• ITS home
• Help
• Services
• My IT account
• Security
• About

Questions and answers

2555

Using Apple Mail, my folders have stopped being displayed in alphabetical order - how can I restore this sort order?

By default, Apple Mail displays folders in alphabetical order for IMAP accounts. However it also supports manual ordering of folders by drag-and-drop (which could occur accidentally) and once one folder has been moved manually all subsequent new folders will be added to the end of the list.

Before resetting this ensure that Mail is closed. The file controlling this behaviour is hidden by default, so first you will have to unhide it.

1. Open the Terminal application (found in the Utilities folder)
2. Enter the following text at the prompt and then press return:
   

   defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
   killall Finder

3. All hidden files on your system will now be visible
4. Browse to the following folder:
   

   [username]/Library/Mail/[name of your email account]/

   Where [username] and [name of your email account] are specific to your setup
5. There should be a file in this location called: .mboxCache.plist
6. [right-click] or [ctrl-click] on the file name and select Get Info
7. In the info window that appears, add the text .backup to the end of Name & Extension:
8. Answer Use .backup to the Are You Sure? window that appears
9. To rehide hidden files, open the Terminal application again
10. Enter the following text at the prompt and then press return:
    

    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
    killall Finder

Opening Mail again, you will find that new mail folders will be added alphabetically (until such a time as they are manually moved again).