Cannot add a contact to a list in the address book

[Peter Holsberg]

My wife has several lists in her addressbook (TB 17.0.5).

When she adds a contact, she adds it to the main addressbook, then drags
a copy to the appropriate list.

Sometimes, an address refuses to be dragged! I.e., she drags it to the
list and releases the mouse button, but subsequent examination of the
list reveals that that address has not been added.

Is there a solution for this?

Thanks.

[g]

note - when a new contact window, at top of window, there is an
'Add to:' that can be used to select which address book to use.

i use this when i enter new contacts and it saves from having to
use drag and drop/

hth.

--

in a world with out fences, who needs gates.

tc. hago.

g
.

[Peter Holsberg]

g has written on 4/10/2013 12:00 PM:

>
> On 04/10/2013 10:18 AM, Peter Holsberg wrote:
>> My wife has several lists in her addressbook (TB 17.0.5).
>>
>> When she adds a contact, she adds it to the main addressbook, then drags
>> a copy to the appropriate list.
>>
>> Sometimes, an address refuses to be dragged! I.e., she drags it to the
>> list and releases the mouse button, but subsequent examination of the
>> list reveals that that address has not been added.
>>
>> Is there a solution for this?
>
> note - when a new contact window, at top of window, there is an
> 'Add to:' that can be used to select which address book to use.
>
> i use this when i enter new contacts and it saves from having to
> use drag and drop

But that does not work if one has lists under Personal Addressbook!

[g]

reading back thru original post, you use word _copy_. in my version of
thunderbird 17.0.5, 'drag and drop' does not copy, it actually moves
contact to new address book. [2 words]

so just which are you trying to do, move or copy?

if copy, you may have to use an add-on to copy.

[Chris Ramsden]

On 2013-04-10 22:43, g wrote:
>
> reading back thru original post, you use word _copy_. in my version of
> thunderbird 17.0.5, 'drag and drop' does not copy, it actually moves
> contact to new address book. [2 words]
>

Control+drag to copy.

--

Chris.

[Chris Ramsden]

On 2013-04-10 21:51, Peter Holsberg wrote:> g has written on 4/10/2013

Any inability to modify the Address Book suggests that the address book
file is corrupted. The usual fix described on the getsatisfaction
website is to export the affected address book to an LDIF file, delete
the address book, then re-import from the LDIF file.

Practically, if either PAB or CA are affected, you don't want any
duplicated address book names, and since the Personal Address Book and
Collected Addresses have a special status (cannot be easily deleted or
renamed), you may need to exit TB and remove the abook.mab (PAB) or
history.mab (CA) from your profile. When restarted, TB will create new
instances of these files. When you've imported your LDIF, move the
imported names back into the relevant address book, if required.

--

Chris.

[Peter Holsberg]

g has written on 4/10/2013 5:43 PM:

>
> On 04/10/2013 03:51 PM, Peter Holsberg wrote:
>> g has written on 4/10/2013 12:00 PM:
>>>
>>> On 04/10/2013 10:18 AM, Peter Holsberg wrote:
>>>> My wife has several lists in her addressbook (TB 17.0.5).
>>>>
>>>> When she adds a contact, she adds it to the main addressbook, then drags
>>>> a copy to the appropriate list.
>>>>
>>>> Sometimes, an address refuses to be dragged! I.e., she drags it to the
>>>> list and releases the mouse button, but subsequent examination of the
>>>> list reveals that that address has not been added.
>>>>
>>>> Is there a solution for this?
>>>
>>> note - when a new contact window, at top of window, there is an
>>> 'Add to:' that can be used to select which address book to use.
>>>
>>> i use this when i enter new contacts and it saves from having to
>>> use drag and drop
>>
>> But that does not work if one has lists under Personal Addressbook!
>

> reading back thru original post, you use word _copy_. in my version of
> thunderbird 17.0.5, 'drag and drop' does not copy, it actually moves
> contact to new address book. [2 words]
>

> so just which are you trying to do, move or copy?

Now you're just nit picking and you're not reading. :-)

1. "Sometimes, an address refuses to be dragged!" SOMETIMES. And the
dragging, when successful, results in a "copy", not a "move".

2. "...she drags it to the appropriate list." NOT ADDRESSBOOK. List.

She has one main addressbook (Personal) with several lists under it.
(She also has "Collected".)

The question is why doesn't her drag and drop work all the time.

