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How to load my address book from a backup drive

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  • Last reply by Bill Falls

Bill Falls
Bill Falls
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My old computer HD crashed after I transferred my user files to the new computer, so I have only the address book .mab files restored from an external backup drive, not an exported LDIF file.

Can I simply copy the .mab files from the old profile folder to the new one, or is it necessary to do the export/import procedure recommended in this forum?

I guess the export/import will involve reopening Thunderbird using the old profile, doing the export, then switching back to my new profile and doing the import. It would be much simpler to just overwrite the tiny new .mab files if that will work.

My old computer HD crashed after I transferred my user files to the new computer, so I have only the address book .mab files restored from an external backup drive, not an exported LDIF file. Can I simply copy the .mab files from the old profile folder to the new one, or is it necessary to do the export/import procedure recommended in this forum? I guess the export/import will involve reopening Thunderbird using the old profile, doing the export, then switching back to my new profile and doing the import. It would be much simpler to just overwrite the tiny new .mab files if that will work.

Chosen solution

Closing this question. Turned out it was easy to open my old profile in a new browser with Profile Manager, export the addresses to two LDIF files, close that browser and import them into my current profile. Then all I had to do was merge the two copies of each address book (collected and personal) into one and delete the empty one.

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Bill Falls
Bill Falls Question owner
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Chosen Solution

Closing this question. Turned out it was easy to open my old profile in a new browser with Profile Manager, export the addresses to two LDIF files, close that browser and import them into my current profile. Then all I had to do was merge the two copies of each address book (collected and personal) into one and delete the empty one.