[PLUG] Thunderbird Address Book Lost in Upgrade

King Beowulf kingbeowulf at linuxgalaxy.org
Wed Dec 4 01:37:58 UTC 2024


On 12/3/24 14:19, Michael Barnes wrote:
> One thing I did lose is my address books in Thunderbird. Unfortunately, I
> do not know what version was running on the old machine. The new machine is
> running V125.5.0. Any hints on how I can recover my old address books?
As Russell noted, Mozilla now uses sqlite database to store address 
books, etc in the profile.  The normal process when upgrading (new OS or 
new computer, etc) is to

OLD Computer

1. open thunderbird
2. Open TOOLS - Address Book
3. Select Address book to export
4. RIGHT_CLICK or click on '...' and select EXPORT

NEW Computer

1. open thunderbird
2. Open TOOLS - Address Book
3. click the IMPORT bottom at the bottom of the address book panel

You may be able to just copy the set of sqlite files to the new profile, 
if the sqlite version does not differ much.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1380134

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1392390

You can also open the .sqlite database with sqlite tools and try to 
export from there to csv with sqlite tools

sqlitebrowser
sqlite3

Check your distro for available options.

Or something like this (I'm no SQL expert!!!):

$ sqlite3 -header -csv abook.sqlite "select * from properties;" > 
address_book.csv

There is also a way to open (connect) sqlite db with Libreoffice Base, 
but I think the above is enough sillyness.

-Ed




More information about the PLUG mailing list