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updates I WOULD have liked to see

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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

lifej
lifej
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Would have been nice with a one touch "Backup address book". As it is it takes me an hour to figure it out, or I hire someone to do it. so of course it only gets done every couple of years, and I have lost my whole address book a couple of times. Would also be nice if I could have copied the whole address book to another computer. The way it is set up I have access to all my emails from any of my computers, but my address books are completely different. They should be just as automatically available on any computer Just got update 60, I didn't see anything there which I don't expect to just give me more problems rather than less, but I realize it may not be so for everyone.

Would have been nice with a one touch "Backup address book". As it is it takes me an hour to figure it out, or I hire someone to do it. so of course it only gets done every couple of years, and I have lost my whole address book a couple of times. Would also be nice if I could have copied the whole address book to another computer. The way it is set up I have access to all my emails from any of my computers, but my address books are completely different. They should be just as automatically available on any computer Just got update 60, I didn't see anything there which I don't expect to just give me more problems rather than less, but I realize it may not be so for everyone.

All Replies (1)

Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

To Backup a specific address book:

  • Open Address Book
  • select the name of the actual Address Book
  • 'Tools' > 'Export'
  • Choose where to save it
  • Make sure it has a suitable Filename
  • Save as Type: chose either LDIF or 'Comma separated (.csv file)
  • click on 'Save'


You can also import via same location: 'Tools' > 'Import'

Or you could just backup the entire Thunderbird folder which would also include preferences, accounts, address books etc. All Address Books are stored in profile name folder with .mab extension. eg: abook.mab is the 'Personal Address Book' History.mab is the 'Collected Addresses' Other .mab files like abook-1.mab refer to other address books you created.

If using Windows and default location:

  • Exit Thunderbird before backup up folder and if using IMAP mail accounts, suggest you synchonise folders for offline use to get full downloads of emails.
  • C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
  • Copy the 'Thunderbird' folder to external storage device.

good useful help here:

There is also an addon which can offer more options: MoreFunctionsForAddressBooks

You can export in various formats CSV and MAB and also use same product to import various formats. Images below as a guide.

Modified by Toad-Hall