I have not used the regular TB address books for some time, so I am not sure I can help. I use a TB plugin called Cardbook that is much more powerful, and makes it easy to sync contacts with my Google account and then across all devices. The address book for version 102 is supposed to be upgraded quite a bit. There may still be some small gremlins in it. I suspect that the lists you had were maintained with a flag on the main contact in the address book. You might have deleted the duplicates that had the flags. Perhaps you could try creating the lists again from your cleaned up address book.

If you want better help, the best thing is to search the forum to see if someone else is having a similar problem, or post a new question yourself specifically about the address book issue. Different people respond on the forum to different issues, so it is better to create or add to a new post that fits the specific issue you have.

As I noted, I suggest creating a new tread for this. If you import multiple times, you are likely to get duplicates. I don't believe TB will recognize and clean up duplicates as it imports. Cardbook does have a feature to help find and remove duplicates.

Given all your issues, Iwould be very cautious about deleting anything, including what you think may be duplicates.

And make sure you have backups of everything, even double backups.

Backup of address book is easy - right+click on an address book and pick export.

Hi ! Same issues here :-( Twice or more a week: stop TB, go to profiles directory and delete all .msf files there (plus nstmp-* files ...) And loose all preferences on TB folders :---(((( Any solution in sight ?

Thanks anyway for TB, I have been a long time user, and this is the 1rst serious bug i am confronted to.

Just upgraded to 102.2.1, which was never proposed to me ??? (i was 'up to date' with 102.0.0 ...) Wait & see ...

Just to update from me. I just checked. My TB v is 102.0.3 and shows I "can" update to 102.2.1. But I choose not to. Now for the good news. My TB seems to be back to normal. And I don't have any problems to mention here. However, I must ask JoelS: How did it update without you allowing it to? That's what happened to me back when it went from 96 to 102. That was when I started to have all the trouble. I just wish there were a way to go back to a prior version when and if a current update causes trouble. Even if it means "uninstall and reinstall". There must be some way for TB to allow updates only by permission. That might help this a bit. That way, someone may update and report any issues. The rest of us can wait a day or a week before updating. To see if anyone else has trouble.

If you go into TB settings on the General page fairly far down, set the "notify me of TB updates but let me decide when to install them." TB will then give you the messages you are getting about available updates, but it should not make the update unless you click to allow it. Some people are saying they were automatically upgraded anyway. There may be some issues in TB, but I have never been automatically updated with that setting.

The newer versions of TB are even more stable than your 102.0.3. It is true that the first few versions of TB 102 had more problems that one generally sees from the TB development team. However, it was a major upgrade, and those things sometimes happen because there are so many different computer configurations that users have. Now that we are past those initial pains, I would make the upgrade. The latest version 102.2.1 says it fixes an issue with compacting folders in certain situations. The reason for the problems with reverting back is that TB 102.* was a major upgrade that added many new features and had to change the profile itself to work properly. Until we get to another major version upgrade, you would be able to say uninstall TB 102.2.1 and reinstall TB 102.0.3. This would not cause any problems unless your profile was otherwise corrupted because they both use the new profile initiated with the 102 series.

While it can make some sense for especially a home user to wait a few days before installing a new update, in general I believe it is better to stay fairly current. They are always fixing security weaknesses, for example, and other things that could cause issues. It is always best to have a backup just in case any time you make upgrades in any software.

MarkL: I did check the general page "Check for updates, but let me choose whether to install them." I also have checked "Use a background service to install updates." Is that correct? And that has been the setting for years. And that setting was in place when TB automatically updated me from 96 to 102 and caused all the problems. Just as you started this on 7/1. Now you say to uninstall 102.0.1 and ? newly install 102.2.1? I can't just install 102.2.1 without uninstalling 102.0.1? Is this necessary for each update? I don't remember having to uninstall anything before? Or am I confusing this with something else? You and everyone else keeps saying "backup". But that is my Achilles heel. The procedure is too darn complicated for me. I get all mixed up trying to backup. It was pure miracle that I was able to find out how to export the address book. That I couldn't do that from the main "All Address Books" and had to export each individual book. Of which I have 5 plus the collected one. As a layman, why was that so complicated? Instructions should be "step by step" with NO MISTAKES. Example: You said "If you go into TB settings on the General page fairly far down, set the "notify me of TB updates but let me decide when to install them." When you should say "Go to Tools, and under Settings, go to General. Scroll down quite a way to Updates and click "Check for Updates...." And also mention about the background service - is that necessary or not? Yes, I oversimplify things. But I'm not the only one reading this. And others may not grasp things as fast as you. I can be very slow when it comes to instructions. K.I.S.S. is a valuable standard! Now - this is not criticism. It's just that TB is not for amateurs. One needs quite a bit of PC experience to maneuver TB. (Does your grandma understand all this?) So can you or anyone simplify the backup?

