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Thunderbird 91.3.1 - Lost Address Book

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  • Last reply by sfhowes

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I am running Thunderbird ver 91.3.1 on a new Windows 11 laptop. Today, the Address Book and Inbox contents both disappeared. After restarting, there was some activity evident (dots in top left corner) and the inbox restored, but the Address Book is still empty except for the 2 contacts I've emailed today. Any suggestions why this has happened ? I have another Windows 10 machine running the same Thunderbird version and have located the abook.map.bak and history.map.bak files in the Appdata/Thunderbird directory. However, although there is an Appdata/Roaming/|Thunderbird/Profiles directory on the Windows 11 machine, there are no Abook.mab or History.mab files. Is there another way to restore the Address Book ? Thanks in advance for any help.

I am running Thunderbird ver 91.3.1 on a new Windows 11 laptop. Today, the Address Book and Inbox contents both disappeared. After restarting, there was some activity evident (dots in top left corner) and the inbox restored, but the Address Book is still empty except for the 2 contacts I've emailed today. Any suggestions why this has happened ? I have another Windows 10 machine running the same Thunderbird version and have located the abook.map.bak and history.map.bak files in the Appdata/Thunderbird directory. However, although there is an Appdata/Roaming/|Thunderbird/Profiles directory on the Windows 11 machine, there are no Abook.mab or History.mab files. Is there another way to restore the Address Book ? Thanks in advance for any help.

Chosen solution

If you import the abook and history mab files as separate address books, their contacts can be moved into the existing Personal Address Book and Collected Addresses, respectively, if desired, or just left as is. Address autocomplete in the Write window will still work since it scans all address books.

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If you remove the .bak, the .mab files can be imported in TB 91: Tools/Import...Address Books...Mork database...select a mab file. Contacts can be moved between address books by drag and drop; hold Ctrl while dragging to copy.

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Thanks very much for your swift response. I see that the PC with the working address book has ABOOK, HISTORY and IMPAB map.bak files, the latter apparently containing collected and imported addresses. Do I need to import all 3 and will they then all form part of my standard address book ? Sorry to impose again, thanks.

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If you import the abook and history mab files as separate address books, their contacts can be moved into the existing Personal Address Book and Collected Addresses, respectively, if desired, or just left as is. Address autocomplete in the Write window will still work since it scans all address books.