Thunderbird latest: not possible to delete, edit email addresses in Address Book

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[OscarCP]

Maybe others have already encountered this problem that I have just discovered, because it is something new that, maybe, others also have, but don’t know it yet:

I wanted to add the new address of a friend that changed the ISP, but not his name before the “@”, and to remove the old, or else edit its card in the Address Book, but what do you know? The delete Trash Can is greyed out and nothing else I have tried has worked; same story with trying to edit the address, as the card is now impervious to my attempts to edit its contents, so I still have the old address popping up into the address box when I am about to send him a message and have, if I remember to do it, to enter the new address by hand. Right now, this is not too serious, but it also means that some random address that I got in the Address Book from some mail list I no longer have anything to do with, also often pops up when I type the first two or three characters of some intended address. And now and then someone not the intended recipient gets the message and then apologetic explanations must follow.

I have scoured the Web, as usual, looking for a solution, or even some idea of what is going on as, to repeat, this is something new, at least in my Mac. If anyone here knows of this problem and has a practical solution to this specific problem and would like to share it with the rest of us, I am all ears.

Thunderbird: the Greek present that keeps on giving.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

• This topic was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by OscarCP.

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Mac or Linux? My Windows TBird Contacts are OK, Garbage can works, etc. TBird’s better than it was after Mozilla took over the mess Brand X gave them but still needs some work. When I had problems earlier this year, a reinstall was the only solution. Be sure you’re on the latest version. Unless you’ve been making changes in the Config editor, I don’t know of any “normal” setting that would prevent Contacts from being changed. Any add ons or themes? Removing them MAY help.

Not sure about this but if TBird runs through an emulator for MacOS, a OS update may have caused the issue. Linux is straightforward, similar to Windows. I used TBird on Ubuntu for a while, it was pretty much identical to Windows.

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Thanks, SallyBrown, but “no” to all of the above. Certainly not an emulation, but the real McCoy, for Macs. TB has been working OK until now, that I have noticed at least, when it developed the already described, inexplicable glitch all by itself. I have done nothing to its setup whatsoever since the last trouble, about a month ago, that resolved that one. I have it set to its “search for updates but let me decide” sort  of thing. Maybe updating now, if it is not in the last version already, could help  … or not. Apparently one never knows, with Thunderbird. Enjoy your oats.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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I’m running the latest Thunderbird (78.14.0 64-bit) on my Mac.
No problems editing the Address Book.

Your profile is in <username>\Library\Thunderbird\Profiles.
If you are using the latest version, the active one will be the one with “-release” on the end.
But look for the one that has “Mail” folder and today’s date if you have used TBird today.
Backup the folders under Thunderbird to an external device.
Then, in the menu, menubar, Help\Troubleshooting information.

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PK, I am leery of moving my emails to a external device, as that sometimes eliminates all useful information from the email names: of whom to or from, the date and the subject, replacing all that with uninformative strings of characters. Wouldn’t backing up the Mac’s SSD to Time Machine do the trick as well?

By the way, I am running BigSur minus the latest update. Still waiting to hear something bad about it before going ahead and installing that one.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Didn’t say MOVE. Didn’t say Mail by itself.
I said COPY everything under the Thunderbird folder.
If you copy all of it and mess up, you can always copy the good ones back and overwrite your mess up.
If the Mac can read the external drive that you copy them to, that doesn’t mess anything up if you copy the folders that are under Thunderbird.
That’s the way I transferred my TBird profile from my old MacMini to the new M1 MacMini. Just used an external HDD.
There is really no need to backup the whole drive, but that will work if that’s what you want to do.

I’m running Big Sur on two of my Macs.
Didn’t have any trouble with the latest updates on either.
Neither with the Security Update 2021-005 on the 3 Catalina machines.
Then got Safari 15 on those three also.

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OscarCP

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There is an update: 78-14.0 and Born has this to say about it:

https://borncity.com/win/2021/09/08/thunderbird-78-14-0/

I have already done a full backup of the SSD to Time Machine and I am preparing to install this new update.

If I lose all, or even some of the, to me, most valuable emails, I’ll make sure the ghosts of those emails come back to haunt the Thunderbird developers all the remaining days of their definitely shortened lives once their haunting begins. See if I don’t.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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… and I did all of that, and it did not fix the problem. I hate Thunderbird, with a passion. But I am accursed and cannot do without it, now that Mail has gone nuts after the “upgrade” (ha!) to Big Sur.

