Adressbook location puzzle (Mac)

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TobiasBaskin
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Joined: April 18th, 2014, 1:29 pm

Adressbook location puzzle (Mac)

Post by TobiasBaskin »

Hi, I am trying to find where my Mac stores Thunderbird address files. I asked this question in early Jan and no one replied. Someone must know where they are (or what they are called). They are not in the profiles folder (in any way that I can find). In the past, they were 'abook.mab' (and 'history.mab') and located in the Profiles folder, but the only thing like that I find is old, definitely not the active one. According to one source (http://www.recoverytools.com/blog/thund ... ress-book/) they are now called 'abook.sqlite' but on my Mac, no such file can be found (by searching from the finder's search box). Maybe the Mac version uses a different name? I am running Thunderbird 102.6.1 on a Mac, Ventura 13.1, but they are also missing under Mojave). Thanks for help finding this. Tobias
Last edited by DanRaisch on January 24th, 2023, 7:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: (Mac) added to Subject line.
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DanRaisch
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Re: Adressbook location puzzle (Mac)

Post by DanRaisch »

In current versions of Thunderbird the address book file format has been switched to sqlite. Try searching on abook*.sqlite.
TobiasBaskin
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Joined: April 18th, 2014, 1:29 pm

Re: Adressbook location puzzle (Mac)

Post by TobiasBaskin »

Dan, Thank you. As I mentioned in my original message, I did that. No such file found (and it doesn't matter whether whether include the * or not (i.e., abook*.sqlite or abook.sqlite). Mac Finder does not find them. By "Mac Finder" I mean the search box that is available in the upper right corner of any open window. Perhaps there are some directories that are excluded from this kind of search. Perhaps I can search in some way from the terminal? But I don't know how to do that. Thanks for your help. Tobias
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DanRaisch
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Re: Adressbook location puzzle (Mac)

Post by DanRaisch »

Sorry but I don’t have a Mac so I can’t take this any further.
TobiasBaskin
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Joined: April 18th, 2014, 1:29 pm

Re: Adressbook location puzzle (Mac)

Post by TobiasBaskin »

Oh well. Thank you anyway. I hope someone on the forum knows, those files have to be ... somewhere! Tobias
morat
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Re: Adressbook location puzzle (Mac)

Post by morat »

You could try to search for the files.

Previous thread: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14947201
Kirk McElhearn wrote:It’s easy to find files with the Finder when you know their names. But the grep command is a time-saver when you’re trying to find what’s inside files.
Find anything with grep
http://www.macworld.com/article/173702/ ... actor.html
TobiasBaskin
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Joined: April 18th, 2014, 1:29 pm

Re: Adressbook location puzzle (Mac)

Post by TobiasBaskin »

Thank for the suggestion to use grep. But in this case the file name is exactly what I know. But reading the grep article inspired me to see whether the finder search can be expanded to include system files and after doing so, mystery solved. Turns out I have two profiles folders (!) one where Thunderbird stores messages and another where it keeps the addressbook. I had thought the former had everything, but nope. The latter is where the address book. Glad I found it! Tobias
morat
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Re: Adressbook location puzzle (Mac)

Post by morat »

Interesting. Windows only has one profile folder.

Menu Bar > Help > More Troubleshooting Information > Update Folder > Open Folder
Menu Bar > Help > More Troubleshooting Information > Profile Folder > Open Folder (click here)

Glad you found the files.
TobiasBaskin
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Joined: April 18th, 2014, 1:29 pm

Re: Adressbook location puzzle (Mac)

Post by TobiasBaskin »

Well by default so does Mac. In retrospect, I know what happened. I moved the profiles folder into a space that could be accessed by both home and work computers, thus synching all my mail storage. This was some years ago so the moved folder contained the old .mab addressboook. I never realized that Thunderbird would recreate another profiles folder to use for other things, like address books. But in hindsight, that makes sense. So this is not a "mac" thing but a "stupid user" thing! Thanks again. Tobias
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