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How to import birthday from vcf or export birthday to vcf?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 20 views
  • Last reply by Matt

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I'm trying to import several contacts in my Thunderbird address book. I have no plugin installed, and I want to do that by using only the basic functionality provided by Thunderbird.

For example, consider the following .vcf file:

BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:2.1 N:;Amor;;; FN:Amor BDAY:1964-12-05 TEL;CELL;VOICE:+1234567890123 TEL;CELL;VOICE:+9876543210987 TEL;HOME;VOICE:+12 34 5678-9012 EMAIL;HOME:asdfghjklo@hotmail.com CATEGORIES:Famille X-WS-SOURCE:CopyTrans Contacts X-WS-VERSION:1.7.0.2 X-WS-LANGUAGE:EN X-WS-SERVICE:Thunderbird END:VCARD

As you can see, this file contains a birthday field: BDAY:1964-12-05

To import this file, I open my address book, then I select : Tools->Import...->Address Books->vCard files (.vcf) then I click on the Next button, I select the above .vcf file and finally I click on Finish

The vCard is successfully imported, however, when I edit the contact and I look on the Birthday field under the Private tab (see screenshot), the birthday date isn't imported.

Now if I try to manually complete this birthday field and export my contact in a .vcf file, I get the following content:

begin:vcard fn:Amor n:;Amor email;internet:asdfghjklo@hotmail.com tel;home:+12 34 5678-9012 tel;cell:+1234567890123 version:2.1 end:vcard

As you can see, the birthday date isn't exported at all!

So my question is: is there a way to import and export the birthday information of a contact? And if yes, how to do that?

Please note that I WILL NOT INSTALL A PLUGIN to resolve the question. I want a native solution, or a clear notification if there is no native way to do that.

Regards

I'm trying to import several contacts in my Thunderbird address book. I have no plugin installed, and I want to do that by using only the basic functionality provided by Thunderbird. For example, consider the following .vcf file: BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:2.1 N:;Amor;;; FN:Amor BDAY:1964-12-05 TEL;CELL;VOICE:+1234567890123 TEL;CELL;VOICE:+9876543210987 TEL;HOME;VOICE:+12 34 5678-9012 EMAIL;HOME:asdfghjklo@hotmail.com CATEGORIES:Famille X-WS-SOURCE:CopyTrans Contacts X-WS-VERSION:1.7.0.2 X-WS-LANGUAGE:EN X-WS-SERVICE:Thunderbird END:VCARD As you can see, this file contains a birthday field: BDAY:1964-12-05 To import this file, I open my address book, then I select : Tools->Import...->Address Books->vCard files (.vcf) then I click on the Next button, I select the above .vcf file and finally I click on Finish The vCard is successfully imported, however, when I edit the contact and I look on the Birthday field under the Private tab (see screenshot), the birthday date isn't imported. Now if I try to manually complete this birthday field and export my contact in a .vcf file, I get the following content: begin:vcard fn:Amor n:;Amor email;internet:asdfghjklo@hotmail.com tel;home:+12 34 5678-9012 tel;cell:+1234567890123 version:2.1 end:vcard As you can see, the birthday date isn't exported at all! So my question is: is there a way to import and export the birthday information of a contact? And if yes, how to do that? Please note that I WILL NOT INSTALL A PLUGIN to resolve the question. I want a native solution, or a clear notification if there is no native way to do that. Regards
Attached screenshots

Modified by jeanmilost

Chosen solution

jeanmilost said

Indeed, I cannot use an add-on, because the answer isn't for me, but for my customers. For that I wanted to know if there is a simple native solution before providing to them a list of add-ons to install :-)

The answer is no. Thunderbird vcard support is poor at best. There has been much discussion about the address book and a replacement for years but I still am yet to see more that a mock up of a very basic address book.

Some ancient bugs on vcard. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=60936 Add VCard 2.1 support https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=221991 Add VCard 3.0 support https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29106

As far as I am aware Thunderbird supports VCard 1.2 and this comment https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=221991#c10 is particularly telling as to why progress does not appear to be very fast.

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I could direct you to an add-on that adds this functionality, but you have already signalled your refusal to consider this.

Bye bye.

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Indeed, I cannot use an add-on, because the answer isn't for me, but for my customers. For that I wanted to know if there is a simple native solution before providing to them a list of add-ons to install :-)

Modified by jeanmilost

more options

Chosen Solution

jeanmilost said

Indeed, I cannot use an add-on, because the answer isn't for me, but for my customers. For that I wanted to know if there is a simple native solution before providing to them a list of add-ons to install :-)

The answer is no. Thunderbird vcard support is poor at best. There has been much discussion about the address book and a replacement for years but I still am yet to see more that a mock up of a very basic address book.

Some ancient bugs on vcard. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=60936 Add VCard 2.1 support https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=221991 Add VCard 3.0 support https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29106

As far as I am aware Thunderbird supports VCard 1.2 and this comment https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=221991#c10 is particularly telling as to why progress does not appear to be very fast.