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Thunderbird 78 does NOT see ANY address book(s)

  • 5 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by 3rdRockGuy

eikelein
eikelein

Hello; What a mess! For many years I could just install new versions of TB over the previous versions to upgrade. Or on a new computer I could install the latest version and then just copy the contents of the profile folder(s) into the correct location on the new machine and all was fine. Okay around I believe version 48 or so there where glitches and I needed to go through certain intermediate version(s) but that's besides my point.

My wife's computer died with a hardware glitch and I replaced it with a better machine I had sitting around. Windows 10 all updated I downloaded and installed TB v78 and then transferred the profile. TB's installer gave NO WARNING AT ALL that there where incompatibilities to be expected. The result is that on the new machine TB has NO ADDRESS BOOK and in the Write widow the Send button is greyed out.

And from what I read here there seems to NO REASONABLE WAY to make TB v78 see or recognize the existing files abook.mab, abook.sqlite and history.mab. I even coaxed these files out of a June 2020 backup, no help.

I happen to have reasonably recent .CSV files with her address data but the import attempts fail with an UNHELPFUL message to the tune of "the input file has an error...". Despite the wording of the message NO ADDRESSES ARE IMPORTED and NO ADDRESS BOOK IS CREATED! When I look at the CSV file in a text editor they look perfectly correct to me!

Please, pretty please, what may I have overlooked or just not found yet that may help?

Does anybody have a solution for that?

Is there an add-on around that I can't find that could help me to get in my wife's good grace again?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, TIA. EikeH

Hello; What a mess! For many years I could just install new versions of TB over the previous versions to upgrade. Or on a new computer I could install the latest version and then just copy the contents of the profile folder(s) into the correct location on the new machine and all was fine. Okay around I believe version 48 or so there where glitches and I needed to go through certain intermediate version(s) but that's besides my point. My wife's computer died with a hardware glitch and I replaced it with a better machine I had sitting around. Windows 10 all updated I downloaded and installed TB v78 and then transferred the profile. TB's installer gave NO WARNING AT ALL that there where incompatibilities to be expected. The result is that on the new machine TB has NO ADDRESS BOOK and in the Write widow the Send button is greyed out. And from what I read here there seems to NO REASONABLE WAY to make TB v78 see or recognize the existing files abook.mab, abook.sqlite and history.mab. I even coaxed these files out of a June 2020 backup, no help. I happen to have reasonably recent .CSV files with her address data but the import attempts fail with an UNHELPFUL message to the tune of "the input file has an error...". Despite the wording of the message NO ADDRESSES ARE IMPORTED and NO ADDRESS BOOK IS CREATED! When I look at the CSV file in a text editor they look perfectly correct to me! Please, pretty please, what may I have overlooked or just not found yet that may help? Does anybody have a solution for that? Is there an add-on around that I can't find that could help me to get in my wife's good grace again? Any help would be greatly appreciated, TIA. EikeH
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

Create a new profile with TB 78: Help/Troubleshooting, about:profiles. Then, in the new profile, Help/Troubleshooting, click Open Folder to open the profile folder, close TB, copy abook.mab and history.mab from the old profile into the new one. Restart TB and see if Address Book shows the contacts.

If you need to copy local mail from the old profile to the new one, do it manually by copying the mbox files = the files with no extension, named after folders - from Mail\<popserver>, Mail\Local Folders or ImapMail\<imapserver> in the old profile to Mail\Local Folders in the new one. Do not attempt to reuse an entire profile from an earlier version of TB.

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All Replies (5)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 25 Contributor

Chosen Solution

Create a new profile with TB 78: Help/Troubleshooting, about:profiles. Then, in the new profile, Help/Troubleshooting, click Open Folder to open the profile folder, close TB, copy abook.mab and history.mab from the old profile into the new one. Restart TB and see if Address Book shows the contacts.

If you need to copy local mail from the old profile to the new one, do it manually by copying the mbox files = the files with no extension, named after folders - from Mail\<popserver>, Mail\Local Folders or ImapMail\<imapserver> in the old profile to Mail\Local Folders in the new one. Do not attempt to reuse an entire profile from an earlier version of TB.

eikelein
eikelein Question owner

@sfhowes: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

cwi87727
cwi87727

I came into TB at ver 78, Well TB has turned into a near unusable piece of CRAP. I do not play with files, PLEASE offer a download of an earlier version that worked or urgently fix 78 if that is all that is available....

Wayne Mery
Wayne Mery
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor

cwi87727 said
I came into TB at ver 78, Well TB has turned into a near unusable piece of CRAP. I do not play with files, PLEASE offer a download of an earlier version that worked or urgently fix 78 if that is all that is available....

Please don't hijack other people's topics.

3rdRockGuy
3rdRockGuy

works for me too' tvm (:-)

='

sfhowes said

Create a new profile with TB 78: Help/Troubleshooting, about:profiles. Then, in the new profile, Help/Troubleshooting, click Open Folder to open the profile folder, close TB, copy abook.mab and history.mab from the old profile into the new one. Restart TB and see if Address Book shows the contacts. If you need to copy local mail from the old profile to the new one, do it manually by copying the mbox files = the files with no extension, named after folders - from Mail\<popserver>, Mail\Local Folders or ImapMail\<imapserver> in the old profile to Mail\Local Folders in the new one. Do not attempt to reuse an entire profile from an earlier version of TB.