Can't edit some addressbook entries or use some addresses in my email.
I run Thunderbird on various Linux distributions (Xubuntu or Debian XFCE) using the same address book abook.sqlite but there has been a few problems since the change from abook.mab. abook.sqlite is a symbolic link from Dropbox. This has worked for years with abook.mab DropBox or MegaSync and still seems to be working.
1. Some of the lists have become empty, so I have lost many contact. 2. Some of the lists don't display when I click on them but the previous list I was looking are displayed. 3. Some lists briefly appear but when I move the cursor across the entries those entries become not visible.
4. When I create an email and start to enter a contact the name does not complete and the only way I can use that contact is to find an old email copy and past or re-enter the name. But Some contacts are fine.
5. The problem is the same with different desktop or laptop computers.
6. The situation seems to be getting worse so instead of saying in some cases does not work to most or in all does not work. I now can not move a collected contact to a list.
Is there a way of cleaning up whatever has gone wrong? Or will I have to export using an old version of Thunderbird and *.mab file and importing to the new *.sqlite? Perhaps using a spreadsheet this sounds difficult.
Modified by a.h.lohmann
All Replies (3)
I have found a very bad solution which seems to have left me with fully working address book but with lost contacts.
1. Go down each List in the Personal Address book and export it (I used .csv). Some of the Lists were broken and could not be exported.
2. Find an older abook.sqlite and export older Lists that have become broken since. That gave me a few more lists.
3. Find an older abook.mab, open an old version of Thunderbird (it was about 60) and export older Lists that have become broken since. That gave me a few more lists.
4. Each of these .CSV files then import to a clean address book (I made a new 0 file size abook.sqlite)
5. I then created new lists in my Personal address book and used copy and paste to put the contacts into the the new repaired lists.
6. I then deleted the imported address book's. One at a time as I copied to the new list.
7. Lastly I went through the repaired lists and deleted duplicate contacts.
Look at the Personal Address book I now have all my email addresses placed there and also in each list included. abook.sqlite is now smaller. I am concerned that the address book can part break and that does not come apparent immediately and is a lot of work to fix.
I would appreciate any comment on how this fix could have been made easier?.
Modified by a.h.lohmann
abook.mab is a simple formatted text file (mork format). The SQLite file is a relational database. I consider relational databases to be unsuitable for a symlink or remote storage really, so I would expect corruption and data loss to be almost guaranteed if you continue using it in the maner you have in the past. Remote storage in dropbox is not a supported location for a profile or any of the files it contains, let alone by stealth by defining the thing as a symlink.
Thank you Matt,
I have looked at other solutions and what is meant by a relational database - means that the index is separate from the data so that multiple access to the data can be handled and different tables of things extracted from it. SQL is usually a server program so sqlite presumably is not being used by Thunderbird in a conventional way but all the same is fine for single user?
I shall explain more; 1. Operating system is Linux if necessary I can of cause add more symbolic links to other files but at present there is only one symbolic link to abook.sqlite I could link to history.sqlite as well for example but that does not help.
2. The address book is only used by me and there is only ever one instance of Thunderbird running at any time. That is I may use my laptop or my desktop PC but not be running Thunderbird in both at the same time.
3. I have gmail and yahoo email accounts I could consider gContactSync again it had a lot of junk contacts which I could not delete many years ago. Apparently gContactSync does not work with Thunderbird 78.xx a few users have reported.
So I have looked at other solutions this morning; TbSync - Does not list google contacts specifically but might work? ThunderbirdSync - May not work with Thunderbird >38 gContactSync - Does not work with Thunderbird 78.14
Modified by a.h.lohmann