Ok lets start again. Outlook express keeps it's contact in a WAB file. Outlook keeps it's contacts in a PST file.

These are two applications and the import is very very different between the two.

The reason the import was disabled is because it crashed Thunderbird. So if it has not crashed you are good to go.

Thunderbird checks to see if it is the default mail client on startup. Has it perhaps changed what you though was there?

Hi Matt, thanks for your response!

You can make Outlook Express use the Outlook .pst-file for its address book. ( - address book - tools - options - manage contacts together with Outlook), and this is what I do.

Also, from what I read, TB does not read the .pst - file directly, but tries to communicate with Outlook via a thing called MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) which I really do not understand.

AFAIU Outlook has to be the default mail client and running, if i want to import my address data from there. Am I right?

So my error message from above could well mean, something with Outlook and its MAPI - connection is not working properly.

Hi,

now i did delete the following registry entry: htlm - software - clients - mail - microsoft outlook , reinstalled Outlook, ran - help - analyze and repair..., restarted the computer, restarted Outlook, then TB, then address book, tried to import the address book and got:

"Contacts have been successfully imported from Outlook - No address books found".

Hm. I would call this a minor bug, because of the obvious contradiction in those messages. But that's actually a distraction.

I tried to export contacts from OE, but the export button is greyed out.

I switched OE address book from parting with MSO to its own address book, but then all contacts are not longer accessible.

Seems like I'm trapped in this PST.

Tried to find a standalone - .PST - reader, but if you want to actually export the contacts from there, you have to pay (and I am a bit short with money).

I suggest you try exporting from outlook as CSV ot LDIF. These proprietary formats are a royal pain.

Thanks for your answer. Looks as if what i want doesn't work. Probably faster to recreate my groups by hand. Should i find a working solution, i'll post it here. (I think of recurring to an earlier TB version, which does not crash when importing.)

Regardless of the Thunderbird version, to do anything with a PST file you need to have outlook installed. The reason for that is there is a DDE conversation occurring between the two applications where Thunderbird politely asks Outlook for information. IT asks, because it understands nothing of PST files or their myriad complexities. it just knows what is needs and asks for it.

I suggest you download a trial version of outlook and use it to export your addresses.

Hi Matt, thanks for writing, but i believe 5 posts above i wrote about "restarting outlook", so i had outlook running and declared as default mail client.

Tools > Import > Addressbooks 'Outlook' has been temporarilly disabled in recent versions.

I would try using an older version of Thunderbird eg: 24.0 http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/24.0/win32/ then select the language of choice eg: en-GB = English (British) then download the .exe file.

Once the address book in imported, update TB to current release.

In 'Address Book' Tools > Import 'address books' and click on Next select 'Outlook' and click on next

Otherwise in Outlook Export addressbook as .csv file to computer desktop in Thunderbird Tools > Import 'address books' and click on Next select 'Text file (LDIF, .tab, .csv, .txt)' and click on next you then need to map the outlook fields to the Thunderbird fields.

However, .csv file can be opened using eg: Excel This alternative approach may make it easier to map fields. Make sure the column headers match same name fields as Thunderbird. This link tells you what address book fieldsTB uses.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_address_list_from_text_file

then save the .csv file ready to be used for importing.

Hi, thanks for your answer. I did this, i.e. install TB 24, made sure, that O. is standard mail client, started it, but got stuck with the maddening "Contacts imported successfully: No address books found." response.