This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Lolu chungechunge lwabekwa kunqolobane. Uyacelwa ubuze umbuzo omusha uma udinga usizo.

How to import contacts to existing address book

  • 2 uphendule
  • 17 zinale nkinga
  • 5 views
  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu Mark Foley

more options

I've imported contacts into Thunderbird using several source formats, .vcf, .txt, LDIF, ... my problems is they ALWAYS create a new address book. I cannot get the addresses to import into the default Personal Address Book. I've even tried naming the import file "Personal Address Book.vcf" and it ends up creating a 2nd so-named address book. My default "Personal Address Book" remains empty and my imported address book gets used. Even so, I cannot delete the original default "Personal Address Book". Nor can I cut/paste contacts from one to the other. I've done about 6 of these imports on various computers and cannot figure out how to solve this problem.

Is there a way to import directly to the default "Personal Address Book"?

I've imported contacts into Thunderbird using several source formats, .vcf, .txt, LDIF, ... my problems is they ALWAYS create a new address book. I cannot get the addresses to import into the default Personal Address Book. I've even tried naming the import file "Personal Address Book.vcf" and it ends up creating a 2nd so-named address book. My default "Personal Address Book" remains empty and my imported address book gets used. Even so, I cannot delete the original default "Personal Address Book". Nor can I cut/paste contacts from one to the other. I've done about 6 of these imports on various computers and cannot figure out how to solve this problem. Is there a way to import directly to the default "Personal Address Book"?

Isisombululo esikhethiwe

Sorry, no, it always imports to a new address book.

To move Contacts, you drag-and-drop between address books. Open the source, select and drag Contacts onto the destination's icon. IIRC, using ctrl while dragging makes it a copy, not a move.

Yes, it sucks.

Funda le mpendulo ngokuhambisana nalesi sihloko 👍 5

All Replies (2)

more options

Isisombululo Esikhethiwe

Sorry, no, it always imports to a new address book.

To move Contacts, you drag-and-drop between address books. Open the source, select and drag Contacts onto the destination's icon. IIRC, using ctrl while dragging makes it a copy, not a move.

Yes, it sucks.

more options

Actually, the drag-and-drop solution works just fine! Don't know why I didn't think of that before. I tried cut/paste, but Paste was always grayed out. I highlighted all addresses in my imported folder and to the default folder. All were moved and I could delete the now empty imported folder.

Thanks -- Mark

fyi - and to others who use this site, the recommended import procedure of creating a csv or tab delimited export from Outlook is horrific -- the ordeal of mapping fields is beyond painful. Simplest: export the Outlook contacts to .vcf, then import to Tbird. Everything goes into the right place, no mapping!