If you highlight a person's entry in your addressbook, and then click edit, look for where the multiple email addresses appear and there is a column to the right where you can tick the default.

Thanks for your response.

So, done that...I can't remember that I've found this setting in the past when I've read posts about this issue. Anyway:

• the contact shows the "desired" default address at the top when I set the default (in the view where I just select the contact)
• the hook for default is not shown when editing the contact again
• if I select another of the five addresses, it's quickly shown but then changes back to the desired address, which is the top address in the list of five
• anyway, when composing a new message, the chosen address is still the one from before

Now I've added a test contact, and which ever of two email addresses is at the top is chosen by TB for composing an email. Unfortunately this is not the case with some other users. The only way getting rid of the wrong default is by removing the email address, as soon as I add it, it is #1 again.

Could it play a role that the contacts are stored in GMail and imported via CardDAV URL?

In my brief test, the default box is not saved for gmail addressbook - only local addressbook. But it works properly for local thunderbird addressbook.

Okay, then it seems it's not possible.

Google Contacts shows the "first" email address as a kind of default (searching the contact shows the contact's name and this email address), but that doesn't have any effect in TB.

And I wanna keep my contacts in one place, which currently is Googe Contacts because I can import them everywhere I need them.

Thanks for the "test".

1 . Set up a new address card for the default only 2. Prefix the address entry with a number. So, for example, if your main entry is 'John Smith', the new card would be '1 - John Smith'. 3. When you want the email address in the 'To:' field, type '1' and the default address will pop up.

You may change the default address in Google Contacts. There doesn't seem to be a way to do this on the web (I could be missing something), but you can certainly do it with a smartphone. Have you tried that?