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How to select among multiple Mac contacts in distribution list?

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 22 views
  • Last reply by sfhowes

cymorrow
cymorrow
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I am switching from Mac Mail to Thunderbird as my main email handler. I prefer to keep and use my Mac Contacts which Thunderbird seems to import with no problems. However when there are multiple email addresses associated with a contact, I cannot select which one should be used when I use a group as a distribution list.

It is important that I continue to use Mac's addressbook as I use it with other applications such as Messages.

I am switching from Mac Mail to Thunderbird as my main email handler. I prefer to keep and use my Mac Contacts which Thunderbird seems to import with no problems. However when there are multiple email addresses associated with a contact, I cannot select which one should be used when I use a group as a distribution list. It is important that I continue to use Mac's addressbook as I use it with other applications such as Messages.

All Replies (3)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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I don't think there's any way around this, except to create multiple address book entries for the same contact, with the difference being just the Primary Email field in the contact Properties. For that purpose, the MoreFunctionsForAddressBook add-on adds an 'Edit as new' option to the right-click menu for a contact to make it easier to create copies.

cymorrow
cymorrow Question owner
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Thanks for your answer. How does Thunderbird determine which is the primary address field? Maybe I can just put the desired address in the primary field.

Which brings another question, if I update the Mac address book, what should I do to make sure I am using the updated version in Thunderbird.

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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TB contacts have an Email and Additional Email, with the former being the primary one. Both addresses are searched by the autocomplete function when you start typing in the To: box, but if you add a contact to a mailing list by drag and drop, the primary address is entered. Note that the add-on offers the option to store 5 additional emails in a contact.

I think TB reads the Mac address book, but if you change a contact in TB's address book, it isn't written to the Mac one. The issue seems to have a long history.