I can no longer directly access my main address book which is located in abook.mab via Tools/Address Book. The only address book available via Tools/Address Book is Personal Address Book with 32 entries -- but not abook.mab which has 107 KB of addresses. I can 
see abook.mab using Explorer in the proper directory; and (b) when typing in email addresses the auto-complete function is accessing data from that file. I've looked at the import address book function, but that is apparently only useful for importing addresses from non-Thunderbird sources (Outlook, etc.) into whatever address book is open.
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Address Book Cannot Be Accessed
August 30, 2010 - 4:33pm
#1
Address Book Cannot Be Accessed
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What changed that caused you to no longer be able to see your address book? Did you move from regular, installed Thunderbird to Thunderbird Portable? Did you upgrade your Thunderbird Portable version?
Nothing changed that I know of. I've been using Thunderbird Portable for many, many months, if not years. I haven't upgraded my Thunderbird Portable for many months. I'm using verion 3.0.6 w/ Windows 7.
wdahms
So it just stopped working, just like that? File is corrupt then or the drive? Can you open the file in Notepad?
No, it didn't "just stop working." It stopped being visible when I select "Address Book" from the top line menu when I am in TB.
1. I can still use the names and addresses in terms of the auto-complete function when typing in email addresses into address lines of outgoing emails.
2. The abook.mab file is still listed in the appropriate place in my directory which I can see using MS Explorer.
3. However, I cannot access it via the "Address Book" menu on the top line of TB.
4. I've tried to use the "Tools/Import" function when my "Personal Address" is on the screen to load a saved copy of the file (672KB) that I have on my Desktop in an LDIF file. It appears to work, i.e., the message "Addresses successfully imported from Text File" appears on the screen, but after clicking on "Finish" nothing other than the current Personal Address book w/ only 32 entries remains on my screen.
wdahms
I would do following in such case.
1.back up the whole Thunderbirdportable folder in case something would go wrong
2. take the original installer package, you can take the version you are using or the latest one, it is version 3 anyway and simply install it over the current version .
I will not destroy any data, just the files of the actual software should be replaced by clean and working once.
It is quite possible, that some small file will become corrupt on a flash drive after some extensive use. Much more likely then it would be on a hard drive for example.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland