Your expectation and reality differ.

I can not help it is folk get an email. clear out all the visible parts and try and repurpose it instead of creating a new email for the new topic. While it is not really mentioned in the support article https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/message-threading-thunderbird# Thunderbird threading is based off the references header in the email, not the subject. There are some preferences that can be set in the Config Editor mentioned here https://kb.mozillazine.org/Stop_threading_by_subject I think mail.strict_threading to false is what you are asking for.

I looked inside those emails and they came from different people, as well as different content. The emails were not 'repurposed' in any way.

What I'm trying to do is sort my inbox into folders, and I'm finding emails that are not meant to be in particular folders. I'm sorting the inbox according to sender.

What you have done is exactly what those sending the emails have done when they cleaned up the birdcage so it looked to them like a new email. Obviously I am going to have to explain a lot here in a very short time.

Email are not only what you see, there is a significant amount of information included with the email regarding the conversation it belong to, what server it touched upon in it's delivery path, as well as things like the date etc. I suggest you have a look at the message source of an email. Any email. Ctrl+U will load the source in a window.

Every ermail has a Message-ID: header. The following one is taken from the email the forum send notifying og your response.

Message-ID: <01010190a938dadc-6397b5f6-7584-435b-a12e-04e5f6898a9a-000000@us-west-2.amazonses.com>

When you click reply that information is transferred to the References header, and if the message is in a long thread appended to the end of all the other references.

This is the relevant headers from another conversation, sandwiched between more familiar items.

Subject: Re: [tb-planning] Paying for a feature development?
Message-Id: <17206297520.Bf538.375496@composer.thunderbird.topicbox.com>
In-Reply-To: <82fdaeaf-9b0f-4cee-887a-4bf1c62d71b9@thunderbird.net>
References: <17206118460.893F.487154@composer.thunderbird.topicbox.com>
<82fdaeaf-9b0f-4cee-887a-4bf1c62d71b9@thunderbird.net>
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2024 12:42:32 -0400

This is what is used to build the conversion thread by default. Content and subject are not a consideration unless you change the default as I told you you could do.

Thanks you for the explanation. I found the Message-ID for two of the unrelated emails in the same thread, and they are different. E.g.

9ef7bc25caa800e93af2f0d505d3d5da@innerwestcreativenetwork.org.au versus XrRB131YSo2QBLCL-3Lr9w@geopod-ismtpd-canary-0

Did you make the change I suggested?

Your last post clearly indicates you are not following the process. If any of those references:, message-Id: or in-reply-to match: the database is going to place the emails in the same thread. Just because they have separate message-id simply means they are separate messages, not that they don't belong in the same thread.

Edit: I snipped my email address out

One in the thread says this Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2023 16:42:21 +1100 References: <4f10381d201102d85904a25166d2dccd@innerwestcreativenetwork.org.au> <a59c5535feef68e220caded4ad2e9ef3@innerwestcreativenetwork.org.au> <9ef7bc25caa800e93af2f0d505d3d5da@innerwestcreativenetwork.org.au> In-Reply-To: <9ef7bc25caa800e93af2f0d505d3d5da@innerwestcreativenetwork.org.au> Message-ID: <CALd5YnWQV4s-OovNXtE4Dbb9CUfnGVmzdnaShgPakCWQOOVOKA@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Re: Inner West Creative Network (Anna) - Creative of the Month

==

Another in the thread, an unrelated email, says this

Received: by 2002:a05:6a10:b651:b0:4e6:599f:3b8d with SMTP id s17csp333719pxv;

       Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:17:51 -0700 (PDT)

X-Google-Smtp-Source: AGHT+IHkqpeLAtF+FrFXyZOffyYgrmW2oop5f1kM8L3FGZ3oYyg+M0i5gnWZM9AZ50v+yJxSATfX X-Received: by 2002:a17:90a:9913:b0:26f:d6f4:9646 with SMTP id b19-20020a17090a991300b0026fd6f49646mr302971pjp.40.1694549871284;

       Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:17:51 -0700 (PDT)

ARC-Seal: i=1; a=rsa-sha256; t=1694549871; cv=none;

       d=google.com; s=arc-20160816;
       b=q+Ql/A98oW5cGy3UMc3h81tnf4tv07ix0+ApR5g5B3e88H5ZNCMkTZDpLsN1/+oPzs
        gJeFje/ZZyiNx5Q/LTxqhcc9w3t6JKP0G8/UiTPj/S7KK2IbutjMsown+A4uwNdLN37m
        DN7M5+NlVOhNgonbI+bhoaEm8R2ic+nVsxLX6cw9+GlE4wlUqDF7VAqucPTFZCfZ0YUA
        Sc2faZaSxpRIrMx28QC416uS2oMOiCh8p6qeuF8Kfsc+WpFWRTI5MjKEgzBwwmERWJsG
        B/ciuKn4Rvg595C6WoVVl28z8yPlMKc23CoWcZd3SbXtFr6GKs1UGZPS9K0pUZlqvF/m
        VxUQ==

