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Exporting your Thunderbird address book is useful if you want to back up your contacts. To do this, simply use the export function.
How to export your Thunderbird address book
You can export the Thunderbird address book in a variety of formats and thus import it into almost any other mail program.
- Open Thunderbird and click on the address book symbol in the left menu bar. Alternatively, press the key combination [Alt] + [2] or [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [B].
QHover the mouse pointer over the address book you want to export and click the icon with the dots. Select Export….
- Enter a path and file name for the export. Under “File type”, you can select the output format. In most cases, you should leave the default “Comma separated” as this format can be read by most programs.
- Click the Save button to export the address book. If you want to use the file as a backup, you should store it in a safe place.
How to reimport the address book into Thunderbird
For example, after a new installation of Thunderbird, you can reimport the previously backed up address book, thus making all the contacts it contains available again in the mail program.
- Start Thunderbird and open the address book, either by clicking on the corresponding icon in the left menu bar or by using the keyboard shortcut [Alt] + [2].
- Click on Import in the bottom left corner.
- Now select the format of your address book file. You can simply use the file extension as a guide. Click Next.
- Open the file from your data storage device.
- Select the address book you want to use to import the file. Click Next to proceed to the next step.
- Click the Start Import button to import the address book file into Thunderbird.