Sorry I gave you more than you need. The setting "notify me and let me decide" is the proper one. As I understand it, the "use a background process to install updates" will allow TB to install updates without having you go through the windows updater box that asks you for permission to change things on the computer. TB should still not update unless you clicked to update. However, you might have gotten the TB update window, and clicked to go ahead by accident without really noticing it. You might remove the option for a background process so you will get another chance to stop any updates when Windows asks for permission.

You do not need to do uninstalls when you update to a newer version. You can update to TB 102.2.1 by simply checking the update box when it appears, or by downloading the new version from the website and executing it. What I indicated is, if you did not like the new version and wanted to go back to an older version that uses the same profile, I would uninstall the new one and then install the old one. For example, if you updated to TB 102.2.1, and then decided to back to TB 102.1.0, I would uninstall the TB 102.2.1 before installing the older version TB 102.1.0. Normally, you would not want to go backward unless you had some major issues.

As for backups, I guess the process for finding the profile and saving it is not as simple as it could be. What I do, and I suggest you do, it get a program that makes full image backups of the operating disk on your computer -- and then periodically make those backups. Most programs allow you to save the entire disk, and they also allow you to make an incremental backup, e.g. a new file with just the changes from the last backup. That way you can restore anything you might lose on your computer, and even restore the entire operating drive if it suffers a major crash. The incremental backups just allow you to save more often without taking up as much space. When you restore, the restore program will need the latest full backup file and any incremental files to have all the information it needs to restore. I use a program called Macrium Reflect that works very well. I have a paid version, but the free version would probably be fine for you. There are several others that are recommended. You would need to become familiar with the details of backing up and restoring both the entire disk or individual files and folders. The best place to save such backups is probably one of those small USB disk drives that are relatively inexpensive.

For TB, the new version 102 has an option under Tools>Export to export your entire profile into a Zip file. If I click that, it suggests I not use the feature because my profile is larger than 2 GB. If you don't have that issue, it is an easy way to save your TB profile. There is an equivalent option to import a profile Zip file. This is a new feature included in version 102. You can also find your profile folder by clicking on the 3 bar menu in the upper right, then on Help>More Troubleshooting Information. Select the about:profiles and it will show you the profiles. Select the one named root folder and open folder. This will actually open inside the folder. If you then use the up arrow in Windows Explorer to go up one in the folder tree, you will see the profile folder. You can save that folder and everything in it by simply copying and pasting to some other location or device.

I hope this helps. Computers are, unfortunately, more complicated than they should be. It appears to me from your interactions, however, that you have managed to learn what you need to learn, as long as you had some instructions and guidance. There will usually be people on forums like this one willing to help.

OK. I removed the check mark for background checks. I will still wait a day or so before updating. I was able to download the zip, and it's 1.9 GB. Just barely made it. LOL So I'm taking a break/stop to this. Should I save that zip on a flash drive? And then, do I need anything else? Your option isn't necessary since I have the zip?

As I understand, the zip file should contain all of your profile. So you should be OK as far as Thunderbird goes. Saving on a flash drive should be good. Just remember to make new backups from time to time so you are fairly up to date. Since I believe you have IMAP accounts, if you have to restore from the backup, anything that came after you made the backup should sync down from the server.

MarkL: I certainly do thank you. At this point, I think I'm OK and we can cancel this thread. What was funny was that I used a 2GB flash drive and that profile just barely fit. So now I have to find another flash drive a little larger to provide for future expansion. A 2GB with 1.9GB of data don't leave much room for anything else. LOL Thanks again.

Flash drives are cheap. Get at least an 8 GB one. It might work OK for profiles larger than 2 GB. However, the TB developers apparently do not suggest that. Remember, you can always just copy the profile folder to the flash drive.

This thread is out of control occupying four pages and covering multiple issues and as this latest discussion appear to have reached a resolution I am going to lock further postings on this topic.

The general stand in this forum is if the information in a thread does not fix your problem, post a new topic and that is what I suggest here.