Q: We're back.

Actually, since Mail is part of OS X, you could also post in the OS X (whatever version you are running) forum. Here is a link to the Mail subforum for El Capitan:

https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_el_capitan/content?filterID= contentstatus[published]~category[mail-contacts-calendar]&filterID=contentstatus [published]~objecttype~objecttype[thread]

Thanks for the link.

I'm waiting to see if I can find some examples for posting first. Nothing worse than saying it doesn't work without examples.

Reading ASC on Mail for Mac I seem to be missing the "in response to..." line.

DItto on iPhone and iPad.

Makes it hard to follow a conversation, threaded or unthreaded.

Switched to the forum, and there it is.

Regarding threading, using AltaMail on iPad, these emails have never been threaded, because each includes a unique identifier in brackets, e.g. [up8k32-8o148-i2my0]. I supppose some mailers are cleverer about this.

Some are clever AND get confused anyway!

1. This subject's comments ALL have unique identifiers bracketed at the end, yet only 1 of the 3 is not included in the threading !!
2. The subject did not thread at all !!

I wish I had a larger sample to ponder.

There simply must be some other criterion. The ASC AppleJiveWare can only ASSIGN the attribute - what ever that mysterious attribute may be.

I just got another message in the "Facetime" thread - structure follows the threading structure (as best it can) of the ASC threading

• OPost
• Reply to OPost
  • OP's reply to Reply to OPost
    • Reply to OP's reply to Reply to OPost < this only "indents" one level in a Mail app (as would all others any "deeper" into the conversational heirarchy) Mail apps just don't have the ability - so they MAY just bail completely on the threading if it goes deeper

The criterion MUST be the # of "Re:" s (the first is "implied")

I may have it figured out... # of "Re:"s

Any reply to the OPost will not thread, it becomes the 'parent' of the hierarchy of any replies that follow it

In ASC it looks like this:

• OPost [parent]
• reply to OPost [parent]
  • reply to parent [child]
    • reply to child [Re: Re:]
      • reply to child Re:Re: [Re:Re:Re:]
        • [Re:Re:Re:Re:]
          • etc
• reply to OPost [NEWparent] will not show threading in ASC or a Mail app
  • new child
    • etc

Any "child" deeper than one level cannot be displayed even though it may have several "Re:Re:Re:" in a Mail app (only one indent available in Thunderbird)

Okay, I am curious:

I believe you mentioned that you are using Thunderbird on a Windows computer?

Yes. A Mail app should be a Mail app for all intents and purposes - TBird may not show a greater hierarchy where others may = unwilling to test over such a trivial matter

Even YahooWebMail will "group by conversations" but not show any indentations, only bunch them up

Well, I don't see how the behavior of a third party app can be used to compare to the behavior of the Mail app which is an integral part of Mac OS X (which is just a tad different from the system behavior of Windows OS and/or any apps compliant with it).

babowa, I think I explained adequately what ANY mail client app must be doing with "conversations" and how ASC defines its own hierarchy - that is all = what must happen 'behind the curtain' to make threading possible is relevant to Apple Mail, as any other mail app such as Outlook which is many times more robust than Mail

babowa wrote:

Excellent suggestion - I just unsubscribed. It's no longer worthwhile.

apparently, my little exercise has inspired you to reconsider?