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Why won't the address book save the addresses I enter?

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 88 views
  • Last reply by sfhowes

Circle Studios Records
Circle Studios Records
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Ever since we have had Thunderbird, we have not been able to add any addresses to the address book. Weird thing is, we added one address when we first started, and that address is saved! But after that and ever since, no other addresses are saved when we add them. Here's what happens: We add a new contact, input the info and click OK. While Thunderbird is still open, the contact appears to be saved in the address book, and can be viewed. But as soon as Thunderbird is closed, and reopened, the address disappears and we are left with only that one address we added when we first started and nothing more. Hope someone can help with this!

Ever since we have had Thunderbird, we have not been able to add any addresses to the address book. Weird thing is, we added one address when we first started, and that address is saved! But after that and ever since, no other addresses are saved when we add them. Here's what happens: We add a new contact, input the info and click OK. While Thunderbird is still open, the contact appears to be saved in the address book, and can be viewed. But as soon as Thunderbird is closed, and reopened, the address disappears and we are left with only that one address we added when we first started and nothing more. Hope someone can help with this!

Chosen solution

Help menu (Alt+H) > Troubleshooting information Click on the show folder button. Close Thunderbird In the explorer windows that opened Rename abook.mab to abook.mab.old. Restart Thunderbird and try again.

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All Replies (3)

Matt
Matt
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

Help menu (Alt+H) > Troubleshooting information Click on the show folder button. Close Thunderbird In the explorer windows that opened Rename abook.mab to abook.mab.old. Restart Thunderbird and try again.

Circle Studios Records
Circle Studios Records Question owner
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Hi Matt, Executed your directions and so far it appears to be working. Are you able to provide any insight as to the technical reason for this problem, and how adding 'old' to the end of the abook.mab file name fixes it? Just curious. Thanks for the help! Appreciate it.

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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This happens when the address book becomes corrupted: additions and deletions are not permanent. Renaming abook.mab (Personal Address Book) forces TB to create a new, empty, uncorrupted abook.mab when it's restarted. The same would happen if you deleted the corrupted abook.mab.

In most cases, the address book has many valuable entries, so it's recommended to export it to an LDIF file, and then delete or rename the mab file. The exported book can then be re-imported and incorporated with the new book. In your case, with just one contact, this step was unnecessary.