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If you have more email accounts in Thunderbird, the accounts are shown in the order of creation.

Now I added a new account and it is shown at the bottom of the list.

How do I change the order of my accounts, so I can set the new account at the top of the list?

boleslaw.smialy
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rubo77
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3 Answers3

24

To do this without a plugin:

  1. Close Thunderbird
  2. Backup your profile directory (and most especially prefs.js)
  3. Using the built-in config editor (or editing prefs.js directly), find the mail.accountmanager.accounts preference, and change the sequence of the comma-separated account references in it.
  4. Find mail.accountmanager.defaultaccount and change it, if necessary, to be equal to the account you want to come first.

For example, if the value of accounts is account4,account5,account12, reflecting a well-worn profile, and you want the third account to be first, change it to account12,account4,account5. Then change defaultaccount from account4 to account12.

If you aren't sure which account is which, figure out which server configuration is right by looking for mail.server.serverN.name, mail.server.serverN.realhostname, and/or mail.server.serverN.userName (where N are different numbers), and then find mail.account.accountM.server set to the correct serverN.

Inspiration for this answer came from Thunderbird/Change account order

neirbowj
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    It's the best answer since the add-on mentioned above is not compatible with the last version of Thunderbird. It's also possible to do this via the Configuration editor as described there: https://www.ghacks.net/2015/06/16/how-to-sort-accounts-in-the-email-client-thunderbird-manually/ – laurent Apr 26 '17 at 17:25
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    This seems to not work anymore. Nothing happens when you edit this setting. – phil294 Jul 28 '19 at 10:51
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    Can confirm this works with TB 68. @phil294, make sure you're doing the mapping between server and account numbers, and using account numbers for the mail.accountmanager.accounts pref. – Greg Bell Mar 25 '20 at 01:42
  • @phil294 : you need to do it while Thunderbird is not running. Otherwise, it will overwrite your changes to prefs.js when exiting. – mivk Feb 05 '22 at 21:49
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You can use add-on Manually sort folders 1.1.

EDIT: Now the link is: Manually sort folders 2.1.1 (TB ver 68+).

2nd EDIT: Since few last versions of TB, currently 91.5.0, you can order account in Account Settings by dragging the account you wish to move.

pbies
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  • Thanks, you have to restart Thunderbird after sorting again, but that works fine – rubo77 Jun 05 '14 at 23:48
  • @T.Todua: which version of Thunderbird did you test? I'm running version 68.10 and added the add-on via Tools - Add-ons - Search for "sort folders" and installed "Manually sort folders" to Thunderbird. After install I selected Tools - Manually sort folders and followed to UI. – Mikko Rantalainen Oct 09 '20 at 10:02
  • Thunderbird 78.10.0 (64-bit) definitely use Add-On Manager, via the Tools Menu – Andrew Dobson Apr 30 '21 at 17:22
  • For today the current version is 2.0.6. – pbies May 06 '21 at 16:09
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Since Thunderbird 91, there is an even simpler way without addons and hacks:

  1. Right-click any account and select 'Settings' from context menu
  2. Drag&drop accounts in the list to the left
  3. Done!
Codeguard
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