Thanks.

[Peter Holsberg]

Chris Ramsden has written on 4/10/2013 5:50 PM:

Thanks, Chris. I'll have her try that.

[Peter Holsberg]

Chris Ramsden has written on 4/10/2013 6:01 PM:

<snip>

> Any inability to modify the Address Book suggests that the address book
> file is corrupted. The usual fix described on the getsatisfaction
> website is to export the affected address book to an LDIF file, delete
> the address book, then re-import from the LDIF file.
>
> Practically, if either PAB or CA are affected, you don't want any
> duplicated address book names, and since the Personal Address Book and
> Collected Addresses have a special status (cannot be easily deleted or
> renamed), you may need to exit TB and remove the abook.mab (PAB) or
> history.mab (CA) from your profile. When restarted, TB will create new
> instances of these files. When you've imported your LDIF, move the
> imported names back into the relevant address book, if required.

Thanks, Chris. Perhaps you missed where I said that this doesn't happen
all the time. So unless TB can repair its own AB, I don't think that
this is a case of a corrupted file.

[Chris Ramsden]

On 10 Apr 2013 23:21, "Peter Holsberg" <pj...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> Chris Ramsden has written on 4/10/2013 6:01 PM:
>
> <snip>
>

> > Any inability to modify the Address Book suggests that the address book
> > file is corrupted. The usual fix described on the getsatisfaction
> > website is to export the affected address book to an LDIF file, delete
> > the address book, then re-import from the LDIF file.
> >
> > Practically, if either PAB or CA are affected, you don't want any
> > duplicated address book names, and since the Personal Address Book and
> > Collected Addresses have a special status (cannot be easily deleted or
> > renamed), you may need to exit TB and remove the abook.mab (PAB) or
> > history.mab (CA) from your profile. When restarted, TB will create new
> > instances of these files. When you've imported your LDIF, move the
> > imported names back into the relevant address book, if required.
>

> Thanks, Chris. Perhaps you missed where I said that this doesn't happen
> all the time. So unless TB can repair its own AB, I don't think that
> this is a case of a corrupted file.

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Yes, but, I wasn't sure if the "every time" meant always the same address
book/mailing list.
--
Chris.

[WaltS]

Does the one that doesn't work have an email address?

I have many contacts in my address book without one, and they won't go
in a mailing list because they require an email address.

--
openSUSE 12.3 (64-bit) KDE 4.10.0
Thunderbird Release
April is Jazz Appreciation Month

[Peter Holsberg]

WaltS has written on 4/10/2013 7:46 PM:

>>>>> On 04/10/2013 10:18 AM, Peter Holsberg wrote:
>>>>>> My wife has several lists in her addressbook (TB 17.0.5).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> When she adds a contact, she adds it to the main addressbook, then drags
>>>>>> a copy to the appropriate list.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sometimes, an address refuses to be dragged! I.e., she drags it to the
>>>>>> list and releases the mouse button, but subsequent examination of the
>>>>>> list reveals that that address has not been added.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Is there a solution for this?
>

> Does the one that doesn't work have an email address?

It's a different one each time. Of course it has an email address! Why
would she add someone to a MAILING list if s/he didn't have an email
list??? (She's not blond. :-)

[WaltS]

It has been known to be attempted.

Anyway, maybe this bug?

<https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=282841>

or one on this list.

<http://preview.tinyurl.com/ct9n99k>

[Miles]

* WaltS wrote, On 11-Apr-13 06:46:

There are several entries in my email lists that do not have email
addresses. Why, because they contain everything else about the party
such as mailing addresses and phone numbers, etc. In other words it
is also used as an address book, not simply an email address book.

[WaltS]

I don't know Miles. When I create a Mailing List in an Address Book, the
only thing I see it ask for is an email address.

In my Thunderbird, I can't drag and drop *any* contact from an Address
Book into the test Mailing List I just created.

Congrats to Pete's wife who gets it to work sometimes. :)

--
openSUSE 12.3 (64-bit) KDE 4.10.0
Thunderbird Release

Quidditch World Cup VI is this weekend

[Chris Ramsden]

WaltS wrote:

> I don't know Miles. When I create a Mailing List in an Address Book,
> the only thing I see it ask for is an email address.
>
> In my Thunderbird, I can't drag and drop *any* contact from an
> Address Book into the test Mailing List I just created.
>
> Congrats to Pete's wife who gets it to work sometimes. :)
>

Drag and drop a Contact onto the closed Mailing List's icon.
--
Chris.

