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Importing 15 year old .mab address book files into Thunderbird

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  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by MrDill

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I have some old address books that I had individual "folders" for. abook-2.mab, abook-3.mab, etc. These files are 15 years old.

I saved them to a memory stick and copy and pasted them into my current e-mail profile on my new computer, but they won't show up in my address book.

What am I doing wrong, and how do I get them to work? Thanks.

I have some old address books that I had individual "folders" for. abook-2.mab, abook-3.mab, etc. These files are 15 years old. I saved them to a memory stick and copy and pasted them into my current e-mail profile on my new computer, but they won't show up in my address book. What am I doing wrong, and how do I get them to work? Thanks.

Chosen solution

The only mab files that will automatically appear in TB are abook.mab (Personal Address Book) and history.mab (Collected Addresses). Open Address Book, File/New/Address Book, name it abook2, close it. Help/Troubleshooting, click Open Folder, close TB, rename abook.mab to abook.bak, rename abook-2.mab to abook.mab. Open TB and Address Book, select the contacts in Personal Address Book (Ctrl+A) and drag them onto abook2. Create a new address book, abook3, close TB, delete abook.mab, rename abook-3.mab to abook.mab, start TB and drag the contacts from PAB onto abook3. When all the mab files have been processed, close TB, delete abook.mab, rename abook.bak to abook.mab.

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Chosen Solution

The only mab files that will automatically appear in TB are abook.mab (Personal Address Book) and history.mab (Collected Addresses). Open Address Book, File/New/Address Book, name it abook2, close it. Help/Troubleshooting, click Open Folder, close TB, rename abook.mab to abook.bak, rename abook-2.mab to abook.mab. Open TB and Address Book, select the contacts in Personal Address Book (Ctrl+A) and drag them onto abook2. Create a new address book, abook3, close TB, delete abook.mab, rename abook-3.mab to abook.mab, start TB and drag the contacts from PAB onto abook3. When all the mab files have been processed, close TB, delete abook.mab, rename abook.bak to abook.mab.

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Thanks so much. :)