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Can I upload my contact list from Windows 7 to the Thunderbird Address Book?

  • 9 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Matt

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I just upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7. I have retrieved by Address Book or Contact List. How do, or can, I attach it to Thunderbird Address Book?

I just upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7. I have retrieved by Address Book or Contact List. How do, or can, I attach it to Thunderbird Address Book?

Chosen solution

It is on the menu bar. If your menu bar is not showing press the alt key.

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diverdoc said

I just upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7. I have retrieved by Address Book or Contact List. How do, or can, I attach it to Thunderbird Address Book?
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All well and good. However, where will I find "Tools|Options" , in order to get to the " Config Editor"? TB

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Chosen Solution

It is on the menu bar. If your menu bar is not showing press the alt key.

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Excellent. I did not know about the ALT key bringing that up. Now, I have successfully added those 3 lines to the CONFIG editor. So, how do I add my windows contact list to the Thunderbird Address Book? Thanks for everyone's help so far. TB

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restart Thunderbird.

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Matt, like they say on talk radio, "Thank you for taking my call." Sorry: I do not understand this answer. I too have gone from Vista to Windows Seven. Somehow I succeeded in reinstalling Thunderbird. But the Contact List did not show up. I spent a half-hour on chat with a helper from Carbonite. This person restored my Carbonite "profile" to my desk top, but declined to go further.

When, after the restore, I found all those messages back in my system, I spent an hour deleting hundreds and hundreds of junk mails. I do not want to bring them back by restoring a whole profile. But........What does a "profile" consist of? Seriously. How do I recognize the contact list? Drag from what.... and drop to what? Sorry to bring a third grade mentality to this. Your help is greatly appreciated. Mike Plaskett Pittsburgh PA

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diverdoc said

diverdoc said
I just upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7. I have retrieved by Address Book or Contact List. How do, or can, I attach it to Thunderbird Address Book?
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Matt said

restart Thunderbird.

Looks like something odd happened there, makes no sense to me either.

Lets try again. See here I discuss incorporating your Windows address book into Thunderbird. Just a couple of settings in the Config Editor unfortunately I really do not think that is the question your asking, just the question you asked. You want to import the Thunderbird contacts back into a Thunderbird profile. A very different thing.

But........What does a "profile" consist of?

All your settings, preferences, add-ons, mail and RSS feeds. Basically everything that makes Thunderbird "yours". This article is a good explanation of the files in a profile, if a little dated. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Files_and_folders_in_the_profile_-_Thunderbird

If you have allowed the windows search access to your mail, it is creating  duplicated messages, in the Thousands usually, in files with a mozmsg extension.  This is not your mail.  Just files so windows search can work.  It amounted to 8 Gb of space on my system.  Kicked it to the curb quite smartly.
How do I recognize the contact list?

Files in the profile with an MAB extension. abook is the personal address book. history is collected addresses and other books are just show as abook-[#] where # is a number. To import then you will need an add-on. https://freeshell.de//~kaosmos/morecols-en.html

To install add-ons you probably need instructions. http://chrisramsden.vfast.co.uk/3_How_to_install_Add-ons_in_Thunderbird.html