How to synchronize Thunderbird tags with Gmail labels

gmaillabel;thunderbird

I have Thunderbird connecting to a Gmail account via IMAP, so Gmail labels show up as folders in Thunderbird. Moving items to folders in Thunderbird causes labels to be applied in Gmail.

However, Thunderbird also has its own tagging mechanism where you can apply a color code and tag by pressing keys 1-5 on a message. Is there any way to propagate these tags to corresponding Gmail labels?

Best Answer

It seems more people wanted this feature, but you should realize Thunderbird's folders are Gmail labels. Therefore Thunderbird's tags are not the same as the labels, in other words: there is no Gmail counterpart.

So as of yet I don't think this feature is available. I will check to see if I can find a way to filter your inbox for tags (moving them into folders).

From the Thunderbird Knowledge Base on filters

Filtering based on Tags

Thunderbird doesn't have explicit support for filtering by tags but you can select Custom Headers from the leftmost list box while editing the filter rule and add support for X-Mozilla-Keys, and then test whether it "contains" that tag. Thunderbird uses that header to store tags. For example, X-Mozilla-Keys: forum fyi indicates the message has the forum and fyi tags.

IMAP accounts store tags using message attributes instead, so its not possible to do that with messages stored in remote folders. If you copy the message to a local folder it currently doesn't add a X-Mozilla-Keys header with the tags, though it will add a empty X-Mozilla-Keys header when you compact it

Here's a link to the Knowledge Base on tags

Thunderbird has limited support for tags in message filters. It just supports set a tag as a action. However, if you add a custom header for the tag, or specify it using "Customize" in the leftmost list box you can test for tags. Since you can have multiple tags for a message its recommended you test whether X-Mozilla-Keys: "contains" a tag rather than using "is".

View -> Sort by -> Tags can sort the messages in a folder based on the tag. View -> Messages -> Tags can be used to display just the messages with the selected tag. The View list box has a similar menu command but it is not visible in the toolbar in version 2.x. Right click on the toolbar, drag and drop the View control to the toolbar, and press OK to add it. You can also create a custom view using View -> Messages -> Customize that displays just the messages with the desired tags.

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