T-bird not accessing address book after update to 90.9.0

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evigil
Posts: 39
Joined: January 17th, 2004, 9:23 am
Location: St. Louis, MO USA

T-bird not accessing address book after update to 90.9.0

Post by evigil »

I updated yesterday to 90.8.x (from 60.x.x). Everything working exactly as before, EXCEPT address entries weren't autocompleting, and address book is empty, despite a 950 KB abook.mab file in my profile folder. Today I updated to 90.9.0 to see if that solved the issue, but it has not.

How can I get Thunderbird to recognize the address book file already in my profile folder?

Thanks,
Ed
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tanstaafl
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Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: T-bird not accessing address book after update to 90.9.0

Post by tanstaafl »

Thunderbird switched from using *.mab files for address books to .sqlite files in version 78. I know for some minor updates if you didn't have a abook.sqlite file and you had a abook.mab file it would convert it for you, but perhaps that feature is now disabled.

Dawn (at https://dawnconverter.com) converts address book files between different formats. Try using it to create a abook.csv file based on whats in abook.mab and then import it using the tools menu in the address book window. If that doesn't work then I'd suggest temporarily re-installing version 60.* in a different directory, create a throw away profile, copy your abook.mab file over the empty one in that profile, verify it can see the contacts in the abook.mab file and then export the contacts as a .csv file.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Go_back_to_an ... hunderbird has links to where the old setup programs are.

When it converted the address books from *.mab files to *.sqlite files it made a backup of the *.mab files first (I think the name was something like abook.mab.sav) , and then deleted the contents of the *.mab files as it moved them to a *.sqlite file. I can't remember if the *.mab files remained the same size or not but I think they did. The reason I mention this is its possible you might have to rename the backup file (if it exists) or get a good copy of abook.mab from some backup you made. Probably not since you don't seem to have a abook.sqlite file , but I thought it worth mentioning anyways.
evigil
Posts: 39
Joined: January 17th, 2004, 9:23 am
Location: St. Louis, MO USA

Re: T-bird not accessing address book after update to 90.9.0

Post by evigil »

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply.

Dawn (and 4N6 Mbox Converter) would not work (both crashed converting my abook.mab file), but turns out there was a much easier answer.

When I opened the (empty) address book in 90.9.0, and then went to import the csv file I'd saved from version 60.7.0 on another computer, I was presented with the option to import a "Mork database (.mab)". It imported my old abook.mab flawlessly into 90.9.0.

Again, thanks for your help.


I can't remember why I'd reverted from 67 to 60, and turned off updates, but the transition to 90 was surprisingly easy and worked perfectly, except for the address book glitch.

More importantly, with the new full-blown implementation of OATH2, it's made it MUCH easier to access and send emails using clients' corporate Gmail accounts. (Not to mention that as of this week, Gmail made it impossible without this update.) Before, I was having to authenticate EVERY single outgoing email using those accounts. No more! Will easily save me 30+ minutes each day. Thanks to all involved in the update!
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