Comments on: Putting The “Received” Column In Thunderbird To Work

By: David Eaton

David Eaton — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 15:56:30 +0000

Recently started using Thunderbird, 52 and now 60. I had deliberately chosen to show the Received column rather than Date and sort on it, but have been noticing that some delayed emails were showing the time from Date in the Received column, not the actual Received time for IMAP accounts. How crazy that, in 2018, I should still have to search for a solution. And how great that thsi blog post is still here to be found and the solution still works! Thanks.

By: wayne hermit

wayne hermit — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 18:38:42 +0000

after all this time to fix “received” mail by date the issue isn’t corrected?? If has been would tend to think there would be a link to correct the date issue?? it’s not a live or die item more a steel sliver in your finger — annoying

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 20:07:52 +0000

By the way, for anyone trying to figure out this bug (wrong Date, but accurate Received date/time value in Header)……

a) This issue only happened to me with emails from only ONE email address, and only when they sent out an AutoResponses. So, for whatever that’s worth (I’m not a tecchie, so I dunno!))

b) every time, regardless of the actual accurate Received value (date/time) in header, the Date column shows “12/31/69, 4:00pm”

So, for whatever that is all worth (I’m no techhie) ………

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 20:04:51 +0000

You mentioned in this 2011 post that this issue is still not fixed as of TB 6.0.2, and here I am writing this June 2017, and it is still not fixed as of TB 52.2.0!!

Luckily, sfhowes posted a link to this page on May 4, 2017 (over at this thread: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1158818 ).

I’m trying to follow your instructions on my TB (TB 52.2.0, Mac OS 10.9.5), but don’t see the Tools/Options > Config Editor you mention. Okay, now I see after searching online for Config Editor, it’s in the Preferences > Advanced > General area (as described at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/config-editor).
….
….
Alright – it worked! I also did the Repair Folder function, and now my emails show the right dates in the “Received” column (but not in the Date column).

<<<<>>>>>

Thanks so much, Dmitry!

By: Andreas Toth

Andreas Toth — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 05:43:42 +0000

A better solution would be to force Received into Date in the first place.

By: Andreas Toth

Andreas Toth — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 05:41:28 +0000

UPDATE: Enabling message threads breaks the sort order and using Group By prevents new messages from being displayed. I’m getting really sick of this. I thought I had found the perfect e-mail client for my needs. In fact, I was so happy in the beginning, I even donated to Thunderbird.

By: Andreas Toth

Andreas Toth — Sun, 02 Apr 2017 06:00:59 +0000

My apologies! I just realised that this has fixed my issue! It just wasn’t obvious since I didn’t realise that Thunderbird seems to display recent e-mails with no year. However, if I sort them by Date, then the original issue becomes apparent and that the fix has worked. Thank you very much! :D

By: Andreas Toth

Andreas Toth — Sun, 02 Apr 2017 05:50:03 +0000

I just installed Thunderbird 45.8.0 the other day after finally giving up on Outlook as an IMAP client, especially since it won’t integrate with Google for contacts and not doesn’t seem to support starring (although I didn’t investigate this). Using Thunderbird, however, my Inbox displayed 136 e-mails that forced themselves to the top of the list because their Date field contains no year. Interestingly, I found that other e-mail clients displayed a year for these e-mails. Then, today, I discovered the Received column but found, as his article states, it is useless out-of-the-box. Following the instructions outlined herein, but instead of Repair Folder, I deleted my account and started over to force a complete refresh. Yet, even though I had first restarted Thunderbird before recreating my account, the Received column kept on showing the same date as the Date column. What am I possibly doing wrong???

By: Coccobill

Coccobill — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 17:48:00 +0000

For most users the difference between Date and Received columns would not be noticeable. I’ve been using Thunderbird at home for years relying on Date column without noticing anything wrong. Only when I installed Thunderbird at work where I get emails from cron jobs that run for hours, I noticed that jobs that run from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. send emails with timestamps from 3 a.m. even though they were sent at 7 a.m.. Still not fixed in 45.3.0 and your fix still works. Thanks!

By: Alberto

Alberto — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 15:32:29 +0000

Thank you.
This is still being useful.