How do I eliminate the local address book
I have created a network stored address book in thunderbird. This is actually my google contacts that are syncing. That is the "one source of truth" for all my contacts. Thunderbird wants to add items to the "Personal Address" book and the "Collected Address" book. I don't want these and don't need them. How can I eliminate those and only use my custom address book.
Chosen solution
I want to get rid of both Personal Address book and Collected Address book
They are built-in, and cannot be removed. But you don't have to use them.
When I right click on that email address and select save to address book, it gives me no option to choose which address book I want to save to.
In order to file an email address to an address book from a message window click the star behind the email address. The star turns yellow. Clicking the star again will allow you to choose the address book you want.
I actually like that feature but my custom address book is not in the list of options to add outgoing email addresses to.
Trust me, you don't want to clutter up your address book with all email addresses you ever sent a message to.
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Go to Preferences > Composition > Addressing and untick 'automatically add outgoing email addresses to ... '
Thanks, I had already done that and it partially resolves one of the problems. I actually like that feature but my custom address book is not in the list of options to add outgoing email addresses to. That would be nice to keep but to choose my custom address book as my default.
Furthermore. I received an email from an address I wanted to save in my address book. When I right click on that email address and select save to address book, it gives me no option to choose which address book I want to save to. It defaults to Personal Address book. That is why I want to get rid of both Personal Address book and Collected Address book and only use the one Address book I need.
After adding to the Address Book, click again and select Edit and you can move it to another address book.
I know it's clumsy, but it's less clumsy than going into the Address Book, locating the new addition and dragging it to the preferred address book.
But then again, if you don't use the Personal Address Book, it will normally be empty. So whatever is in it is just the stuff you recently added, so select all and drag to your google-synchronized address book.
Chosen Solution
I want to get rid of both Personal Address book and Collected Address book
They are built-in, and cannot be removed. But you don't have to use them.
When I right click on that email address and select save to address book, it gives me no option to choose which address book I want to save to.
In order to file an email address to an address book from a message window click the star behind the email address. The star turns yellow. Clicking the star again will allow you to choose the address book you want.
I actually like that feature but my custom address book is not in the list of options to add outgoing email addresses to.
Trust me, you don't want to clutter up your address book with all email addresses you ever sent a message to.
Thanks, I guess I see your point on the collected addresses vs. my main address book.
The star feature is acceptable as well. Thanks for the tip.