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How can I print out a list of email addresses, not the entire address book?

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I tried sending out a group email, but the message would not send because the number of addresses exceeded the allowable number. I have entered ALL the addresses I want to send into one large list. I do not want to re-enter two thirds of them in another list by going back to all the original sources. How can I print out JUST the separate list I have created, so that I can transfer the data to other lists?

Alternatively, is there some way of dividing the list I've made into 3 or 4 separate lists?

Thanks you.

PS: It would be a good idea in future editions of Thunderbird, to add a note telling anyone who is making a list for an e-blast that there is a limit on the number of names possible.

I tried sending out a group email, but the message would not send because the number of addresses exceeded the allowable number. I have entered ALL the addresses I want to send into one large list. I do not want to re-enter two thirds of them in another list by going back to all the original sources. How can I print out JUST the separate list I have created, so that I can transfer the data to other lists? Alternatively, is there some way of dividing the list I've made into 3 or 4 separate lists? Thanks you. PS: It would be a good idea in future editions of Thunderbird, to add a note telling anyone who is making a list for an e-blast that there is a limit on the number of names possible.

All Replies (8)

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"Print"? On paper? How will that help?

The limit imposed by Thunderbird applies only to To: and Cc: addresses. I do hope you are not mass mailing with everyone's email address shown to all?

Try using Bcc:. Any limit you encounter with Bcc: would be imposed by your email provider or USB and not by Thunderbird.

If you do find you need to split addresses between two or more lists, you should be able to drag addresses from one List to another List by dropping them onto the second List's icon.

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Of course I was sending the blast out as a BCC. Thanks for the suggestion about splitting the list, but Thunderbird's address book will not allow me to open a new list while I've got the old one on screen, so I can't do that. I tried highlighting an address in the big list and dragging it to a blank page, but that doesn't work.

The idea of printing the whole list out on paper is that, if there's no other way to do this, it would make it easier to enter names in the new lists, since all the addresses in the big one will auto-fill.

It seems a large oversight that there is no where in Thunderbird that tells us there is a limit on the number of addresses.

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I always assumed Thunderbird - or Mozilla - is our email provider.

Any other information on how I can do this without starting all over again would be most appreciated.

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re :I always assumed Thunderbird - or Mozilla - is our email provider.

'Thunderbird' is just an email client program you downloaded.

ISP (internet service provider) the company you pay to provide you with internet. They will also provide you with an email address.

There are other free email addresses providers - gmail when you create a google account.


re: but Thunderbird's address book will not allow me to open a new list while I've got the old one on screen. You can easily create a new list, this has nothing to do with anything that is displayed in the right contact pane.

Just had a thought - are you talking about the small pop up window called 'Mailing list'? Close it. Select the mailing list as shown as a sub list to an address book in the left directory pane. It will display the contacts you have added to the Mailing List.

Click on 'New list' icon shown on toolbar. or File > New > Mailing list or right click on one of your address books and select 'New list' from options.

Then drag and drop from the opened list into the new list shown in the left pane. this will put the same name in the other new mailing list. However, after creating the second list, you may need to remove contacts from the original mailing list.

See more help here:

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There is apparently no way to get two lists open at once in Thunderbird, so that addresses could be transferred from one to the other.

Since no comments helped, I did it the laborious way. I opened the too-large master list I had made, highlighted each address in turn, copied it, then pasted it into a document. Then I highlighted 50 names at a time and dropped them into a new list, thus ending up with five lists.

This seems an extremely tedious method, but it's the only thing that worked. Suggestion for T'bird: include a note when "Lists" is opened, that it is not a good idea to put more than 50 names on a list. And/or develop an easier way to transfer names from one list to another.

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Make sure both Mailing Lists are visible in the left hand folder pane. Open the "donor" list. Select, then drag and drop addresses from it onto the other List's icon. You may get a "copy" action. If so, try holding down the ctrl button while drag-and-dropping to make it a "move".

Thunderbird doesn't put any limits on the number of Bcc addresses. We have users with 1000+ addresses in a List. If you're hitting a limit then your ISP or email provider is imposing it.

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re :There is apparently no way to get two lists open at once in Thunderbird

You do not need to open both lists. Select the list in the left directory pane, so it shows the contacts in the right contacts Pane.

Then select the names you want in the new list so they are highlighted. Left click hold down and use drag and drop method to nover over the new list in the directory pane. Release the mouse to drop names into list. See image below.

then you can delete the names you copied to new list from the old list. In my example the new Mailing list was created for a different address book, but it can be in the same address book.

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OK, solved that problem - and thank you for the help. But now there's a new one. I sent out the mass email, and got several "delivery failure" notices back. So I deleted those names from the lists. Then when I sent out a follow-up email to the same lists, I got delivery failure notices for the SAME email addresses. This is hardly major, but it is extremely annoying, since I had taken the time to delete exactly those names. This seems to me like a design failure. Any comments?