macOS Mail folders alphabetically sorting_01_folder not alphabetically sorted

macOS Mail folders are often not sorted in alphabetical order by default, especially when new mailbox folders are added to an existing mailbox. Although the mailbox folders are in A to Z order at the mail web access, e.g. iCloud.com, they are not on your macOS Mail app. If you are unable to order alphabetically all mailbox folders on your Mac, you just need to delete the corresponding mailbox library. Not a single SSH shell command is necessary.

macOS Mail folders alphabetically sorting_01_folder not alphabetically sorted

Here is how to alphabetize Mac mail folders automatically again:

macOS Mail folders alphabetically sorting_02_trash Mail library

Close the macOS Mail app, if it is currently open.
Launch Finder app. While pressing the option key on your keyboard, click onto the ‘Go‘ menu and then select ‘Library‘.
Scroll down till you find the ‘Mail‘ folder and open the folder.
Within the Mail folder, you will find one or more subfolders named like V1 / V2 / V3 …., in my case it is named ‘V6’.
Trash all ‘Vx’-folders. Note: Do not finally delete them until you are sure you will not need them anymore.
Launch macOS Mail app. All email accounts will be synced again. This can take a while. After the sync is complete, all of your mailbox folders are shown again in alphabetical order.

macOS Mail folders alphabetically sorting_03_folder alphabetically sorted

Note:

Mainly iCloud mail accounts are affected by mailbox folders not sorting in alphabetically order. However, this fix works for Gmail, Outlook and any other email accounts, too.
If you’re using IMAP or Exchange and have all your messages stored on a remote server, you shouldn’t be able to delete those messages through this process. If you have locally stored mailboxes, make sure they’re archived via Time Machine or other backup software!
The fix was tested succesfully on macOS 10.14 Mojave.

Fix macOS mailbox folders (iCloud, Gmail, Outlook.com,…) not be sorted alphabetically by deleting the Mail library and automatically resyncing all mailbox accounts.

Stay tuned ! 😉

December 29, 2018/16 Comments/by Gee Are Pabst

16 replies

Nick NIchols says:
February 15, 2019 at 05:48

This fix worked! Many thanks.
Reply
Todd Mavis says:
February 20, 2019 at 09:50

Mucho Gracias Señor. I worked with Apple senior advisor for over an hour today about this with no fix. But your method worked. Wonder how they all of a sudden got out of order?
Reply
Todd Mavis says:
February 20, 2019 at 10:42

Good fix. But you do loose smart mailboxes.
Reply
Nick Stanley says:
February 26, 2019 at 05:23

YES!!!!!!! AWESOME!!!! WORKED!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!
Reply
- Gee Are Pabst says:
  February 26, 2019 at 06:02
  
  You’re welcome! 🙂
  Reply
Albino Di Pasquale says:
March 3, 2019 at 15:16

amazing … really simple fix its works !!! thanks bud
Reply
- Gee Are Pabst says:
  March 3, 2019 at 15:54
  
  You‘re welcome! 🙂
  Reply
codesignthink says:
July 11, 2019 at 02:26

Lost all my mailboxes. Massive fail.
Reply
- Gee Are Pabst says:
  July 11, 2019 at 19:47
  
  Did you restart your Mac?
  Reply
- Tiziana Larkin says:
  August 23, 2020 at 01:24
  
  Hi, can you please advise me if you managed to fix this as it’s happened to me as well. Thanks.
  Reply
Bernd Stoeckl says:
October 7, 2019 at 14:03

I have a weird problem on only one of my MACs with Mojave.
I moved my host and on the MacbookPro all my tons of subfolders under the inbox are correctly lined up under the inbox folder of this account.
However the MacPro shows a totally different behaviour ANY new mailbox – not smart – or this account when I created it new with the new host puts all submailboxen much down in separated from the Inbox.
Drives me mad but I have no idea how to fix it.
Deleting V6 did not help in my case – all the submailboxes are nicely sorted but separated from the inbox.

Any idea?
Reply
Guang says:
October 18, 2019 at 11:30

hi, my folders in Mail were sorted in reverse alphabet order. deleted v number files as instructed to no avail. how do list them in normal alphabet order pls?
Reply
Tiziana Larkin says:
August 23, 2020 at 00:52

Lost everything.
Reply
Tiziana Larkin says:
August 23, 2020 at 01:03

can someone please help me as I’ve lost all my mail boxes.
Reply
Bernd says:
August 23, 2020 at 07:55

You CANNOT loose your email – it is stored on the server of your provider.
Delete the whole account and set it up again with password and server credentials.

Nevertheless I have the same sh… on my Macs with sorting since I upgraded to Catalina.
One Mac shows the mailboxes correct and adds new sub mailboxes in order.
The other one just throws everything at the bottom of the list independent of the alphabetical order.
Outlook gets it right.

It is a never ending story with Apple they cannot get their mail program working.
Another nuisance is that the attachments are shown at the VERY VERY end of the mail.
In the header it is almost impossible to recognise that there are attachments.

Apple PLEASE hire someone from Microsoft to show you how a working email client is programmed.

And stop adding elementary school gimmicks to your OS or simply devide your OS into one for adults and professionals and another one for hipsters, instagrammers and kiddies.

Best Bernd
Reply
- Gee Are Pabst says:
  August 23, 2020 at 08:28
  
  Hi Bernd,
  many thanks for your helpful comment!
  Cheers,
  Gee Are
  Reply