Also, as long as TB remains barely functional at least, I am not prepared to move very valuable stuff around all by myself. Sorry.

News Flash: I put in by hand the new address of my friend in a test mail, sent it. Then sent a second one. When I started to type his address there, the complete new one popped in. So I can manage, it seems.

I still hate TB with a passion, though.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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I have an IMAC and I tried Thunderbird several times and could not be comfortable with it.  I dislike the small print and just found it awkward with all the finagling to get it the way I wanted.  I wanted to use Thunderbird with my Gmail accounts and could only have it accept IMAP when I wanted POP.  When I was on Windows Outlook I loved it –  very user friendly and great to work with.  There are quite a few folks here who love Thunderbird but it did not work for me.

Actually, I found that I do not need an email client.  I am currently closing my Gmail accounts (because of lack of security with all things Google/Gmail) and am migrating to Protonmail for the important stuff.  That is another subject, I know.  However, Oscar, why do you need an email client?  I’m asking because I don’t see the need for it and want your input.

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OscarCP

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Maybe because web mail just plain sucks?
BTW Oscar I love TB but I am a ver around 60.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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OscarCP

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Wavy, you are 60 and love TB? Good on you. I am less than one year from 80, but can’t honestly say that I do like it: I have already started three threads on my TB woes, counting this one. And have found that I was not the only sufferer in each previous one. (By the way, a gypsy once told me I was going to live to be 80, but did not say what happens then. Maybe I should have paid her more to get that detail too.)

Now Protonmail is intriguing. But, as you wrote …

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Actually I am a we bit older than 60 but I am on TB 60! Some things don’t are as well as others. OSes and trusty old SW

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Well, if you are satisfied with it, stay on with the old TB: 78.14.0, the current version, with a number that is not much less than my own age, is not really great. Be warned.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Anonymous, I thought Protonmail was a regular email service, accessible with a normal client application by opening an account with this service. So it might not be so? I am going to investigate. Thanks for the tip.

As to: ” I wanted to use Thunderbird with my Gmail accounts and could only have it accept IMAP when I wanted POP. ” Could this be because of how Gmail works, not because of Thunderbird? (I do not know myself, so just asking.)
….

And I’m back again:

According to:

https://protonmail.com/

The things I find most relevant are these:

Mails encrypted end-to-end.
Open source software.
Based in Switzerland, created by people at CERN and the MIT.

Free version:

500MB storage (*)
150 messages per day
Limited Support

Paid version:

A bit over the US$ 4 a month I am paying AOL)

5 GB storage (*)
Send up to 1000 messages per day
Labels, Custom Filters, and Folders
Send encrypted messages to external recipients
Use your own domain (ex: john@smith.com)
Up to 5 email aliases
Priority Customer Support

(*) So it looks like they use an IMAP server, so one’s emails are stored in their server, not in one’s own machine.
Sort of Cloud-like. A big no-no for me.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Oscar – I use Protonmail as a regular email — I do not access it with an email client.  I do not see the need for an email client such as Thunderbird but I want to hear from you as to the benefit of an email client.  It’s true that you don’t need to be on the web if you use an email client — is that your reason?

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Not only I do not want to have personal things kept on the Web, but I definitely also want to keep my emails in my computer, or in one of my external devices, all of that at home. I don’t like the idea that, some day, all or at least my oldest emails will be deleted, because I would have exceeded my allowed amount of storage.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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You can do that to a degree in the TB settings, emails will start out on the provider’s server, go to you, then you delete them from the provider’s server.  Or use POP if supported.

I use a subscription email service that works with IMAP, mailbox.org.  There are many similar.  I hate webmail, too lazy to login each time and most interfaces look like Unix 1980.

There are you and the sender, a few years ago I blocked all yahoo mailboxes ‘cuz BeautifulMarissa lost control of the whole dang thing and yahoo had all the emails I sent to yahoo friends with yahoomail.

You can host your own service.  What a pain.

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Oscar, AOL is now Verizon and this is on the website:

AOL is part of <span class=”info hover touched-once” data-tooltip=”Our owned and operated sites and apps, including our Yahoo offerings, HuffPost, Autoblog, Engadget, TechCrunch and AOL.These brands provide content, commerce and email services to hundreds of millions of users.”>Verizon Media</span>.

