Can you explain why you need separate address books for each account? In TB, address books are defined for a profile, so you need to either create a second profile, or a separate Windows user account with its own profile. If you decide on a second profile in the same Windows user account, create it with Profile Manager. To start PM, close TB, WInkey+R, type thunderbird.exe -p

I appreciate your response as I am new to Thunderbird having previously used Outlook.

I have my email account set up with all my work and personal contacts.

My other half has her email account and would like to have her own contacts.

I'm afraid I don't know the difference (in TB) between an account and a profile.

When you installed TB, it created a profile folder in this location:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\8charstring.default

A profile can have multiple email accounts, but all accounts have access to all the contacts in Address Book. At the moment, it appears you have two accounts, and your contacts are in one or more address books. You could create separate address books for your OH, but if you rely on the address autocomplete function when composing messages, TB searches all address books for matches, no matter which account is the sending address (there used to be an add-on that avoided this).

If you created a second profile, there would be another folder under Profiles with entirely distinct data, such as the account of the OH and their address books. Each user would launch the Profile Manager and choose their profile.

It really depends on how much you need to separate the accounts and contacts.

Switching between profiles would be a step too far so I'll look into amalgamating our contacts.

Thanks for your help.

Understanding that TB can use multiple Address Books has helped resolve the problem.

It took a frankly ridiculous amount of manipulation of the CSV file then an even more ridiculous amount of button clicking in TB to import each individual line of the CSV to a new Address Book but I got there in the end.

I still have no idea how my initial Address Book was created because the thought of having to click well over 600 individual entries would have lead to TB being binned and an alternative sought.

Anyway, many thanks.

The csv import process can be arduous, but it's usually recommended to first edit it in a spreadsheet so it's aligned with the TB structure, then do the import so that all the input fields match the address book.

If you imported from Outlook via Tools/Import, the contacts may have been transferred if 'Address Books' and 'Mail' were done in separate operations, as the 'Import Everything' option is known to not work in newer versions of TB.

sfhowes said

The csv import process can be arduous, but it's usually recommended to first edit it in a spreadsheet so it's aligned with the TB structure, ....

As I said in my previous post, it took a ridiculous amount of manipulation of the CSV file then an even more ridiculous amount of button clicking in TB to import each individual line of the CSV to a new Address Book. The whole process is far from user friendly for what should really be a straightforward import.

Another minor issue is that I got used to being able to sort by sender and click one header line which selected all of the emails from that sender. It made moving or deleting multiple emails so much easier than clicking each email.

The csv import is hard to make easier, since each client uses different labels and arranges the fields in a different order. I usually recommend exporting from Outlook or other apps as vCards (.vcf files), as importing them is easier.

If you right-click a column button, the From column, or any other column, can be displayed, and clicking a button sorts the folder on that column. Or, enter the sender's name or address in the Quick Filter Bar (Ctrl+Shift+K), click Sender, and messages from just that sender appear in the Threads Pane. Ctrl+A to select all, then move or copy from the right-click menu, or move by drag and drop.

I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to my moans. The thing is TB is up and running now and is so much better than the web mail we'd been using since getting the new pc. I can now take the time to learn to use it properly.

Thanks again.