists. Followed by numerical, where email address starts with a number. The remainder is sorted alphabetical on email address with duplicates grouped.

I did have a couple of entires that seemed odd. Two different people were at the top above the numericals. I located the issue. There was a blank/space before the actual email address and this was causing them to be grouped at the bottom of the blank email section. Perhaps a similar issue has occurred in your case. Double click to open and use backspace to remove the blank(s) at the beginning resulted in them being immediately placed in the correct sequence.

'Name' is created from either combining First, Last names or if none given then it uses the first part of the email address. It is not a field you enter in a Contact form. This you are now obviously aware of this.

There is an add-on I use, which I have found to be very useful. MoreFunctionsForAddressBook. Link below - the download link is at the bottom of the webpage.

• https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/morecols-en.html

How to Install Add-on Extension: After downloading addon extension *.xpi file to desktop or downloads folder.

In Thunderbird 'Tools' > 'Add-ons' or 'Menu icon' > 'Add-ons'

• Click on gear wheel icon and select 'Install Add-on From File'.
• Locate the *.xpi file you downloaded and click on 'Open'.
• You will need to restart Thunderbird when prompted.

This will offer many additional fields etc. One thing it does offer is the ability to select to see Column headers such as 'First Name' and 'Last Name'. This is very useful in locating email addresses that are missing First and Last names.

I definitely do not have any leading blanks on email addresses.

Entries with blank email address get correctly sorted to top of list when ascending email address is elected as order. Entries with blank name fields can never be sorted to top of list because TB insists on substituting email address into name when name field is blank.

I suspect TB is doing some sort of manipulation of field data when building keys (like the name substitution). Maybe special/punctuation characters within the email address etc. are discarded when building keys. I do not see how else TB could fail to collate 2 entries with identical email address together.

I may give the Addon you suggested a try but to be frank I think the correct functionality should be there without recourse to Addons. My past experience with addons has not been altogther happy. If the sorting and columns were implemented in the straightforward simple way I indicated there would be no problem ;-)

Update: Tried the Addon. This allows First and Last name fields as selected columns and blank names get correctly sorted using them as key.

There is still no way to sort on Display Name correctly.

To get rid of email duplicates I resorted to exporting and processing externally then reimporting. IMO TB needs changing to allow user to select and sort or whatever columns/fields they want using the raw data from address database (not manipulared in any way as it totally defeats the purpose). Definitely should not need an Addon for such basic functionality.

re : There is still no way to sort on Display Name correctly.

'Name' column header is created from either combining First, Last names or if none enterd in the contact details then it uses the first part of the email address.

Do you have something different?

Perhaps I misunderstood and you are not refering to 'Name', but instead 'Display' name. 'Display' name does not have a column header and theredore does not sort by 'Display' name. It is soley used for headers in emails.

The Display Name is a separate field which can be input when an entry is created in address book. Via the (silly IMO) View:Show Name As option you can get TB to display the contents of this field under Name Column. However if the Display Name field is blank TB substitues the stem of the email address - hence you can never find entries which have spaces in Display Name field.

I think the very fact that we are having this converstaion illustrates that column selection and sorting is implemented badly. If it were done in conventional manner it would be intuitive and enable user to display address book whichever way they wished.

re :View:Show Name As option... if the Display Name field is blank TB substitues the stem of the email address - hence you can never find entries which have spaces in Display Name field.

Tested and totally with you on this.

I've submitted a bug report at this link.

• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1232999

It would be a help if you could :

• Vote for the bug
• add any further information which is different to mine like OS, version of thunderbird etc.

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