I've attempted several methods of replacing the original empty abook.wab & history.wab files from the backup.

The two default address books, called "Personal Address Book" and "Collected Addresses," are named "abook.mab" and "history.mab", respectively.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_address_books_between_profiles

Hi,

These instructions are not clear to me as stated, as they need more detailed information for average users like me without advanced knowledge. My son couldn't figure it out via Teamviewer, and he's an IT network technician.

I don't understand how to "make a new profile". is the profile created from my new installation of Thunderbird considered a "New Profile"?

One other point that may or may not be an issue is that I setup my three email addresses as IMAP this time, rather than previous POP3 accounts due to security concerns.

I understand how to copy and paste files/folders, as I recovered the profile from my NAS storage. Other than that I'm lost.

Thank you for your help and patience, Mike

You only need to follow the instructions in the first section (Moving address books to another profile). http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_address_books_between_profiles#Moving_address_books_to_another_profile This should be pretty straight forward.

For more information about the profile location see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

These instructions are not clear to me as stated, as they need more detailed information for average users like me without advanced knowledge.

It shouldn't be too hard to copy and paste two files. Note, copy the files when Thunderbird is closed.

I don't understand how to "make a new profile".

You don't need to create a new profile. Regardless of that, "make a new profile" is a link in the article pointing to another article which explains how to create a new profile. One doesn't need to have 'advanced knowledge' to be able to follow a link. Once again, you don't need to create a new profile.

One other point that may or may not be an issue is that I setup my three email addresses as IMAP this time, rather than previous POP3 accounts

That has got nothing to do with the address book.

due to security concerns.

I'd really be curious what concerns you have, and how IMAP is more secure than POP.

I understand how to copy and paste files/folders, as I recovered the profile from my NAS storage.

Good. That's all you need to do.

I actually understood the first part, copying and pasting the abook.mab & history.mab files from the recovered profile from my NAS backup to the current Thunderbird profile. The history.mab file transferred OK, as the collected addresses from the old profile are now present in Collected Addresses; however, the abook.wab addresses are not.

I'd even recovered the above mentioned files from various backup dates, but unfortunately my addresses still aren't present in the new profile's abook.wab file. I've tried several methods several times to no avail.

Being neither of the above methods worked, I then entered into the next section regarding damaged profiles. This is where I'd become confused, as I know for a fact that my main address book was present prior to the crash.

As far as security is concerned, I've heard and read that IMAP is much more secure as POP3. That's not my opinion, just what I've been made aware of.

Once again, thank you for your time and patience, Mike

UPDATE:

I just finished: 1. Shutting down Thunderbird 2. Navigating to: C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\q0i6ttsf.default (current profile) 3. From the NAS backup, copy abook.mab + history.mab + impab.mab (a .mab file I just noticed) to the current Thunderbird profile folder. 4. Re-start Thunderbird, finding the collected address, but not my original address book. DONE

What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for your ongoing help, Mike

Missing Address Book Issue RESOLVED!!!

What I did: 1. Uninstalled Thunderbird 2. Deleted the entire Thunderbird folder from the AppData folder of my PC 3. Performed a CCleaner file and registry cleanup, re-booted PC, and defragged hard drive. 4. Recovered the entire Thunderbird folder from my NAS backup to the AppData folder of my PC 5. Re-installed Thunderbird, with my POP3 email addresses and main address book present 6. Deleted all my POP3 email accounts 7. Re-created all my POP3 email accounts as IMAP accounts DONE

Thank you for all your help christ1, Mike

Congratulations. Can you then mark your last post as 'Solution' for this thread? Thank you.