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Mail display sequence annoyance
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sra
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Dec 6, 2010, 01:16 PM
 
From time to time, one or another of my machines (all running whatever the latest version of OS X is, although this problem has appeared with several different versions) will decide that mail should display messages with the most recent at the top, instead of at the bottom as I prefer. Clicking on the "date received" tab at the top of the column re-orders them the right way, but if I change mailboxes the new one will always be order latest-at-the-top even if I just changed it. This is maddening, and I wonder if someone can tell me how to fix it.

Once the behavior gets established, it continues indefinitely, although new system updates tend to restore the correct behavior (at least for a while). I have tried editing the Preferences file for Mail.app, but this never has had an effect, and in fact my edits have usually disappeared if I re-open it later.

What's up, and how can get this behavior to go away?

Thanks in advance,

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Steve Anderson
     
ibook_steve
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Dec 6, 2010, 08:00 PM
 
Hmm, I see the same thing on 10.6.5, but I like my new messages at the top, so I never noticed it.

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for you, just a confirmation that you're not alone.

Steve
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dzp111
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Join Date: Mar 2007
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Dec 6, 2010, 08:58 PM
 
I tried simulating what you're doing and I'm not having that issue. One thing that tends to mess me up at times is when I switch mailboxes, I need to scroll on top.

This is what I did:
-I checked (click tab) all mailboxes to have last received messages on top.
-Then I chose a number of mailboxes and checked them for last message at the bottom.
-I quit Mail
-Got it running again, and all mailboxes are checked as they were prior to my quitting the app.

If you have several messages in a particular mailbox, and depending on the size of your panes, consider checking the scrolling situation.

It's all I got.
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sra  (op)
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Dec 7, 2010, 09:35 AM
 
That's what ought to work. For me, it doesn't: from time to time, Mail gets the idea that new messages should be at the top in any mailbox, and restores that behavior when I switch mailboxes, overriding my own expressed preference for new messages at the bottom. And then that behavior persists for some time: I've never figured out what makes it go away -- and it does, usually, eventually -- apart from system updates (e.g. 10.6.x-->x+1).

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Steve Anderson
     
sra  (op)
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Mar 25, 2011, 11:15 AM
 
Infuriatingly, Mail.pp still insists (on only one of several machines!) on reverting to new-at-the-top sorting of mailbox windows. I have tried editing the preference file, changing every instance of sort direction parameter I can find, and then saving. Almost immediately, I find the bad behavior restored, and when I save the preferences file again it tells me that "another application has changed this file. are you sure you want to replace what that application has done?" or words to that effect.

I suspect that this is somehow rooted in the system defaults database: can anyone suggest a "defaults write ..." command that would make the new-messages-at-the-bottom behavior the default?

What is especially confusing is the fact that occasionally, after something in the system is updated, the bad behavior goes away, and I can make new-at-the-bottom sorting stick. But then something else happens, and it reverts to insisting on new-at-the-top.

Thanks for any help.

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Steve Anderson
     
   
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