ARC-Message-Signature: i=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=google.com; s=arc-20160816;

       h=to:subject:message-id:mime-version:from:date
        :content-transfer-encoding:dkim-signature:dkim-signature;
       bh=YDWpKekDggYQ2TF3hX8YoqVcHDFLncz+FkcpimBNONw=;
       fh=Jwn6Cx/+4xRDMUR+PB+wKAUF13PB5nVS5mrRpJiffpk=;
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        +qT0LlVe9LxmuHiU7wHLHZuRe3u4pf2mNCSU/cGyEVkhLAN7YDyfIoN4hMBTSs8QqJZe
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        0fOhyzn62D41x6SCgwfm0GuvkEho8ZM/c6DtzcHZAVYi9d3MfxBY6ipFoqGFfYmeT7pS
        2IOQ==

ARC-Authentication-Results: i=1; mx.google.com;

      dkim=pass header.i=@appliancesonline.com.au header.s=s1 header.b=pSlYTv4c;
      dkim=pass header.i=@sendgrid.info header.s=smtpapi header.b=KrMorMjk;
      spf=pass (google.com: domain of bounces+2347897-a9f2-anna.=gmail.com@sg.appliancesonline.com.au designates 149.72.244.147 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom="bounces+2347897-a9f2-anna.ceguerra=gmail.com@sg.appliancesonline.com.au";
      dmarc=pass (p=REJECT sp=REJECT dis=NONE) header.from=appliancesonline.com.au

Return-Path: <bounces+2347897-a9f2-anna.=gmail.com@sg.appliancesonline.com.au> Received: from wrqvfqwp.outbound-mail.sendgrid.net (wrqvfqwp.outbound-mail.sendgrid.net. [149.72.244.147])

       by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id t3-20020a170902e84300b001b828f8dd13si8965111plg.340.2023.09.12.13.17.50
       for <anna.@gmail.com>
       (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 bits=128/128);
       Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:17:51 -0700 (PDT)

Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of bounces+2347897-a9f2-anna.=gmail.com@sg.appliancesonline.com.au designates 149.72.244.147 as permitted sender) client-ip=149.72.244.147; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;

      dkim=pass header.i=@appliancesonline.com.au header.s=s1 header.b=pSlYTv4c;
      dkim=pass header.i=@sendgrid.info header.s=smtpapi header.b=KrMorMjk;
      spf=pass (google.com: domain of bounces+2347897-a9f2-anna.=gmail.com@sg.appliancesonline.com.au designates 149.72.244.147 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom="bounces+2347897-a9f2-anna.=gmail.com@sg.appliancesonline.com.au";
      dmarc=pass (p=REJECT sp=REJECT dis=NONE) header.from=appliancesonline.com.au

DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=appliancesonline.com.au; h=content-transfer-encoding:content-type:from:mime-version:subject: x-feedback-id:to:cc:content-type:from:subject:to; s=s1; bh=YDWpKekDggYQ2TF3hX8YoqVcHDFLncz+FkcpimBNONw=; b=pSlYTv4cWhJKNj8SfybXwrCXgeI9xCzdXPZL6VmuQx5eH8jQKc6Q1ywLcTzYR2vsj/9Q PczMc1DzU63FlHkb/avnBjRv7oEv92T26RTRtB5K6Qw3VJN5IUZGVl0F8FhQGs62OPnSw9 RF4iC+AQ8qangzzivbe4N7Fzp5gLYv1+ZhvR6ZK1AM0gIUKZdnlftISbnpDC/L5xYJD147 BLeeTBZJbrC5ngc42ImvM6yezR6oXpn4g5Ff6RFPahMV+koXS72ep323c/Ts1PLhDD13tl Ms3c9QQ14BL6w1TdCkwZ3a9lMgXL9kEHTEzyGZt5pxLMFsDi3RlnoURCqKDPKK7g== DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=sendgrid.info; h=content-transfer-encoding:content-type:from:mime-version:subject: x-feedback-id:to:cc:content-type:from:subject:to; s=smtpapi; bh=YDWpKekDggYQ2TF3hX8YoqVcHDFLncz+FkcpimBNONw=; b=KrMorMjkDjHcfZWfU1hcxVM1r0AdyudBOdk3BHfRM7ZncPl1/AwbcZDpyn15aX51QLc4 ozyLUMs3BbO9clO2W2FBZ6heaGRxRPon//3nQ+vYEvLCSWRJ9YuJgr3AuFcLve6YS8F5oC R0U8dABdNFL27loSJH2xeuzhbYeQwIBVU= Received: by filterdrecv-8684c58db7-wf85l with SMTP id filterdrecv-8684c58db7-wf85l-1-6500C76C-52

       2023-09-12 20:17:49.092124556 +0000 UTC m=+10787975.898709177

Received: from MjM0Nzg5Nw (unknown) by geopod-ismtpd-canary-0 (SG) with HTTP id XrRB131YSo2QBLCL-3Lr9w Tue, 12 Sep 2023 20:17:48.779 +0000 (UTC) Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2023 20:17:49 +0000 (UTC) From: Appliances Online <support@appliancesonline.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <XrRB131YSo2QBLCL-3Lr9w@geopod-ismtpd-canary-0> Subject: Your delivery window for today is 7:00am to 9:00am

what happens if you right click the folder, select properties and then the repair button

Thanks! I think that fixed it.

Do I need to do it for every individual folder?

It sounds like your index into the message stre is corrupted, so yes you will need to do it for any folder that has issues. Note that if you have an antivirus place an exception in it for the Thunderbird profile folder. That is the root cause of a lot of corruption issues as Thunderbird has large files that the antivirus interrupts the writing of.