Sorting the message list

Evolution lets you organize your emails by letting you sort messages in the message list.

Sorting Mail in Email Threads

You can use a threaded message view to sort emails. To enable this feature, click on View ▸ Group By Threads or press Ctrl+T.

This feature, when enabled, groups replies with the original email and allows you to follow the flow of the conversation from one message to the next.

Evolution recognizes References and In-Reply-To mail headers. In addition, you can enable Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Mail Preferences ▸ General ▸ Message Display ▸ Fall back to threading messages by subject.

When a new message arrives, it will be added below the parent message. Threads are sorted and displayed based on the date of the most recent message received.

Advanced users can change further thread settings by running commands in the Terminal application.

  • To sort each thread by latest message rather than by message date:

    gsettings set org.gnome.evolution.mail thread-latest true

  • To use ascending sort order of child messages in a thread rather than the sort order as in the thread root level:

    gsettings set org.gnome.evolution.mail thread-children-ascending true

  • To collapse all threads by default rather than expanding them:

    gsettings set org.gnome.evolution.mail thread-expand false

Sorting Mail with Column Headers

The message list displays columns that indicate whether a message has been read, whether it has attachments, how important the message is, the sender, date, and the subject. To change the columns used in the message list, you can do one of the following:

  • Drag and drop the column header bars

  • Right-click on the header.

  • Select the Remove This Column or Add a Column option.

Evolution allows you to sort your messages using these columns. Just click on the column label to sort the emails. The direction of the arrow next to the label indicates the direction of the sort.

You can apply a secondary sort criterion by clicking a column label while pressing Ctrl.

If you would like to have a different sort order and/or columns for specific mail folders, make sure that Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Mail Preferences ▸ General ▸ Apply the same view settings to all folders is disabled. You can then change the view and save your changes under View ▸ Current View ▸ Save Custom View… and apply the view also to other folders.

Using Other Sorting Options

Evolution provides other ways for sorting email messages. You can use Sort By, Sort Ascending, Sort Descending, or Reset sort.

Sort By

You can also sort email messages using the Sort By list.

  1. Right-click on the message list column headers.

  2. Select the Sort By option.

    This brings up this list of criteria for sorting email messages:

    • Subject - Trimmed

    • Labels

    • Recipients

    • Sender

    • Location

    • Due By

    • Follow Up Flag

    • Flag Status

    • Size

    • To

    • Received

    • Date

    • Subject

    • From

    • Attachment

    • Flagged

    • Status

    • Custom

  3. Select the option you wish to use in sorting email messages.

Sort Ascending

  1. Right-click on the message list column headers.

  2. Select the Sort Ascending option.

The messages will be displayed with the most recent at the bottom.

Sort Descending

  1. Right-click on the message list column headers.

  2. Select the Sort Descending option.

The messages will be displayed with the most recent at the top.

Reset sort

  1. Right-click on the message list column headers.

  2. Select the Reset sort option.

This removes sorting from the column, reverting to the order of messages as they were added to the folder.