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How to import contacts to existing address book

  • 2 replies
  • 17 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by Mark Foley

Mark Foley
Mark Foley
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I've imported contacts into Thunderbird using several source formats, .vcf, .txt, LDIF, ... my problems is they ALWAYS create a new address book. I cannot get the addresses to import into the default Personal Address Book. I've even tried naming the import file "Personal Address Book.vcf" and it ends up creating a 2nd so-named address book. My default "Personal Address Book" remains empty and my imported address book gets used. Even so, I cannot delete the original default "Personal Address Book". Nor can I cut/paste contacts from one to the other. I've done about 6 of these imports on various computers and cannot figure out how to solve this problem.

Is there a way to import directly to the default "Personal Address Book"?

I've imported contacts into Thunderbird using several source formats, .vcf, .txt, LDIF, ... my problems is they ALWAYS create a new address book. I cannot get the addresses to import into the default Personal Address Book. I've even tried naming the import file "Personal Address Book.vcf" and it ends up creating a 2nd so-named address book. My default "Personal Address Book" remains empty and my imported address book gets used. Even so, I cannot delete the original default "Personal Address Book". Nor can I cut/paste contacts from one to the other. I've done about 6 of these imports on various computers and cannot figure out how to solve this problem. Is there a way to import directly to the default "Personal Address Book"?

Chosen solution

Sorry, no, it always imports to a new address book.

To move Contacts, you drag-and-drop between address books. Open the source, select and drag Contacts onto the destination's icon. IIRC, using ctrl while dragging makes it a copy, not a move.

Yes, it sucks.

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All Replies (2)

Zenos
Zenos
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Chosen Solution

Sorry, no, it always imports to a new address book.

To move Contacts, you drag-and-drop between address books. Open the source, select and drag Contacts onto the destination's icon. IIRC, using ctrl while dragging makes it a copy, not a move.

Yes, it sucks.

Mark Foley
Mark Foley Question owner
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Actually, the drag-and-drop solution works just fine! Don't know why I didn't think of that before. I tried cut/paste, but Paste was always grayed out. I highlighted all addresses in my imported folder and to the default folder. All were moved and I could delete the now empty imported folder.

Thanks -- Mark

fyi - and to others who use this site, the recommended import procedure of creating a csv or tab delimited export from Outlook is horrific -- the ordeal of mapping fields is beyond painful. Simplest: export the Outlook contacts to .vcf, then import to Tbird. Everything goes into the right place, no mapping!