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Can't email messages be marked as read automatically when they are read?

  • 11 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by flarg

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Instead of having to physically push a button to "Mark As Read" after opening every email, why don't they just mark themselves automatically as such as they are clicked on and read? Doesn't that seem logical? Every other email client I've ever used has assumed that when an incoming email is clicked on, IT HAS BEEN READ. This seems so bleeding obvious. Having to push a button to mark a message as read is ridiculous.

Instead of having to physically push a button to "Mark As Read" after opening every email, why don't they just mark themselves automatically as such as they are clicked on and read? Doesn't that seem logical? Every other email client I've ever used has assumed that when an incoming email is clicked on, IT HAS BEEN READ. This seems so bleeding obvious. Having to push a button to mark a message as read is ridiculous.

Chosen solution

I've been working with Macs since the '80s. How old are you? Maybe if Thunderbird had better menu layouts I wouldn't have had to spend 2 days searching through Prefs for something that should have been a default setting, like on every other email client on the planet.

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All Replies (11)

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Yes, normally they are by default. Your system seems not to be set that way.

Do you have a Menu Bar with File-Edit-View etc? If not press the alt key to make it appear.

From the Menu Bar select Tools-Options-Advanced-Reading and Display

Make your selections on this page.

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I'm using a Mac.

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Thanks for trying.

Mac Preferences have nothing like what you described. I've been going through them for the last hour.

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This is what the Advanced pane looks like in Mac Prefs:

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In that dialogue you showed us, go to Display|Advanced.

Please, browse and learn the layout of the menus and options.

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Chosen Solution

I've been working with Macs since the '80s. How old are you? Maybe if Thunderbird had better menu layouts I wouldn't have had to spend 2 days searching through Prefs for something that should have been a default setting, like on every other email client on the planet.

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Zenos said

In that dialogue you showed us, go to Display|Advanced. Please, browse and learn the layout of the menus and options.

And if you knew the Layout of menus and Options, you would know that that Display>Advanced pane is only about FONTS.

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Here in Linux and in Windows too, that dialogue looks like the attached.

Which version of Thunderbird are you using? This is 38.3.0.

I'm 59. So what?

Did you mean Display|Formatting|Advanced? That page is about fonts.

Modified by Zenos

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Attitude does not get you much help.

The default is to mark as read so you or your system has done something not normal.

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Airmail said

Attitude does not get you much help.

What goes around comes around.

T-bird is not for me, I think. Happy trails.