This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Unable to load address book file abook.mab. It may be read-only, or locked by another application. Please try again later.

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by christ1

more options

everytime i load up my thunderbird address book, it says the following statement : Unable to load address book file abook.mab. It may be read-only, or locked by another application. Please try again later.

I appear to have lost all of my contacts (which is not an issue) and the address book doesnt appear to work properly anymore (like collecting new email addresses).

everytime i load up my thunderbird address book, it says the following statement : Unable to load address book file abook.mab. It may be read-only, or locked by another application. Please try again later. I appear to have lost all of my contacts (which is not an issue) and the address book doesnt appear to work properly anymore (like collecting new email addresses).

All Replies (1)

more options
I appear to have lost all of my contacts (which is not an issue)

In that case close Thunderbird, and then delete the file abook.mab in your profile folder. If there are any additional address book files like abook-1.mab delete them as well. Restart Thunderbird.

Did the problem go away?

How to find your profile: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_how-to-find-your-profile