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How do I display my MSN Hotmail or other email in the order it was sent?

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Summary: Every so often the sort order of email in your inbox may change unexpectedly. A stray click can do that, and a not-so-stray click can fix it.

I don't know what I did but for some reason my emails are out of order; they're not in chronological order. It is getting harder to check my e-mail. Please tell me how I can reset my the order of my emails.

This is one of those things that's very obvious and easy if you know about it.

But if you don't know, it can be extremely frustrating until someone shows you. And based on how frequently I get the question, a lot of people don't know.

So... let me show you.

I'll use MSN Hotmail as my example, but the technique applies to just about any web mail program, and almost all GUI mail programs like Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora and the like.

Short version: click on the column header you want to sort by. Click on it again to sort "the other way".

Here's a snapshot of my Hotmail inbox:

Hotmail Inbox sorted by Date, Ascending

"... click on the column header you want to sort by."

You can see that my messages are sorted by date, in ascending order. The date column header shows this because it's a slightly different color, and it has an up arrow in it. If I click on the word "Date" in the header, the sort order changes:

Hotmail Inbox sorted by Date, Descending

You can see that both the arrow next to "Date" has changed, as has the sort order of my messages.

Actually, you can click on any of the column headers to sort by that header. Here's my inbox sorted by "From" after I clicked on the From column header:

Hotmail Inbox sorted by From

Here the "From" column header has changed color, and now has the arrow indicating the direction of the sort. I can also click on the envelope on top of the read/unread/junk? icon column, and have my messages sorted by that:

Hotmail Inbox sorted by Envelope

There's no room in the header for the accompanying up or down arrow, but you can see that the column header has changed color.

That's all there is to it! And as I said, almost any mail program or web mail interface that shows your messages in a list with columns will allow you to change the sort order by clicking on the appropriate column header.

In fact, it was probably a stray click that got your inbox in an unexpected order to begin with :-).

Update

Reader David reports: "The word from Hotmail customer support is that the 'sort' function now disappears after your mailbox exceeds 5000 emails. They recommend either configuring Outlook Express to use a Hotmail account or downloading Windows Live Mail."

In my opinion if you're keeping 5000 emails in Hotmail you're asking for trouble anyway, simply based on the number of reports of lost and hacked email accounts. Using Windows Live Mail, or one of the other approaches to downloading your Hotmail to your own PC so it can be managed and backed up there is by far the best approach.

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Article C2899 - January 16, 2007

Recent Comments
22 Comments

The problem I have since Windows Live started is: Generally, the newest mail is on top. This can be sorted by clicking on date, but it keeps switching back to new mail on top, i guess it's preset.

Is there a permanent solution? If I've received several mails i hate having to switch so the new ones are on the bottom. Arrgh...

Thanks for any advice because you can't expect any from msn,
Michael

Posted by: Michael at November 6, 2007 8:21 AM

Hi I am having the same problem, my hotmail account will no longer sort by from. It used to do it no problem and I have not changed anything on my computer. I am finding it frustrating as I cant function without it and find it difficult to move and delete emails if I cant sort so they are piling up in my inbox.

Help! Thanks

Posted by: Lucie Hearne at January 29, 2008 4:21 PM

R/Sir,

I am not able to see Column Header "From" in my home PC, while checking messages in "Inbox" but when I open Hotmail account in office able to see "From" column header.
So, What is the problem?
And What are the steps to get back "From" column in Hotmail account.
Is there any option in Hotmail to add/delete "Column Header"?

Thanks In Advance.

Regards,
Anand

Posted by: Anand at March 28, 2008 9:17 AM

hi
there is a problem held in my email account.i dnt know how to remove it.ny mailbox is not opening i tried several times plz plz plz help me out i wana check my mail plzzzzzzzzz

Posted by: shafiqa at June 15, 2008 10:51 PM

Like other users, the option to sort mail in my hotmail inbox has recently disappeared - the column headers are no longer clickable if you know what I mean -any advice welcome - Jenny in London

Posted by: Jenny Hammerton at June 18, 2008 2:51 PM

You have to update to the NEW HOTMAIL.

Posted by: Paul at July 8, 2008 9:16 AM

The ability to 'sort' disappears after you have so many emails in your inbox. The last time I went through this I had to get that number down to 1200 emails before the sort function came back. The answer from hotmail customer service told me this, but they couldn't give me a specific # of emails or percentage full the entire account had to be before the sort function came back.

Posted by: Tracy at August 8, 2008 7:43 AM

The word from hotmail customer support is that the 'sort' function now disappears after your mailbox exceeds 5000 emails. They recommend either configuring OE to use a hotmail account or downloading Window Live Mail at http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

Thank you! I'll add this to the article.

-Leo

Posted by: David at August 9, 2008 2:04 PM

OMG, this was driving me absolutely insane... I googled it many times before... and it told me there to go to sort by, but I couldn't find it. I did what you said in one second. The images helped alot. Thank you so much!!!!!

Posted by: Jane de Guerre at November 30, 2008 7:56 PM

Has the option to display email headers (Incoming IP Addresses) been removed from Hotmail? It once worked but I cannot activate it any longer. The recommended sequence cannot be completed as the option seems to no longer exist.

Posted by: CT at March 7, 2009 11:14 AM

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