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Address Book Import

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Thunderbird Address Book Import csv in v68.10.0 This is a more of statement for a developer rather than a question, but it worked.

1. Create a newly named address book in the left-pane. 2. Highlight the new book. 3. Tools > import > csv > find ThunderUp2.csv 4. Click the proceed button. 5. Thunderbird reports successful import, but . . . 6. No data.

What did occur however, is another new address book appeared in the left-pane entitled "ThunderUp2" (minus the .csv), obviously named after the import file. Unfortunately, both of the new address books showed no contacts, nevertheless, a file search produced two new *.mab entries in the roaming\profile sub-dir, impab.mab and I forgot the other, maybe impab2. Anyway, both of these new files indicated zero bytes, confirming exactly what I saw, nothing in either address book.

Anyway, without touching anything (leaving both new address books in the left-pane), I re-imported "ThunderUp2.csv" into the new address book entitled ThunderUp2, both with and without the "first row contains header" option several times - no success. Then I modified ThunderUp2.csv by inserting a header row (the category names) and then tried both combinations of "first row contains header". Eventually, one of these latter combinations imported the data into the address book entitled ThunderUp2.

With that accomplished, its seemed safe to delete the first new address book that contained nothing, and now, a quick search of c:\ *.mab confirmed there's only one new book (impab.mab), as well as the original two default books (abook.mab and history.mab).

The import process seems a little clunky. Note: At this point, I suppose renaming the ThunderUp2 address book to whatever one desires is an option using the menu options.

The good news is the import process mapped the data fields correctly, including the birthday fields. One surprise, however. Although ThunderUp2.csv included both a "first" and "last" name, I purposely did not include a "display name" (entered this instead ,,) in order to determine if it would populate "display name" by combining the first and last data fields, something that occurs automatically when manually entering new contact data. It did not, but first and last names were still in data file.

Instead, the "contact summary header bar" (above the contact's photo) displayed the data field "work organization", rather than marrying the first and last names into a person. It appears that unless there's data in the "display name" field, it assumes its an organization, a clever but un-obvious substitution, probably causing more confusion that its worth.

This test was produced by manually entering unique text in every data field (text describing the particular slot), then exporting the book as xxx.csv. Next, take the exported file apart in excel and append the text from each data field with an arbitrary suffix (the numeral 2 in this case) to create ThunerUp2.csv. This confirmed the import feature correctly maps the data fields since all the data fields indeed re-imported with a suffix of 2.

Maybe someone could improve the shenanigans required to ingest the csv file, and don't forget to populate the "display name" data field if its a person.

The original exported csv (from the default address book) and the re-imported ThunderUp2.csv contained only a single contact, something possible since this is a fresh install of v68.10.0 on a new machine.

One caveat, the typical user is likely to import their csv data into the default address book (abook.mab), rather than a newly named address book, which might produce different behavior (and more confusion than necessary), but based on the chatter, it appears others are having issues importing contact data.

abook.mab (default address book) history.mab (automatically stored replied contacts?) impab.mab (import address book)

After inspecting the contents of the above .mab files, its clear that none of them contain their external file names, or the name of the address book that uses them, making moving them problematic (probably causes a crash of some sort). Hence, the numerous and confusing descriptions of how to move, copy, rename or backup the entire profile directory in a manner that keeps the address book bundled with its co-dependent files, and then re-queing the application to find the moved profile directory. This is just a guess of the actual process, but it seems unnecessarily confusing when there's 12 different conflicting examples of how to accomplish the task.

All I really want to know is what precisely constitutes a functional back up bundle, and what bundle can be safely erased without causing a crash, in case the FBI shows up uninvited.

If you get this far, there's a couple pictures. ThunderUp2.csv is actually displayed on screen as ThunderUpload2. One pic is the original exported cvs with the name of the data field, ThunderUp2 confirms all the data fields include a 2 appended in every field, but in organization view instead of a person.

