trying to transfer address from SM to Thunderbird

[artfoxx]

I really having a very unsuccessful time in transferring an address book from my SM v2.48 to Thunderbird both on the same PC which has windows 10.
Not at all clear on how to do it. Any "by-the-numbers" instructions would be gratefully received.
Thank you very much
Art

[tanstaafl]

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_addres ... n_profiles

If that isn't by the numbers enough give me some feedback on where you have problems and I'll try to improve the KB article.

[artfoxx]

Thank for this suggestion and here's what has happened:

Many thanks for your suggestion to go to the Method I shown in the article – after downloading it and clicking on it I get an error message:
“This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Please install a program or, if one is already
installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel.”

And I don’t know what that means.

So here’s what I have done do so far without success.
1. I have another older PC which has the complete SM v2.46 and its profiles. I actually copied it to
flash drive and then pasted it to my new PC because all the attempts to move it were messed up with non-comparable default
initial listings generated each time you create a Profile manager with the names you are adding.
2. that was because I tried various other possible methods that did not work. I also transferred the
profiles separately and adjusted the profile names in the Profile folder to substitute those on the TB program.
3. But I was still missing the address book and became stumped with playing with that. In fact I copied (Control C & Control V)
the address.book and tried to paste it in place on the TB address folder - didn’t work.
4. When I tried to use the TB import function and select address book, with this option:
Text file (LDIF, .tab,.csv,.txt) and continued with that all I got at the TB address function was a list
And non-understandable “answer” in the first line:
//<!-<mdb:morKz v=”1.4./> - -> .
5. I even tried to go to the SM on the second PC and us the export function from there and got the same result.

I should mention that when I copied the address book out of the specific profile (in SM profiles I have four to do) and I think that makes the abook.mab unusable because of its internal coding.

And that is where I am now stuck. As for now, I have not tried the second Method as listed in the article and I will do so after I end this reply. If you care to respond before I try Method 2 please do so.

[DanRaisch]

after downloading it and clicking on it I get an error message:

There was nothing to be downloaded. Clicking on that link will open a web page with the instructions that tanstaafl intended you to have.

There is no need to export or import anything for the two default address books of SeaMonkey. The files abook.mab and history.mab can be copied from the SeaMonkey profile and pasted into the Thunderbird profile, replacing the files with those same names created during the installation of Thunderbird and creation of the initial Thunderbird profile.

If you have more than the two default address books (named Personal Address Book and Collected Addresses within SeaMonkey) you can export the data from the additional books to a CSV format file using functionality in SeaMonkey. Thunderbird's built in functionality (Tools->Address Book->Tools->Import->Address books) will work to bring the data from the CSV files into Thunderbird, creating new address books as it does so.

[tanstaafl]

What were you clicking on?
Did you single click or double click?

I'm going to assume you double clicked on the morefunctionsforAB-TB3-1.0b2.xpi file. That is not how you install an add-on. Go to tools -> add-ons -> extensions in Thunderbird. LEFT click on the gear like icon in the upper right corner. It's to the left of a edit field that has grey "Search all add-ons" text in it. That will display a list box. Select "Install add-on from file..." from the popup list box. Select the morefunctionsforAB-TB3-1.0b2.xpi file and press the Open button. Press the Install Now button when it displays a "software installation" popup window. It will display some text saying the add-on will be installed after you restart Thunderbird followed by a link to Restart Now. Click on the Restart Now link.

Please confirm that was the step that was causing the problem, and I'll add similar text to the KB article.

abook.mab and history.mab should use the same internal format to store data in both SeaMonkey and Thunderbird. Its only a problem if you copy a different *.mab file because Thunderbird will ignore any other *.mab file unless its specified in the prefs.js file. Importing it via the add-on basically just updates the prefs.js file to tell it about the *.mab file and then copies the *.mab file to the profile.

[artfoxx]

Thank you very much for your patience and new instructions. I will reply after I am successful in following what you have provided
Art