Mac address book folder into Thunderbird

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MikeHAS
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Joined: May 19th, 2009, 7:33 am

Mac address book folder into Thunderbird

Post by MikeHAS »

My daughter's Mac Mini operating OS X failed catastrophically, but she was able to retrieve the files she wanted from the hard disk. She now has a Windows PC and wonders how she can transfer her Mac Address Book folder, all files of which appear to be intact though I cannot figure the format myself, into Thunderbird (2 presumably) on her new PC. She cannot run any Mac programs, so cannot export the address book as a CSV; she just has the raw files. Any advice please? -- her contacts are too valuable for her to lose.
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SK.
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Re: Mac address book folder into Thunderbird

Post by SK. »

Check this page for information on Thunderbird profiles - files, location, etc.

Check this knowledge base article on moving your profile. This applies whether you are moving your profile from one location to another on the same system, or moving your profile to another system.
John 3:16 and Philippians 4:13
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Re: Mac address book folder into Thunderbird

Post by Guest »

What do you mean by "Mac Address Book folder"?

Is this the address book for Thunderbird (found in its "profile" folder: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_addres ... n_profiles ) or Apple's system-wide address book (found in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook)?
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SK.
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Re: Mac address book folder into Thunderbird

Post by SK. »

Guest: thanks for chiming in.

MikeHAS: My instructions assume that the source information is already in a Thunderbird profile. If that assumption is incorrect, please let us know.
John 3:16 and Philippians 4:13
MikeHAS
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Joined: May 19th, 2009, 7:33 am

Re: Mac address book folder into Thunderbird

Post by MikeHAS »

Thanks to Guest and to SK. I will try to clarify my inadequate and confusing info...
My daughter was not using Thunderbird on her Mac, but rather the Mac-native email client (don't know its name).

The Mac Address Book folder appears with that name on her hard drive which I can read on my PC using a downloaded "HFS Explorer" utility. It consists of a subfolder called "Address Book - 23-10-2007.abbu" which in turn contains several files, the largest of which are: ABPerson.index (380K) and AddressBook.data (212K). I can recognize some ASCII names in the depths of these files, but to pull these out and reconstruct a contact list would take forever.

I suppose what I am really asking is whether there is any way of importing the contents of these files into Thunderbird to reconstruct my daughter's contact address book?

Hope this clarifies a bit...
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SK.
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Re: Mac address book folder into Thunderbird

Post by SK. »

So far as I know, there are only two ways to import a Mac Address Book file to Thunderbird - either directly on a Mac, so that Thunderbird can use its import routine (working with the Mac operating system), or edit/manipulate the source file so that Thunderbird can import it as a CSV file. I don't know enough about Macs to guide you in the latter.
John 3:16 and Philippians 4:13
MikeHAS
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Re: Mac address book folder into Thunderbird

Post by MikeHAS »

"I can recognize some ASCII names in the depths of these files, but to pull these out and reconstruct a contact list would take forever."

Thanks, SK. I'm not into Macs either, so it looks as if I'd better get used to the idea of the above "forever" approach!
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SK.
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Re: Mac address book folder into Thunderbird

Post by SK. »

Have you tried a Mac/Apple forum for assistance?
John 3:16 and Philippians 4:13
MikeHAS
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Re: Mac address book folder into Thunderbird

Post by MikeHAS »

No, I haven't, thinking that they'd brand me a traitor! I'll give it a whirl. Thanks.
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