Change Thunderbird Account Order
April 25th, 2007 by Dave Zille
I am a heavy e-mail user (aren’t we all) and depend on a solid IMAP client to get the job done. For the past 2 years or so I’ve been a Thunderbird guy. The Mozilla folks recently released Thunderbird 2.0, and I have been spending some time doing reconfiguration.
One task I needed to complete was re-arrange the order under which accounts appear in the folders. Here’s how to accomplish this:
- Find your prefs.js file in your profile folder (C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows login/user name>\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\ for XP users)
- Locate the mail.accountmanager.accounts property and modify it accordingly. Each account is represented by a string (eg. account2, account 3, etc). Simply re-order the strings to update the order in which they will appear
Have fun!
Michael B. Trausch
Hrm.
It doesn’t seem to work for me; I attempted this on my Linux system and was greeted with the same account order. Does this still work for you for version 2.0.0.6 of Thunderbird?
I have three accounts listed on that preferences line, and I have tried them in every which way, to no avail.
Aug 21st, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Dave Zille
Due to compatiblity issues with my IMAP server, I downgraded to 1.x, so I cannot verify on 2.0.0.6.
Nonetheless, I remember there were multiple instances of prefs.js existed in my various profile folders, and I chose the wrong file at first. That may or may not help you though
Anyone else?
dave
Aug 28th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Steve Schott
The best solution so far I have found.
I added a few steps to make it easier, for the novice.
it is easier to get to prefs.js by:
Clicking HELP and then about:config
to make reordering easier and predictable I added this step:
To help figure out what account is what number: change the default to account1, and manke sure the rest of the accounts are in numerical order. save. reopen tbird now you know which account corresponds to what number.
Thanks for your clear explanation.
Steve
Dec 13th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Andrejs Cainikovs
Keep in mind that account is always on top.
Jul 25th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Sean Timm
I confirmed that it works with 2.0.0.16 (Windows XP).
Go to Tools->Options->Advanced->General->Config Editor
This brings you to about:config mentioned above and will let you edit the prefs.js directly. Exit TBird (CTRL-Q) and restart.
Sep 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am