Importing contacts from Thunderbird to Windows Mail

Dad recently bought a new computer. Before he finished with the old one I backed up his firefox and thunderbird profiles. Ive managed to import his favorites to IE and his old emails to windows mail. But ive not been able to find out how to import/convert thunderbird .mab files to windows mail or windows contact format.

Any ideas?

Hi swarfega,

Have a look at the following webpage for details on exporting Thunderbird address book files: Export Thunderbird's Address Books and Contacts. Select a format that is compatible, i.e. CSV or LDIF. Save the files in their converted form. I suggest that you give them a slightly different name. Alternatively, backup the original files to removeable media prior to converting them. To import the files into Windows Mail, click on 'File', highlight 'Import' and click on 'Windows Contacts...'. Click either 'CSV (Comma Separated Values)' or 'LDIF (LDAP server)' and then click on 'Import'.

The think is though, he doesnt have Thunderbird installed at the moment and Id rather not complicate things for him by installing another email client. So really I need a utility that is able to convert the actual mab files.

I spent half an hour this evening trying to find a suitable program but the majority were geared for converting in the other direction for Thunderbird users.

Hi swarfega,

Do you still have access to his old machine? If so, follow the instructions in my previous post and save the resultant files to a USB memory stick plugged into the old machine (also save the files in the original format just in case something goes awry so that you still have access to them). Then simply plug the USB memory stick into the new machine and transfer the files that way. Alternatively, try opening the .MAB files in Notepad to see if you can extract at least some of the data that way. If neither method works, then you might have to resort to installing Thunderbird on the new machine so that you can access these files again. If there are only a few contacts, then it is also possible to set them up in Contacts from scratch, providing you have the necessary details to hand. The easiest method would be to reinstall Thunderbird and do it from there. Once you have successfully transfered the data over, you can uninstall Thunderbird if you so wish.

Thanks, looks like I may have to install Thunderbird.