By clicking “Accept all“, you agree that Verizon Media and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies and process your personal data to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development.
<h3>Your personal data that may be used</h3>
<ul class=”content-list”>
<li class=”list-item”>Information about your device and Internet connection, including your IP address
<li class=”list-item”>Browsing and search activity while using Verizon Media websites and apps
<li class=”list-item”><span class=”info hover” data-tooltip=”Geolocation data that describes with reasonable specificity the actual physical location of an individual or device, such as GPS location.”>Precise location</span>

You can select ‘Manage settings‘ for more information and to manage your choices. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. Find out more about how we use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. Click here to find out more about our partners.

I think I would  have more confidence in Protonmail to protect my info.

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Anonymous, The latest I know about it, already some months ago, is that Verizon sold AOL to some financial company. My reason for keeping it as email provider is that I prefer not to have to change my address in many places where I have accounts, and also to notify many people and organizations that my address has changed. The future is now uncertain more than usual concerning AOL, as I see it, and I might have to decamp from it, but I have not found that necessary, yet.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Oscar – You are on 78.14.
(By the by, for anyone reading this – the Release Notes for 78.14 has this:
“Thunderbird 78.15.0, scheduled for October 5, will be the final 78.x release.”)

Has the problem resolved itself and not reappeared?

The “grayed-out Delete” is normal when one has selected either of the Thunderbird-defined Address Books (see next paragraph); that is, just the Address Book itself, without clicking on a Contact within the AB. In order to make a change to a Contact, one must select (left-click) an entry (contact) and click on Edit in the Menu Bar. (Or, double-click the contact.)

Do you have any user-created Address Books, that is, in addition to Personal Address Book and Collected Addresses?

When you are in the Address Book window, which heading (in the left pane) do you have selected: All, Personal, or Collected; or one that you created?

In which Address Book was/is the problem Contact? Does/did the problem occur only for one contact, or for more than one?

One debugging technique is to create an A/B comparison situation. Here, that would be to: Create a new Profile – it need not be much customized – and enter a Contact or two – and see if the problem can be reproduced.

From reviewing your descriptions above, I’m guessing that the contact is in Collected.
See: Tools > Options > Composition > {heading} Addressing

Make sure that your Address Book View settings are like this:

If you can’t see this, then: Alt+V .

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Oscar my email setup works for me without an email client because I do not store emails on my computer.  I get very few emails and if they are of value I copy them on my printer and delete them from my computer and store them in a physical file folder.

I realize that your needs are much different than mine as you have very valuable and numerous emails stored on your computer.  I hope Thunderbird works out for you and becomes stress free.  We all need for things to “just work”

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OscarCP

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I use TB for my Fastmail.com account however I have found that some housekeeping tasks must be done on the website

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Still don’t know, I created custom address books, they can be edited, too. I’m on 78.14 Windows.  Maybe just a Mac thing, nothing in forums still?

Windows version’s working well now, updates used to delete my add ons and refuse to reinstall them.

Themes can cause things to happen that seem completely unrelated.

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SallyBrown “Maybe just a Mac thing, nothing in forums still?”

Entirely possible, except that mine is TB for the Mac. And yes, definitely not in the forums, as my googling for news on this issue, with several different choices of keywords differently emphasized between quotation marks as “these ones”, or as “this one”, only has produced one relevant “hit” so far: this thread we are in right now …

And, furthermore, in case someone has not realized it already, I hate TB: It’s like the drunk that won’t leave one alone. But, worse still, I am the one that cannot leave it alone. Yet.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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I’ve discovered that the email addresses I cannot delete from Thunderbird are ones that are listed in the “Mac OS X Address Book”.  If I:

1. go to my Mac Contacts and
2. erase the contact that contains the email address I want to erase in Thunderbird
3. then restart Thunderbird
4. the address I was trying to erase in “Mac OS X Address Book” is now gone.

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OscarCP

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I had the same problem: emails would arrive from a colleague displaying the wrong name, but the correct email address. I traced it to a misplaced secondary email address in the MacOS contact for the wrong name. This could not be edited/deleted from Thunderbird’s address book. I deleted the extra email address in Mac Contacts. It was still in the Thunderbird address book until I restarted Thunderbird (as outlined by Anonymous). Then it was removed.

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I can’t edit my contacts anymore in Thunderbird Mail for Mac either. Very frustrating.

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