Try clicking the star that follows the senders address when viewed in the Message Pane, tab or window. If the star is filled with color it is already in the address book, If it is not filled you click to add it. Clicking a filled star opens the edit dialog for that contact.

Not sure if this is STOOPID but it is sure easy.

This is NOT the same star that is to the left of the message headers on the main page.

Please pardon my frustration. This functionality is not quite backwards from Eudora and I don't find it particularly intuitive to go foraging through many years of collected addresses to find the one I want and then move it to the desired address book.

Well, actually that didn't work either from within the address book itself. Drag and drop doesn't work to move a contact from one book to another and right clicking doesn't allow copying and pasting. This is going to make a mess to clean everything up when I make Gmail the master contact list but that is for another day.

I finally found that if you click on the star (NOT right click as everything else Windows) it shows the sender's address and the current mailbox (Collected Addresses) and allows it to be moved where you want it. Yay!

Speaking of addressing and the Collected Addresses pile it would be extremely helpful when auto addressing an email to know the source (address book) and/or date that it was added. Over time contacts email addresses change so you may have multiple choices for the same contact with no way of knowing which is the correct one and which one(s) may be old or obsolete. Now I have to go find the recipients last received email to verify the current correct sending address. This is a big bother and waste of time. Can this be added to the list for future enhancements?

Thanks,

Steve

Drag and drop from one book to another most definitely works.

Airmail said

Drag and drop from one book to another most definitely works.

Well... It appears to work sometimes... You can pick up and drag the contact to another address book but upon releasing the mouse button nothing happens. No move takes place. Did that to me twice today moving a single contact back and forth and then started working. Yesterday I only tried it once or twice and didn't work so assumed it was broken. This is TB 25.6.0 which should be the latest. Any thoughts?

45.6 is the latest. Reboot your computer and see if it works better. Drag and drop has always worked.

Steve_Sr said

Please pardon my frustration. This functionality is not quite backwards from Eudora and I don't find it particularly intuitive to go foraging through many years of collected addresses to find the one I want and then move it to the desired address book.

I used Eudora for a very long time. If the address wasn't in the address book already in Eudora, you would also have to "go foraging through many years of collected addresses to find the one I want and then move it to the desired address book"

If you were not able to export your Eudora address book and import it into Thunderbird, you may still be able to.

I finally found that if you click on the star (NOT right click as everything else Windows) it shows the sender's address and the current mailbox (Collected Addresses) and allows it to be moved where you want it. Yay!

I find it strange that you needed to stumble across this, since that is exactly the instructions Airmail gave you in the beginning.

Speaking of addressing and the Collected Addresses pile it would be extremely helpful when auto addressing an email to know the source (address book) and/or date that it was added. Over time contacts email addresses change...

This is an interesting idea that I like and I have often wished for that functionality. I haven't seen this in any e-mail program, though.

Unfortunately, given the current state of the Thunderbird project, only bug fixes are addressed. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Thunderbird

As for why dragging and dropping contacts from one address book to another works for you intermittently, there can be many causes. Off the top of my head:

1. The left clicking on your mouse is not working 100%. I currently have this problem and need to buy a new mouse (but keep forgetting to). As a computer tech, this is the #2 reason I've seen for dragging and dropping working inconsistently.

2. Of course, now you ask (mentally), what the #1 reason is. I will tell you, but please don't be offended. User error. The user thinks that they have correctly selected the item when they drag it, but they haven't. I'm not saying that is what you are doing, just giving my observations over many years of helping people with their computer problems. This especially happens when someone is in a hurry. It can also happen in conjunction with a faulty mouse.

3. There might be a problem with the installation of Thunderbird. That could be caused by several things. Even if you were not using Windows XP (thus an old computer), I would suggest running a Check Disk. In fact, run a "thorough" Check Disk which will not only check for file system errors, but every cluster of the hard drive to see if it functions properly.

While the Check Disk will fix file system errors, the files on the hard drive for the installation for Thunderbird may still be damaged.

