I don't understand the complexity. In 102, just click tools>Import>files and then select addressbooks and then select the type. It works rather well. In when composing a message, just click F9 to set the contacts listing to left of compose window and select as you wish.

David,

Why would I want to import an Address Book if I can't add any of the Contacts in it to a message? There's just no need to go through that process. It's useless.

Your issue isn't clear from what you posted. Just to confirm, you are saying that, for an imported addressbook, you cannot click and add contacts to a message, but you can from the default address book. True? I assume you are using 102.

David,

That is correct. Regular Address Books work fine, but an imported Address Book is useless. And I am using 102.

I am using 102.3.1 and it works perfectly.

I am using 102.3.1 and imported Address Books are useless. There is nothing that can be done with them other than deleting them. Good thing I have a workaround that makes them unnecessary.

I am using 102.3.1 and imported Address Books are useless. There is nothing that can be done with them other than deleting them. Good thing I have a workaround that makes them unnecessary.

Has it occurred to you somewhat odd you have an issue that David can not replicate? But then I read this and wonder why anyone would be routinely importing address books.

Then you mention that the import file is CSV. Perhaps the most difficult file format to import and the most prone to error as absolutely nothing is defined except that fields are delineated by commas and you have to manually align the first line heading against the fields in Thunderbird address book, and Thunderbird does not make any preliminary guesses as to what header label in the email address even. Although sometime is get them right by accident.

This a is an import of a random collection of CSV data I downloaded from the web. Note that it is intending to import the email address as the fax number. Once I corrected the email address, it still imported the other things incorrectly because I did not change them, so I ended up having the company name in the DisplayName field which is what is used to search for auto fill. So searching on name was pretty useless. I had to search on company because I did not do the import correctly.

I had not used address book import since a couple of years ago, but I downloaded some random data this morning, imported it and used it to the autofill and it worked within the limitations of my lazy import. I find it far more likely you are not correcting all the labels, and your imported file does not have a valid email address in the email address field that it is that the import is useless as you claim.

Horse puckey. I've been importing these same .csv files every month for several years in previous Thunderbird versions. Also, if I had an invalid email address then I wouldn't have been able to copy the all email addresses into the Bcc field and send a message. And that was my workaround. So something got messed up in this latest version of Thunderbird with its many not useful changes.

Horse puckey. I've been importing these same .csv files every month for several years in previous Thunderbird versions.

This version has changed the import the entire flow has changed. I suggest you post a copy of the import page showing the correct heading to fields. Mine were all messed up.