[Peter Holsberg]

Peter Holsberg has written on 4/10/2013 11:18 AM:

> My wife has several lists in her addressbook (TB 17.0.5).
>
> When she adds a contact, she adds it to the main addressbook, then drags
> a copy to the appropriate list.
>
> Sometimes, an address refuses to be dragged! I.e., she drags it to the
> list and releases the mouse button, but subsequent examination of the
> list reveals that that address has not been added.

Since any contact added to a mailing list under the Personal Addressbook
is automatically added to the Personal Addressbook, I've suggested to my
wife that she skip adding the new contact manually to the Personal AB
and add it directly to the desired mailing list.

[Mark12547]

In article <mailman.578.1365632408.9503.support-
thund...@lists.mozilla.org>, pj...@pobox.com says...

> Perhaps you missed where I said that this doesn't happen
> all the time. So unless TB can repair its own AB, I don't think that
> this is a case of a corrupted file.
>
>

At one point I had intermittant failed attempts to add a contact (WITH a
mailing address) to a mailing list and it turned out to be a corrupted
file.

I went through several steps to fix this based on some article I came
across, and the problem disappeared.

So, yes, it very well could be a corrupt file and still produce
inconsistent results.

[Peter Holsberg]

Mark12547 has written on 4/17/2013 3:06 PM:

> In article <mailman.578.1365632408.9503.support-
> thund...@lists.mozilla.org>, pj...@pobox.com says...
>> Perhaps you missed where I said that this doesn't happen
>> all the time. So unless TB can repair its own AB, I don't think that
>> this is a case of a corrupted file.
>
> At one point I had intermittant failed attempts to add a contact (WITH a
> mailing address) to a mailing list and it turned out to be a corrupted
> file.
>
> I went through several steps to fix this based on some article I came
> across, and the problem disappeared.

I had already exported the addressbook contents, deleted the old mab
file, and imported them.

[susan...@earthlink.net]

On Wednesday, April 10, 2013 8:18:38 AM UTC-7, Peter Holsberg wrote:

> Sometimes, an address refuses to be dragged! I.e., she drags it to the
>
> list and releases the mouse button, but subsequent examination of the
>
> list reveals that that address has not been added.>
>
>
> Is there a solution for this?

It's months later, but maybe this will help the next person. I have just discovered something strange, but the problem is solved.

I also had the problem of an address not copying itself into a mailing list. Very frustrating. The first thing to do is see if this problem is just related to one mailing list under an address book? If so, this solution will probably help you. If not (won't work for any lists under any address book) then this will not help you.

This is how I fixed it for myself:
1. Highlight the mailing list and RIGHT-CLICK it. Choose Properties.
2. You will see a list of the names on the mailing list. I was stunned to see included the names I had been dragging, since I was unable to see them in the window when the listname was highlighter on the left bar.
3. I saw a blank name field in the list. I thought: maybe this preventing all names on the list from being shown.
4. Highlight the blank field and delete it.
5. Now, when you go back to the normal view, with address books and lists in the left sidebar, when you highlight the mailing list, ALL names/addresses you dragged in there should be visible to you.

Hope this helps someone. It's a strange problem and I'm so glad I stumbled onto the solution.
Susan

[mar...@gmail.com]

Thanks Susan

I was gettting crazy because I did not know why the contact appeared in some mailing lists but not in others.

Your trick does solve the problem.

Thanks again

[freddy....@gmail.com]

Thank you for the fix. I've been getting that too. Frustrating. I just right clicked on the properties of the address book i wanted and cut the name/email out that was showing in that list even though it wasn't showing in the address book, pasted it back in and hit ok and it works

[dckab...@gmail.com]

Hi Susan -- Thank you so very much. I was having the exact same problem (i.e. correctly create a "new contact" but then never see it in the addressbook or the subfolder.) When I read your message, I immediately tried what you suggestion (i.e. (1) right click on folder; and then (2) look to see if there is a blank line just before the contact(s) you have been trying to add.) I looked and sure enought -- there was a blank space, which I then deleted, and the problem was fixed immediately.

Thanks again for your help. David (in Sacramento)

[murph...@gmail.com]

Hooray! +1 Susan, what an easy fix. Thanks