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adress book is corrupted

  • 4 replies
  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Ross

Ross
Ross
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I use Thunderbird Portable.

My address book only shows 12 addresses, and the 'list' is called "Collected Addresses." I used to have scores, if not hundreds.

I suffered a recent corruption of my flash drive, so when I noticed the problem with the address book, I looked for a salvaged address book. I found a file in the top level folder called 'contacts.txt' and it appears to have my complete stockpile of contact information in it, certainly considerably more than in the "Collected Addresses" list.

How can I get that more complete list back into my Thunderbird Portable application?

I use Thunderbird Portable. My address book only shows 12 addresses, and the 'list' is called "Collected Addresses." I used to have scores, if not hundreds. I suffered a recent corruption of my flash drive, so when I noticed the problem with the address book, I looked for a salvaged address book. I found a file in the top level folder called 'contacts.txt' and it appears to have my complete stockpile of contact information in it, certainly considerably more than in the "Collected Addresses" list. How can I get that more complete list back into my Thunderbird Portable application?

Chosen solution

I am assuming you have the contacts.txt file you mentioned

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All Replies (4)

Matt
Matt
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delete abook.mab from the profile start Thunderbird and import your address book file Tools menu (Alt+T) > Import

Ross
Ross Question owner
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Thanks Matt,

I'll save a copy of the abook.mab rather than delete it, but before I do, I was curious about one thing you said. After I remove abook.mab from the profile, where do I import my address book from? I'm guessing that you're assuming I have an uncorrupted copy somewhere, but I'm really afraid I don't (I'll look, but I'm not optimistic). My Thunderbird address book was my most comprehensive contact list.

Matt
Matt
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

I am assuming you have the contacts.txt file you mentioned

Ross
Ross Question owner
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Yep, I imported from that. It was close, and a big improvement over what was there, but it wasn't complete. Don't know exactly how much was lost. But it's the best I have, and it's not terrible.

I definitely need to start doing incremental backups instead of weekly image backups. It appears that by the time I detected the problem, I had already backed up my corrupted abook.mab on top of my last good abook.mab. I don't even remember the circumstances that resulted in my creating the .txt file, but I'm sure thankful that I had. Without that, I'd have been in bad shape.

I appreciate your help. Thanks!