Hugo Jonker

More Thunderbird news: how to set default view. It is possible, though in an awkward manner.
The trick: use the config editor (Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General), and fix the view according to this comment in Thunderbird’s bugtracker bug about this. I like my mails threaded (in all folders), and sorted with newest on top. You can set this per folder, but I want to do it once and be done with.

To do this:
I want descending (sort_order: 2), date-sorted (sort_type: 18), threaded (view_flags: 1) mails.
So change the relevant mailnews.default_* values to reflect that :)

The comment in full (to safeguard, and in case your settings don’t match mine):
(PS: Note that according to comment 102, further below, the linked comment had _type and _order swapped. That’s changed below.)

Prefs are named as follows; first three apply to Mail and RSS folders, the second three to Newsgroups.
  mailnews.default_sort_order
  mailnews.default_sort_type
  mailnews.default_view_flags
  mailnews.default_news_sort_order
  mailnews.default_news_sort_type
  mailnews.default_news_view_flags
In about:config  (Tools | Options | Advanced | General, Config Editor),
you can enter "news._def" to filter out all the prefs but these.

sort_type:
  byNone        17         byPriority    23      byLocation    29
  byDate        18 *       byStatus      24  	 byTags        30
  bySubject     19 *       bySize        25  	 byJunkStatus  31
  byAuthor      20 *       byFlagged     26 	 byAttachments 32
  byId          21 **      byUnread      27 	 byAccount     33
  byThread      22         byRecipient   28 	 byCustom      34
    * = commonly desired values
   ** = by Order Received (?)

sort_order:
  ascending   1
  descending  2

view_flags -- the second group of values can be added to one of the first group to combine effects,
with several limitations:
  Unthreaded       0
  Threaded         1
  Grouped         64  [mail only (?)]

  ShowIgnored      8  [news only]
  ShowUnreadOnly  16
  ShowExpanded    32  [doesn't seem to work]
ShowUnreadOnly will check the View|Threads|Unread menu; this will cause only
unread items to be seen, but doesn't force a threaded view.

Edit: of course, afterwards I find the add-on to do just this :)
Edit 2: Again, no convincing case… not sure if this works …
Edit 3: Nope, it doesn’t work. :(
Edit 4: see next post, kind of got it working.

Ever since switching to Thunderbird, I’m happy… for the most part. There is this error where it cannot open or download attachments correctly. People complained and were told to upgrade. Guess what: no such luck!

Ton said that the second answer there might be correct.That is:
Go to Preferences > Advanced > General > Config Editor, and change the value of mail.server.default.fetch_by_chunks to false.

I did, could unfortunately not test conclusively yet (existing PDF attachments may be locally stored in corrupted format, not sure how to undo that).
If I find the answer, I’ll update the post.
Edit (15 sep 2011): Still no conclusive test, but I tested it on a new TB install (setting the values before adding my mailaccount), and the attachments that were previously borked now work. Which is sufficient evidence for me :)