Mozilla Thunderbird and the order of accounts

It has long annoyed me that I couldn’t control the order my mail accounts are listed in the left pane in Mozilla Thunderbird.
In the end I decided to just edit my ~/.mozilla-thunderbird/default.xxx/prefs.js file to get it right, and after several unsuccessful attempts I found out how easy it is.
Open your prefs.js file in an editor and find a line like

user_pref("mail.accountmanager.accounts", "account1,account2,account3,account4,account5,account6");

The number of accounts depend on how many you have created while you have used that profile.
Anyway, just reorder the list. You’ll have to find the definition of each account to identify it, but it is not that hard.
Too bad there isn’t a GUI user interface for this.


Comments

7 responses to “Mozilla Thunderbird and the order of accounts”

  1. First, I coundn’t see any emails even after I setup my third email account.

    The above step worked, rather partially. My question is, how can we have another folder in the “Folders” window for the new account created? Currently, all the emails from the new account are stored in the “Local Folder”.

    Thanks

  2. Edit > Account Settings > <YOUR_ACCOUNT> > Server Settings > Advanced… > POP > Inbox for this server’s account

    This will create a new hierarchy in the Folders pane.

  3. Try going to your prefs dir, and run the following command:

    grep -w “mail.server.server[0-9].name” prefs.js

    This will output the accounts, with their associated accounts name. That will make it a bit easier to reorg everything.

  4. FrdPrefct avatar
    FrdPrefct

    Try going to your prefs dir, and run the following command:

    grep -w “mail.server.server[0-9].name” prefs.js

    This will output the accounts, with their associated accounts name. That will make it a bit easier to reorg everything.

  5. James Clark avatar
    James Clark

    Be warned. If you have multiple accounts that use different SMTP servers this will upset the SMTP server settings for your accounts and you’ll need to reset them.

    Given that this happens I do wonder what else it might break.

  6. James Clark avatar
    James Clark

    It also messes with IMAP folder subscriptions :/

    I’d be greatful if the thunderbird devs made it so that accounts could be reordered.

  7. anonymous avatar
    anonymous

    You can try this:
    http://www.chuonthis.com/ex

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