A thorough uninstall and removal of Thunderbird, then clean reinstall of Thunderbird may be necessary. I can help with instructions for this if you want. The instructions apply to any Windows program.

If you choose to uninstall and reinstall without my instructions, then first backup your Thunderbird Profile.

Airmail said

45.6 is the latest. Reboot your computer and see if it works better. Drag and drop has always worked.

Mistyped I have 45.6

Bruce A. Johnson said

Steve_Sr said

If you were not able to export your Eudora address book and import it into Thunderbird, you may still be able to.

No, I imported it each time from Eudora Pro, Eudora OSE, and TB. I am sure that there were some address book format changes that may not have imported correctly. I am seeing some of this when I export certain address books to *,CSV and open with Excel.

1. The left clicking on your mouse is not working 100%. I currently have this problem and need to buy a new mouse (but keep forgetting to). As a computer tech, this is the #2 reason I've seen for dragging and dropping working inconsistently.

2. Of course, now you ask (mentally), what the #1 reason is. I will tell you, but please don't be offended. User error. The user thinks that they have correctly selected the item when they drag it, but they haven't. I'm not saying that is what you are doing, just giving my observations over many years of helping people with their computer problems. This especially happens when someone is in a hurry. It can also happen in conjunction with a faulty mouse.

Yea, I know pilot error. I can't explain it either. I don't seem to be having any issues dragging and dropping individual messages into their respective storage folders... and I do this a LOT!

I am seeing some of this when I export certain address books to *,CSV and open with Excel.

Just be aware Excel requires files exported from Thunderbird as CSV to be "Imported" and when you want to put them in Thunderbird again a mess. You have to open the CSV in notepad and save as to set the text type us UTF. For reasons best known to Microsoft after some 20 years of UTF being the standard in their own operating systems. Excel still uses ANSI not UTF and barfs on opening UTF CSV files. Fortunately Libre Office got with the program, so just stop using Excel and use a spreadsheet that "just opens" the files and writes them without the drama and expense.

Matt, thanks for the warning RE: UTF character sets. This process is going to go from Tbird to Gmail as the new master so not sure that this will apply. I did install the gContactSync add-on which doesn't appear to do *anything* at all. It may be for the better as I probably have 2 DECADES worth of contacts to sort through!

Steve_Sr said

Matt, thanks for the warning RE: UTF character sets. This process is going to go from Tbird to Gmail as the new master so not sure that this will apply. I did install the gContactSync add-on which doesn't appear to do *anything* at all. It may be for the better as I probably have 2 DECADES worth of contacts to sort through!

If it goes through Excel, it applies. I do wonder if you have created any address books on google for the addon to sync with. Have you looked on the gcontact sync menu under edit accounts to see if you have added a gmail account to sync. If not add one. The add-on does not do anything if you do not actually configure an account and go through the oauth2.0 process to allow the sync.

Bingo! GContactSync was only set up for the Gmail address book so it looks like this is a configuration issue.

However, with the current state of my Eudora nicknames / Tbird address book(s) I may still opt to do some manual cleanup before allowing automatic synchronization. I have also read that Gmail has issues with mailing lists not importing properly. So this may be another issue.

So this brings me back to the easiest way to fix and cull an address book would be in Excel. Is there any way to post process the Excel output to fix the UTF character set issue?

My current box is an old XP PC which doesn't really have the room or horsepower to run Open Office or another MS Office clone. I would like to get this done before transferring to my new PC but looks like I may have to wait. PC inertia is a STRONG force!

RE: I refuse to waste my time copying and pasting each INDIVIDUAL FIELD into a new contact.

For future reference on adding contacts to a particular address book. If you click on the star, it will auto add the contact to the 'Personal Address Book' which may not be the one you want meaning you then need to move the contact between address books.

I use an addon extension called: 'MoreFunctionsforAddressBook'

• https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/morecols-en.html

I click on the email address (not the star) listed in FROM header to get a drop down list. select 'Save recipients addresses' > 'as contacts (all)' Then you can choose any of your listed Thunderbird address books.

This means you do not need to copy paste/drag and drop to get it into the correct address book.