Thunderbird Address Book Import csv in v68.10.0 This is a more of statement for a developer rather than a question, but it worked. 1. Create a newly named address book in the left-pane. 2. Highlight the new book. 3. Tools > import > csv > find ThunderUp2.csv 4. Click the proceed button. 5. Thunderbird reports successful import, but . . . 6. No data. What did occur however, is another new address book appeared in the left-pane entitled "ThunderUp2" (minus the .csv), obviously named after the import file. Unfortunately, both of the new address books showed no contacts, nevertheless, a file search produced two new *.mab entries in the roaming\profile sub-dir, impab.mab and I forgot the other, maybe impab2. Anyway, both of these new files indicated zero bytes, confirming exactly what I saw, nothing in either address book. Anyway, without touching anything (leaving both new address books in the left-pane), I re-imported "ThunderUp2.csv" into the new address book entitled ThunderUp2, both with and without the "first row contains header" option several times - no success. Then I modified ThunderUp2.csv by inserting a header row (the category names) and then tried both combinations of "first row contains header". Eventually, one of these latter combinations imported the data into the address book entitled ThunderUp2. With that accomplished, its seemed safe to delete the first new address book that contained nothing, and now, a quick search of c:\ *.mab confirmed there's only one new book (impab.mab), as well as the original two default books (abook.mab and history.mab). The import process seems a little clunky. Note: At this point, I suppose renaming the ThunderUp2 address book to whatever one desires is an option using the menu options. The good news is the import process mapped the data fields correctly, including the birthday fields. One surprise, however. Although ThunderUp2.csv included both a "first" and "last" name, I purposely did not include a "display name" (entered this instead ,,) in order to determine if it would populate "display name" by combining the first and last data fields, something that occurs automatically when manually entering new contact data. It did not, but first and last names were still in data file. Instead, the "contact summary header bar" (above the contact's photo) displayed the data field "work organization", rather than marrying the first and last names into a person. It appears that unless there's data in the "display name" field, it assumes its an organization, a clever but un-obvious substitution, probably causing more confusion that its worth. This test was produced by manually entering unique text in every data field (text describing the particular slot), then exporting the book as xxx.csv. Next, take the exported file apart in excel and append the text from each data field with an arbitrary suffix (the numeral 2 in this case) to create ThunerUp2.csv. This confirmed the import feature correctly maps the data fields since all the data fields indeed re-imported with a suffix of 2. Maybe someone could improve the shenanigans required to ingest the csv file, and don't forget to populate the "display name" data field if its a person. The original exported csv (from the default address book) and the re-imported ThunderUp2.csv contained only a single contact, something possible since this is a fresh install of v68.10.0 on a new machine. One caveat, the typical user is likely to import their csv data into the default address book (abook.mab), rather than a newly named address book, which might produce different behavior (and more confusion than necessary), but based on the chatter, it appears others are having issues importing contact data. abook.mab (default address book) history.mab (automatically stored replied contacts?) impab.mab (import address book) After inspecting the contents of the above .mab files, its clear that none of them contain their external file names, or the name of the address book that uses them, making moving them problematic (probably causes a crash of some sort). Hence, the numerous and confusing descriptions of how to move, copy, rename or backup the entire profile directory in a manner that keeps the address book bundled with its co-dependent files, and then re-queing the application to find the moved profile directory. This is just a guess of the actual process, but it seems unnecessarily confusing when there's 12 different conflicting examples of how to accomplish the task. All I really want to know is what precisely constitutes a functional back up bundle, and what bundle can be safely erased without causing a crash, in case the FBI shows up uninvited. If you get this far, there's a couple pictures. ThunderUp2.csv is actually displayed on screen as ThunderUpload2. One pic is the original exported cvs with the name of the data field, ThunderUp2 confirms all the data fields include a 2 appended in every field, but in organization view instead of a person.
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วิธีแก้ปัญหาที่เลือก

Just a point. Thunderbird uses utf text. Excel uses ANSI. and offers to "import" UTF like it is some foreign format.

Needless to say importing ANSI file DOES NOT WORK. if you open the file in Windows notepad after excel is done breaking it and simply save as and chose the UTF option in the save as dialog everything works fine. Or you can use the free libre office, or Google office suites, or really anything but Microsoft office to edit your CSV files and it will import.

I lost interest in Microsoft about 20 years ago when they lost the plot and started peddling what I saw as sub standard products.

A workable backup is the profile folder and it's sub folders. It contains addons, accounts settings, personal preferences and contacts as well as local copies of mail. Despite the assumption that "just backup your mail and contacts" it is not enough for a seamless restoration. If you have an interest in such things I suggest you look at the current beta which as I understand it uses a completely new database for storing contacts based on vcard.

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วิธีแก้ปัญหาที่เลือก

Just a point. Thunderbird uses utf text. Excel uses ANSI. and offers to "import" UTF like it is some foreign format.

Needless to say importing ANSI file DOES NOT WORK. if you open the file in Windows notepad after excel is done breaking it and simply save as and chose the UTF option in the save as dialog everything works fine. Or you can use the free libre office, or Google office suites, or really anything but Microsoft office to edit your CSV files and it will import.

I lost interest in Microsoft about 20 years ago when they lost the plot and started peddling what I saw as sub standard products.

A workable backup is the profile folder and it's sub folders. It contains addons, accounts settings, personal preferences and contacts as well as local copies of mail. Despite the assumption that "just backup your mail and contacts" it is not enough for a seamless restoration. If you have an interest in such things I suggest you look at the current beta which as I understand it uses a completely new database for storing contacts based on vcard.

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Thanks Matt, UTF-8 solves the issue.

My Win10 version (1909) of NOTEPAD actually has a Save As "csv UTF-8" option, and it worked 2 out of 2 attempts without any funny business. Even the Save As "csv UTF-8 with BOM" format worked 2 out of 2 times.

Likewise, MS Office16 version of Excel can also saves files as "csv UTF-8", and this worked 5 out of 5 attempts without issue.

There's a couple of things I discovered with regard to Thunderbird behavior, v68.10.0.

First is my issue. I thought it was necessary to "add a new address book" before importing the csv file - create a file name before placing data in it. This is not necessary. Thunderbird imports the cvs file, and then creates a new address book using the csv file's name, which can be renamed later using the address book menu options.

Second, after a successful importation, no contacts appear in the new address book without first visiting (highlighting) another address book, and then returning to the new address book. My hunch is that this is purely a user display nuance or a processing time lag issue, not a data issue. (Note: it takes a really long time, dozens of seconds, for the impab-x.mab file in the profile directory to show any byte dimension. What can possibly take so long to process a with file with only two contacts in it.)

Third, after selecting an "unfriendly" csv file to import, the "Import Address Book" screen appears, the utility that offers an opportunity to adjust data fields. This tool actually shows data, and in the correct field order, but after clicking OK, no data appears in the new address book. In other words, the utility teased me with data and a new address book name appeared in the left menu pane, all indications of success, but nothing appears in the new book, or any other book. This causes confusion because it provides a false impression of impending success, but ultimately fails for no reason visible to the user.

Fourth, no matter how many times importation has failed (like 20 times), the next to the last screen always reports the message, "successful import", causing more confusion.

The good news is, a known csv UTF-8 always works without any shenanigans.