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

One-Sided Email Threads || Missing Sent Mail

  • 6 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by iingezo

more options

Whenever I first respond to an email in Thunderbird I am unable to review what I responded with inline with the ongoing conversation.

I see the purple arrow indicating that I did respond, but there is nowhere in the Sent Mail tab or opening the original email in a Conversation tab that allows me to read through the entire correspondence with both sides of the conversation in context. When replies do accumulate enough for the drop-down appear, it is only the other person's emails that are displayed.

This is incredibly inconvenient and, were it not for that purple arrow at the very least, unassuring in the cases where I want to double check if my email successfully went through to begin with.

Would love to know if I'm simply missing a setting I can toggle on to view both sides of these email threads in one place!

Thank you

Whenever I first respond to an email in Thunderbird I am unable to review what I responded with inline with the ongoing conversation. I see the purple arrow indicating that I did respond, but there is nowhere in the Sent Mail tab or opening the original email in a Conversation tab that allows me to read through the entire correspondence with both sides of the conversation in context. When replies do accumulate enough for the drop-down appear, it is only the other person's emails that are displayed. This is incredibly inconvenient and, were it not for that purple arrow at the very least, unassuring in the cases where I want to double check if my email successfully went through to begin with. Would love to know if I'm simply missing a setting I can toggle on to view both sides of these email threads in one place! Thank you

Chosen solution

If the mail provider doesn't automatically copy sent messages, specify the target for sent mail in Account Settings, which might be named Sent, Sent Mail, Sent Items etc., depending on the provider.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (6)

more options

Hello

For most users including me, this kind of need is solved by right click, open in conversation. Note that in some cases, the thread is broken, notably when a message *originates* from outlook.com and aliases (live.com...). I'm not sure if Thunderbird or Microsoft is at fault. But I have not yet found a problem when the message is sent by me.

more options

Yeah, as stated in my problem, opening these threads up in Conversation tabs does not let me see the responses I've sent side-by-side with the emails they're responding to. (If I can find a copy of the emails I responded to them with at all.)

None of them are using those sorts of addresses / aliases, it's mostly been standard gmail.com or .edu addresses. I will also note I'm using a Mac, but I don't see how that would affect this particular problem too dramatically.

I think I might have found a possible solution when looking into various Thunderbird addons (Copy Sent To Current / Thunderbird Conversations), but I do also wonder if these or any other setting can work retroactively as the emails that originally kicked this off this problem for me were quite important ones I would want a copy of and I am a little vexed that they don't show up in Sent Mail either. If I am missing something on that end, I'm confused why it wouldn't simply be a setting that's toggled on by default.

more options

The Open in Conversation function depends on the global search database being enabled in Settings. Rebuild the database and see if it helps.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/rebuilding-global-database

As for sent messages not appearing in the gmail Sent Mail folder, make sure 'Place a copy in' is not checked in the Copies & Folders section of Account Settings, as gmail automatically copies sent messages there anyway.

more options

I'm not the one using Gmail, just a few of the people I am emailing. When I first downloaded Thunderbird I created an email address with Mailfence as the startup offered for me.

But I'll see about rebuilding the database and the 'Place a copy in' options. (So I should check that box if I am not using a Gmail account?)

more options

Chosen Solution

If the mail provider doesn't automatically copy sent messages, specify the target for sent mail in Account Settings, which might be named Sent, Sent Mail, Sent Items etc., depending on the provider.

more options

Well OK then! That sounds like it may well be my solution for emails going forward at least.

I suppose I may just have to give up on the ones I already sent out (maybe ask the people on the other end to forward a copy to myself, hmm), but that is good to know going forward.

Thank you!