Just started using Thunderbird. Love it.

The default address book is called Personal Address Book, which by default is at the top of the address book list.

When I open T'bird, it always opens in the Personal Address Book, which is empty.

I have my T'bird address Book sync'd to Gmail Contacts, using Google Sync Add-On, (which is sync'd to my cell). So all my T'bird contacts are in the Gmail Address Book, which is just below the Personal Address Book on the list.

So every time I open T'bird, I have my default Personal address book show up blank, and I must manually switch to my Gmail Address Book inside T'bird. (one click, buy annoying)

I hope this makes sense.

I have searched every thing I can find on T'bird address books and can't seem to find a way to either change the order of the address books on the list so the Gmail address book is on the top, OR, to make the Gmail address book the default. In either case I am trying to get T'bird to open in the Gmail address book, not the Personal address book.

Not that I want to do this, since I may find that I need it later, but T'bird won't even allow you to delete the Personal Address Book.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks...

PS: Another possibility would be to have Google Sync direct the contacts from Gmail to the Personal Address Book in T'bird, instead of the Gmail address book it created on the original sync, if this is even possible?

Just posting to remind myself to give a proper response.
Back later.

Thank you CB...

BTW, found this article: Thunderbird address book delete ? - netscape.public.mozilla.general | Google Groups

Have no idea if it works, and it sounds like it may be irreversible, which I would only use as a last resort.

Again, my preference it to just change the order, and/or make my Gmail Sync'd address book the first to open (default book)

Ciao...

Glad you posted back.

Anyway been digging and you can change things in Options > Composition > Addressing.

You can also do a Copy/paste between T'Bird address books which syncs all over the place. You can also rename the Personal address book to the same as gmail.

Wow (again)!

Thank you!

Well CB, after all these years, you know I will never make it past "beginner". That said, I looked at Options > Composition > Addressing, and do not see anything that looks like it would change the Gmail Contacts to my default address book, or other solution. Can you give me some detail on what to do in here.

Even better, I like the sound of renaming the Personal address book to the same as Gmail address book.

I should confess, that curiosity got the best of me, and I experimented while waiting. I cut out (what I thought was) the personal address book file from Thunderbird Profiles (abook.mab) and pasted it to the desktop, to see if the address book in Thunderbird would disappear. It did not, and when I looked back in the profiles folder, it seemed to create a new on on it's own (science fiction!). So I don't get that at all.

As to your suggestion, which sound fantastic:
1) Is abook.mab the personal address folder?
2) What would be the name of the Gmail address book? The names of these files are not obvious. (I have abook.mab, abook-1.mab, history.mab, and impab.mab)
3) Are you saying to have 2 files with the same name (I don't think that is possible?? )

Okay, enough with my stupid questions. Can you please tell me exactly how to try your option 3?

Addendum:
Just found the following article which semi-defines the address book name in first paragraph (although I don't have a clue what they are talking about): http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_add...tween_profiles

Looks like abook.mab and history.mab are the personal address book, and the collected address book (both default books in T'bird). Confirmed at this site (in Files chart) that history.mab is the collected address book, and abook.mab is the personal address book: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

Anyway, I don't understand the behavior of the profiles folder. It seems to keep recreating these folders on it's own.?

The more I read, the more confused I am getting.

In Addressing you should have Local Address Books checked, this then searches ALL locally stored address books, gee you think ;)

So as long as you store you addresses in one place, gmail, it's all good.
Copy/paste between them just to make sure.

As for the actual file names, I have no idea what they are called, never really looked TBH.
1- pass
2- don't know
3- maybe

abook.mab is the personal address book, but I can't get rid of it in the profile.

Gmail is in the profile somewhere (either impab.mab = imported address book or abook-1.mab). But it still shows up on the address book list as non-default. So I constantly have to switch from Personal Address book to Gmail address book. This is the issue and the hassle.

Can you give me a hint on how to do this? (A big hint) Come on CB. I've got a bottle of Boone's Farm with your name on it...

OK. At the risk of totally fouling up my Thunderbird installation, I figured out (partially) what is going on, and ID'd all 4 address books in the Profile.

This is what I KNOW to be true:
1) The personal address book, which I am trying to un-default, will reproduce itself like a bacteria, even if deleted (abook.mab).

The mystery of the Gmail address book has been solved. I kept removing it from the profile (abook-1.mab) and it would magically reappear every time I restarted T'bird. That's because I installed Google Sync, which kept re-importing the address book from Gmail on each T'bird start up. (idiot)

When I disabled my wireless connection, no more Gmail address book. Magic!

So now I know how to do exactly the opposite of what I want to do. I can delete the Gmail address book, but not the Personal (default) address book with no contacts in it).

Yikes! I feel like I am so close to an answer here.

Boone's Farm...

Solution Found !

For those of you that are using Thunderbird, and wish to change the order in which your address books are listed, and more importantly, what address book will open as default, I finally found a procedure that works.

Please note that this was probably written for Thunderbird 2, so some of the steps must be tweaked a bit for Thunderbird 3, but the steps are essentially correct. I didn't have much trouble figuring out the minor differences.

How to change the default address book • mozillaZine Forums


A special thanks to Curlyben for all his help...

Try using Zindus sync tool. Works great. 2 way sync with Google contacts.