Thunderbird and Gmail - Unread message count

This is more of a generic setting than a setting for Gmail, however, since I started using IMAP only after Gmail offered it I’ve realized it only now. If you use the Archive+Label combo in Gmail to replicate the feeling of folders then you might have noticed after you’ve set up IMAP in Thunderbird that all the mails that come to your inbox show up with a nice count (n) in brackets. On the other hand, none of the mails which get automatically archived and assigned to labels get displayed.

Its only when you click on a particular label does it tell you if any new mail has arrived. This gets annoying when you have quite a few labels. So as an update to my previous post, I found this setting and thought I would mention it here if anyone else wanted to know.

In order to get the unread message counts on all your labels go to “Tools->Options->Advanced->Config Editor” and type in “imap” into the filter box.

The first setting you see is “mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new” and it is set to false. Double click it to set it to true. Restart Thunderbird and do a “Get Mail->Get All New Messages”. Now if there are any unread mails in any of the labels, it will display them as well (since it has now checked all the IMAP folders you are subscribed to.