Importing address book
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Thread: Importing address book

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
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    Surrey, UK
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    647

    Importing address book

    What ho one and all,

    Am trying to update my wife's computer from an old Dell / XP to an HP with W8 (because that is what is already installed.)

    Have it more or less running fine but since OE6 is no longer available, trying to understand Thunderbird.

    I am unable to import her wab address file nor the dbx messages. I have saved the address as a csv but TB gives an error every time.

    And obviously, TB will not see the dbx files. An option ab out Outlook appears, but that program is not installed.

    Any suggests will be gratefully received.

    Thanks and toodle pip

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA
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    18,063
    What error message are you receiving when trying to import the address book .csv file? Details needed.

    Possibly useful link:

    https://www.sysinfotools.com/blog/im...o-thunderbird/

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    Surrey, UK
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    Thanks for the link. Will give it a try but the page seems to suggest that OE and Thunderbird are on the same computer, which in this case, they are not. I copied the WAB (and csv) and all the dbx folders to a thumbdrive.

    Am trying to see which of two email programs works, either Thunderbird or a strange OE Classic 3.1. The later is very much like the original OE6, nice and simple with none of the Thunderbird bells and whistles.

    My wife is Japanese and some of her wab files have Japanese names attached, although the address is in the alphabet. In OE6, they are displayed in Japanese and if she starts to address in Japanese, by default, something appears.

    But importing into either OE Classic or TB, and the Japanese characters become computer gibberish and/or, an error message appears. Below, the TB message

    Attachment 15620

    I have opened the csv in a Libreoffice spreadsheet and the heading are strange, which may explain why no contacts appear.

    Attachment 15619

    Columns A and B empty, then Name, Name. In many cases, one or both of the Name columns contains the email address.

    The next shot is pretty much the same in either TB or OE Classic, a close-up of the Japanese contact text!

    Attachment 15617

    Changing the input to IME / Japanese is OK; I tried to create a new contact in Japanese and that is OK, but importing, so so much.

    Thanks

    PS. Hope you like my redacting!!!
    Last edited by Rekusu; January 28th, 2022 at 10:11 AM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    Surrey, UK
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    Thanks for the link. have not tried any of the solutions yet, but will do so and post back with the result. Sounds like a real possibility.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    Surrey, UK
    Posts
    647
    Thanks for the suggestions and links; problem solved!!!!

    When I was experiencing a similar issue while trying to get W7 up and running, and not liking all the bells and whistles that the new e-mail programs offer, I chanced upon a 'hacked' OE6 program that installed, runs virtually the same as the old XP version and I could import all my wab files.

    Having difficulty finding it so took a different approach. Copied my Outlook Express folder to a thumbdrive, plugged it in and hit the exe file. I runs. so copied the entire folder to the W8 Program files (86) folder and a shortcut on the Desktop, and have managed to import her *.wab and various *.dbx e-mails. Everything is displaying correctly.

    She is almost a happy bunny.

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