Thunderbird - New Address Book Missing Most Admin Functionality, No Export
All, Does anyone have a solution for exporting your thunderbird address book from tbird 102+? I've used thunderbird 102 with 15.4 and didn't really have many complaints at all -- until I tried using the addressbook. The new web-ish interface lacks the ability to copy an e-mail with name and lacks any ability to backup or export your addressbook to any usable format. I have 20 years of contact information in the addressbook -- that I presume was converted from Mork format to the new address book format when it changed sometime around ver. 79. Today I had reason to copy a few e-mail from it, and then went to export/backup as I've done in the past. However, addressbook is no longer a stand-alone UI and is now implemented as a web-page style tab in tbird. So I open it and right-click the address seeking to bring up the context menu with "copy" and "copy with name" entries. The first would copy the raw e-mail address, the latter would copy the formal e-mail with, e.g. "John Q. Public" <jpublic@domain.tld>. The context menu contains no ability to copy any e-mail address or anything else for that matter. Moreover, it is difficult to manually copy the raw e-mail due to attempts to select the address dragging it instead of allowing selection. Only by carefully moving the mouse while watching for the cursor change from pointer to I-beam can you even select the e-mail to manually copy it. Then I wanted to export my address book (to ldif at least as in the past), but the new and improved address book has no export function at all. In fact this prompted a search of all of thunderbird to find out where the export feature was and to my great disappointment the only option that exists is to export the entire profile as a .zip file... WTF?? Hell, if I wanted to that I'd just tar --zstd the profile. So if you rely on the tbird addressbook be aware it is now nothing but a crippled rewrite lacking most of the administrative, or backup features it has traditionally had since version 1.X 20 years ago. That said, does anyone know how to manually export backup from the new .sqlite mess? What was a very efficient and concise Mork address book format, e.g. -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 163980 May 13 2022 abook.mab (I'm guessing this last save was immediately before my 15.4 install) is now an unholy sqlite mess: -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 1048576 Nov 24 03:21 abook-1.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 196784 Nov 29 12:48 abook-1.sqlite-wal -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 1048576 Sep 17 04:05 abook-1.v3.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 589824 Nov 29 00:47 abook-2.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 0 Nov 29 00:53 abook-2.sqlite-wal -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 589824 Sep 17 04:05 abook-2.v3.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 786432 Nov 18 22:16 abook-3.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 0 Nov 29 00:53 abook-3.sqlite-wal -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 786432 Sep 17 04:05 abook-3.v3.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 262144 Sep 20 04:36 abook-4.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 0 Nov 29 00:53 abook-4.sqlite-wal -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 262144 Sep 17 04:05 abook-4.v3.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 327680 Oct 30 04:18 abook-5.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 0 Nov 29 00:53 abook-5.sqlite-wal -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 327680 Sep 17 04:05 abook-5.v3.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 851968 Nov 24 03:21 abook-6.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 0 Nov 29 00:53 abook-6.sqlite-wal -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 851968 Sep 17 04:05 abook-6.v3.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 262144 Sep 20 04:36 abook.sqlite -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 0 Nov 29 00:53 abook.sqlite-wal -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 262144 Sep 17 04:05 abook.v3.sqlite (total sqlite size 8454320 bytes, as 5055% increase) All of the different sqlite file seem to be actively used as they are all saved recently. Apparently the is one sqlite file for each category of e-mail address now (reply-to saved, any group of addresses, by account, etc..). So even a manual sqlite query is unlikely without knowing which sqlite file has what you want or looping over each sqlite file -- are you kidding me? Anybody run across a solution for this Mozilla created cluster-fsck? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On Wed, Nov 30, 2022 at 9:45 AM David C. Rankin < drankinatty@suddenlinkmail.com> wrote: ...
However, addressbook is no longer a stand-alone UI and is now
as a web-page style tab in tbird. So I open it and right-click the address seeking to bring up the context menu with "copy" and "copy with name" entries. The first would copy the raw e-mail address, the latter would copy the
e-mail with, e.g. "John Q. Public" <jpublic@domain.tld>.
The context menu contains no ability to copy any e-mail address or anything else for that matter. Moreover, it is difficult to manually copy
raw e-mail due to attempts to select the address dragging it instead of allowing selection. Only by carefully moving the mouse while watching for
implemented formal the the
cursor change from pointer to I-beam can you even select the e-mail to manually copy it.
I guess the easiest way to copy raw address from address book is to edit entry and copy from E-Mail field. And to copy "name <address>" to click on E-Mail URI and copy from To header. I won't argue that both are just a workaround.
Then I wanted to export my address book (to ldif at least as in the
past),
but the new and improved address book has no export function at all. In fact this prompted a search of all of thunderbird to find out where the export feature was and to my great disappointment the only option that exists is to export the entire profile as a .zip file... WTF??
On TB 102.5 I have export in the address book menu (... after address book name) [image: image.png] And Export... offers [image: image.png]
On 30/11/2022 07:44, David C. Rankin wrote:
Then I wanted to export my address book (to ldif at least as in the past), but the new and improved address book has no export function at all. In fact this prompted a search of all of thunderbird to find out where the export feature was and to my great disappointment the only option that exists is to export the entire profile as a .zip file... WTF??
In the left column of the new UI, just to the right of the addressbook name, if you hover your mouse, a "..." control appears that causes a menu to pop-up when clicked, with an export entry. CSV, tab-delimited, vCard and LDIF formats are supported. HTH Ph. A. -- *Philippe Andersson* Unix System Administrator IBA Particle Therapy | Tel: +32-10-475.983 Fax: +32-10-487.707 eMail: pan@iba-group.com <http://www.iba-worldwide.com> Disclaimer | Use of IBA e-communication<https://iba-worldwide.com/disclaimer> The contents of this e-mail message and any attachments are intended solely for the recipient (s) named above. This communication is intended to be and to remain confidential and may be protected by intellectual property rights. Any use of the information contained herein (including but not limited to, total or partial reproduction, communication or distribution of any form) by persons other than the designated recipient(s) is prohibited. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. Ion Beam Applications does not accept liability for any such errors. Thank you for your cooperation.
On 11/30/22 07:37, Philippe Andersson wrote:
In the left column of the new UI, just to the right of the addressbook name, if you hover your mouse, a "..." control appears that causes a menu to pop-up when clicked, with an export entry. CSV, tab-delimited, vCard and LDIF formats are supported.
HTH
Ph. A.
Son-of-a-bit.. And I even hovered and checked that damn "..." menu for all addressbooks and found it worthless, e.g. https://paste.opensuse.org/80270637 But hovering and clicking the "..." for the sub-address books I do get "export...". Thank God! I was sorely disappointed to think this new addressbook had NO export capability and --- *this was progress??* Thank you Philippe. I could have dorked with that interface here on out and never thought the sub-addressbook hover->"..." would be any different than all-addressbok hover->"..." -- but it is! There's intuitive UI design if I've ever seen it. Sure hope being able to create a phone app was worth the loss of clarity in the interface... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
participants (4)
-
Andrei Borzenkov -
David C. Rankin -
James Knott -
Philippe Andersson