From the address book menu bar select Tools-Export Name the file, select the file type to save and where to save it. As for mailng lists click the button labeled New List.

the new list worked well, but when I went to export & looked into files, most of my saved email folders were not there. As if my profile needs refreshed to catch the new changes?

You asked about saving the address book and now you are mentioning files and profile. What are you trying to do?

save my contacts/address book. when i clicked on export it opened my profile. looked at some of the files which were incomplete as to what shows up when i open tb 31.2. that's why i said they needed refreshed. sorry for the confusion.

Not sure what you are doing but it does not open your profile when you try to export an address book. You are in the address book window correct? Select the address book you want to export and then Tools-Export. A dialog box will open asking where you want to save the file. You have a box to name the file and a drop down box to select LDIF or comma separated file type.

in address book, selected address to export, tools-export, opened roaming/thunderbird/********.default. using 31.2 if that makes a difference but shouldn't.

it does show file name, saves ldif. but profile doesn't list a address book.

I am not sure what to tell you now. I am still using version 24.6 since they made such a mess of ver 31. Maybe someone else can come along and give your a hint.

thanks for helping, i liked the older version better, but had to update with new computer before getting old hd back so i at least i can do email. it does let me print but not save. thought computers were to save paper HA HA! thanks again!

This looks like an XY problem.

Firstly, no-one should ever need to ask how to "save" the address book in Thunderbird, because if all is well, you edit it and the changes are stored. There is no explicit action needed to save changes or additions.

If you are making changes to the address book and they don't "stick", then you probably have a corrupt address book, which is a slightly different problem. This might also feed into your query about mailing lists, because if you set one up and it isn't there next time, that's the "can't edit the address book" problem again.

I'm not aware of any difference in these procedures between TB24 and TB31. I think that's a red herring.

Airmail has told you how to export the address book (or part of it) which might be useful if you want a backup or to move it to another installation of Thunderbird.

So back to basics; when you ask about how to "save" the address book, what is happening, and what do you want to happen?

And this: "looked into files, most of my saved email folders were not there". What were you expecting to see?

Open 'Address Book' Select the address book you want to Export. Tools > Export

see first image below

This should open an 'Export address Book' window. Usually this chooses a generic file location which you may have accessed before to save files. See third image below. In your case, it sounds like you are seeing this window with the Profile shown instead. No worries, you just need to select the correct directory.

If you are seeing the Profile folder - you do not want to Export an address book into your Profile - it is already there as an mbox file. Do not select this location - you must choose a location outside of Thunderbird.

First you need to choose where to save the file. Select the correct directory and folder where you want to export the file to. Same as saving any document you need to choose where to save it. See second image as example on choosing a different location or use the left folder pane to select.

In my example - see third image below. I chose a folder I had previously created called My backup Files, it is a folder that is in the same place as Documents, Downloads etc. Give address book a suitable filename. Save as Type: choose either LDIF or comma separated .csv click on Save button.

i expected to see all of my contacts/address book entries. i think i understand you saying that the profile shown is just a recent place & i have to select a destination? will try later, work calls! thanks!