Could you please try selecting 'Personal Address Book', which is a real address book as opposed to 'All Address Books' which is just a virtual search list. I'm trying to identify why you are experiencing an issue as it should be remembering the last used address book.

Test:

• Open Write window
• select: 'Personal Address Book'
• Close Write window.
• Close Thunderbird.

• Restart thunderbird.
• Open a new Write window.

Q: Is 'Personal Address Book' auto displayed ?

Please test on both OS and report back with results.

I am using Vista. I updated thunderbird to 38.5 After your comment, i ran some tests. In a 'Write' window: I have discovered that I can select any real address book and it is remembered each time I either exit the Write window or Exit Thunderbird. But...it will never remember 'All Address Books' -instead choosing eg: Personal Address book' if i exit thunderbird.. Hence why I'm asking you for confirmation with testing on a real address book.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1142705

Thanks, Toad-Hall

I have tried the test on my iMac, and I can confirm that if I select any of the three real address books (Personal Address Book, Mac OS X Address Book, or Collected Addresses), the setting is saved. If I select All Address Books, it is not saved. Furthermore, the address book that does get selected (after losing the All Address Books selection) can be any of the other three - it appears to be the one most recently saved. This explains why T-Bird is behaving the way it is. It does not explain why this behaviour has only appeared in version 38.5.0. In previous versions, my wife and I used "All Address Books" and it worked fine - now it doesn't. The reason for using "All Address Books" is that all 3 address books contain useful information, and we don't want to have to keep switching from one to another, or be forced to transfer everything into one address book.

I haven't yet checked Windows 8.1, as that is on my wife's private laptop, so I would have to ask her to try it (she doesn't use the laptop every day, so it might be days before I can check - however I would expect to find the same results).

Previous to version 38.5, 'All Address Books' had been set as default, so upon restart of Thunderbird, the Contacts Sidebar always opened on 'All Adddress Books' regardless. Many people found this an issue because they had no choice. In your case, this was not an issue as you wanted to see 'All Address Books'. 'All Address Books' is not a real address book; it is a virtual one like a search result. Version 38.5 was launched with a fix, so that you could select an address book and it would be remembered. It seems it has worked in the sense that you can now select any real address book. This is confirmed by a load of positive responses in the bug report. I have reported that whilst any real address book can now be selected and remembered, the option 'All Address Books' does not seem to work.

It would be useful if you could post a comment in the bug report saying you can select anything and it works as expected with the exception of 'All Address Books'. Please state what OS you use.

Thanks, Toad-Hall

I am not very experienced at using Mozilla Support. I don't know where to find the bug report you are referring to, or how to comment on it.

Can you please point me in the right direction?

Toad Hall gave you the link to bugzilla:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1142705

…but you'd have to create an account there to be able to post a comment.

Many thanks, Zenos

You can really see my inexperience showing here.

I have created an account, and posted a comment.

I have seen your comment in the bug report. They responded saying it would be best to start a new bug report. so. I have created a new bug report and you can find it here:

• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1236553