Address book file referencing
Following some use of the Gcontactssync extension all of a sudden I have multiple (4-8) copies of each of my address books. My Personal Address Book, Collected Addresses and each IMAP and other accounts have multiple entries in the Thunderbird Address Book. Where are the .mab files referenced ? What is pointing to these to create so many ? Is there an ini file or how else are these referenced. The "Delete" option isn't available in PAB and deleting one of the IMAP address books makes all that accounts address books have a blank name. I've tried moving the .mab files (to back them up) and Thunderbird just rebuilds blank .mab's.
On mac running latest Sierra. 10.12.1
All Replies (8)
For questions about gContactSync please read the FAQ first. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/gcontactsync/
The author also maintains a support forum for the extension.
The "Delete" option isn't available in PAB
You cannot delete the Personal Address Book, it's built-in. You don't have to use it though.
deleting one of the IMAP address books
I don't understand what that means. Address books in Thunderbird aren't account specific.
Sorry, that doesn't help. My issue is that I have multiple address books for each of my address books i.e. 6x PAB and 8x each of my IMAP accounts. Gmail and exchange do hold address books within their system and I use multiple computers hence IMAP for portability. I simply need to know where Thunderbird is cross liking these and how to fix it. Is there an ini file or which entries in config editor should I look at ?
In addition I now have 250000 contacts so building an email takes about a minute to fill the address line and none of my distribution lists work.
My issue is that I have multiple address books for each of my address books i.e. 6x PAB and 8x each of my IMAP accounts.
Please post a screenshot illustrating the problem. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem
Is there an ini file or which entries in config editor should I look at ?
The file prefs.js in your profile stores all config settings. I strongly advise against messing with prefs.js. If you still think this is a good idea you're on your own.
Sorry but which part of "multiple identical address books" don't you understand. I can't post a screenshot of my addressbooks as they are confidential.
It's like : > Personal Address Book > Personal Address Book > Personal Address Book > Personal Address Book > Personal Address Book > Personal Address Book > Personal Address Book > Exchange Account 1 > Exchange Account 1 > Exchange Account 1 > Exchange Account 1 > Exchange Account 1 > Exchange Account 1 > Exchange Account 1 > Exchange Account 1 > Gmail Account 1 > Gmail Account 1 > Gmail Account 1 > Gmail Account 1 > Gmail Account 1 > Gmail Account 1 > Gmail Account 1 > Gmail Account 1 > Gmail Account 2 > Gmail Account 2 > Gmail Account 2 > Gmail Account 2 > Gmail Account 2 > Gmail Account 2 > Gmail Account 3 > Gmail Account 3 > Gmail Account 3 > Gmail Account 3 > Gmail Account 3 > Gmail Account 3 > Gmail Account 3 > Gmail Account 3 > Gmail Account 4 > Gmail Account 4 > Gmail Account 4 > Gmail Account 4 > Gmail Account 4 > Gmail Account 4 > Gmail Account 4 > Mac OSX Address book > Mac OSX Address book > Mac OSX Address book > Mac OSX Address book > Mac OSX Address book > Mac OSX Address book > Mac OSX Address book > Collected Addresses > Collected Addresses > Collected Addresses > Collected Addresses > Collected Addresses > Collected Addresses > Collected Addresses
Does this explain ?
Got you. Why your address books are duplicated multiple times, I don't know, I can only guess that it's related to the gContactSync add-on. Did you read the FAQ for the add-on as suggested earlier?
What I don't know is how you did organize your address books. Assuming you had all contacts in your Personal Address Book prior to installing the add-on, gContactSync would conenct to each Gmail account, and create an address book for each account, hence making the contacts in the Personal Address Book redundant. In other words, they can be deleted. Note, you cannot delete the Personal Address Book itself, as it's built-in. So is Collected Addresses. Again, how you managed to create multiple duplicates, I don't know.
Your best bet may be to start over with a new profile and re-create your accounts. Also see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_address_books_between_profiles
As I said, it happened after a Bi-directional gcontactsync operation. Previously I had only 1 of each.
I have many gmail and other IMAP address books for the the many businesses I am involved in. Until experimenting with gcontact sync I had a perfectly working system. It was trying to backup and sync my contacts which has caused this.
Yes, I read the FAQ. None were appropriate or useful apart from explaining the origin of my many nobody...@nowhere.invalid addresses.
Am reluctant to rebuild profile but if that's the only way to resolved the multiple addressbooks I guess it's going to have to be. As I said the multiple books are making TB really slow on building emails and preventing my DLs to expand.