import contacts
I have an old Mac with Thunderbird. When I transferred everything to new Mac, the Thunderbird address book was empty on the new Mac.
I exported my CONTACTS file and got an .abbu file. How do I import this into Thunderbird address book? (Apple's only other export format option is a pdf.)
Alternately, if I knew the name and location of my Thunderbird address book in the old Mac's USER files, I could copy this into new Mac's Thunderbird. How is this done?
(exporting from CONTACTS a vCard only exports the single contact currently displayed.)
All Replies (5)
All I know is Windows, so this info may be useless: On Windows, the old name was abook.mab and in recent versions, it is abook.sqlite. In tools>addressbook, there should be an option to export as csv or ldif. And tools>import>import from a file should have an option for the old addressbook file. I hope this is of some help.
Thanks. I found abook.mab on the old Mac, Thunderbird profile. And it imported into new Mac Thunderbird (102.15.0). Unfortunately it's 2009, and maybe it's under a different name? No sqlite.
What's more, even though it imported and works, I cannot find the file in the new Mac Thunderbird profile -- not as "abook" or anything else that looks suspicious.
The only export option on old Mac Thunderbird (102.15.0) is to export my entire profile, as a .zip. Unfortunately this file does not unzip: "Error 1 - Operation not permitted." YES, I can view/port the unzipped profile. Maybe it contains a later address book, but I can't find any file title that might be it.
In any case, thank you!!!
I'm pleased it works. Since you are on a current version, check the export feature on the addressbook pane, as it is different from the tools>export on main pain. Highlight an addressbook on left side and there should be three dots to the right. Click that and a menu opens with export options (at least that's how it works in Windows).
Thanks. There is only the one single same export option, whether in address book or inbox. Which is to export my entire profile, zipped. So what I need to know is the name of the address file in profile, besides the 2009 MAB file.
Also, a related question: how do I export my old profile into either Mac? I deleted the email account for Sprynet and switched to Comcast. So I don't know how to install the old profile (with decades of emails)...?
Actually, still big problem. I imported the 2009 abook.mab file, and it displayed more than 100 entries. But when I went back there later, there were only 12. So I imported the 100+ addresses again, but there appears no way to SAVE the refreshed address book (on new Mac).