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default address book for contacts sidebar in Thunderbird 38 (bug 1142705)

  • 43 replies
  • 128 have this problem
  • 34 views
  • Last reply by Geert-Emo

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Thunderbird 38.0.1 Windows 7.1 Click on "Write". Contacts side bar opens with "All Address Books" as default. It used to default to the LAST USED Address Book. [I've only noticed this new behavior in the last few days.] No matter which address book I select, Write now always opens with "All Address Books". ["All Address Books" displays a combined list of ALL the contacts in ALL the address books]. How do it get it to default to the 'last used' address book please?

Thunderbird 38.0.1 Windows 7.1 Click on "Write". Contacts side bar opens with "All Address Books" as default. It used to default to the LAST USED Address Book. [I've only noticed this new behavior in the last few days.] No matter which address book I select, Write now always opens with "All Address Books". ["All Address Books" displays a combined list of ALL the contacts in ALL the address books]. How do it get it to default to the 'last used' address book please?

Modified by Wayne Mery

All Replies (20)

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Thanks for poisting this. It is a reported bug with the contacts sidebar. We hope it wil be fixed in 38.1.0 or 38.2

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How long does it take them to fix their screw up?

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jondough said

How long does it take them to fix their screw up?

Maybe you should demand your money back. <=(sarcasm)

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Well Wayne I have 38.1.0 and it's not fixed. How long before 38.2 comes out?

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I think this is bug 1142705. It has a draft patch but isn't finalized and I think the developer that is going to volunteer to finish it is on vacation. It may or may not make version 38.2. We'll know more next week.

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Would be nice if their spam filter was as good as yahoo mail. To have to "allow" everyone you want email from is a PITA.

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Dear Wayne,

"next week" is already two weeks ago and the bug still exists (version 38.2.0), so I wonder if there is any news yet?

Hope to be hearing from you. Best regards, Geert-Emo

Modified by Geert-Emo

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It's pretty well stalled. Might not even make the next one in 4 weeks. But I'll try to move it along

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Don't work up a sweat over it. :(

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Wayne Mery said

It's pretty well stalled. Might not even make the next one in 4 weeks. But I'll try to move it along

Much appreciated if it can be pushed a bit - it's getting to be a real pain. Thanks.

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jondough said

Would be nice if their spam filter was as good as yahoo mail. To have to "allow" everyone you want email from is a PITA.

Seriously. What are you talking about? I have been around Thunderbird for a fair while now and that comment does not match anything I know or have ever heard about the Thunderbird junk filter. It does match what I have heard about the Yahoo one and what I have heard about the one with McAfee anti virus.

Most support complaints are about it being to relaxed and allowing through what people just don't want. So I am genuinely lost by your comment.

I will also post a link to Bug 1142705 so everyone can follow what is happening. Then regular update posts will not be required. I do counsel against posting on the bug. Impatience is not going to do more that p$%%^& to developer that is volunteering their time off. Posts to Bugzilla should generally only occur if you have something to offer that will assist in completing the bug. Me too type comments just get under everyone's skin.

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By pure happenstance I find myself with a rather visually stand-out contact address in "Collected Addresses" that comes up at the top of even the "All Address Books" list. A happy result of this has been that it cues my memory about the issue we're discussing here, thus prompting me to change to my preferred address book.

I mention this because, while for me it hardly rises to anything like "a real pain," it occurs to me that if it did, I might invent an eye-catching, dummy email address that would appear at the top of the list and remind me to choose my preferred address book before proceeding.

It's a work-around that fell in my lap and that I could easily live with for as long as necessary.

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Sorry for not following your brilliant idea, but I'm glad for you that you do not need a fix for this bug!

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Contontos said

By pure happenstance I find myself with a rather visually stand-out contact address in "Collected Addresses" that comes up at the top of even the "All Address Books" list. A happy result of this has been that it cues my memory about the issue we're discussing here, thus prompting me to change to my preferred address book. for as long as necessary.

Yes, the same thing happened here too, as I have an identical "Dummy" address at the top of each of my addressbooks and now they all show up at the top of "All Address Books".

"Pain" was not the best choice of words on my part - "annoyance" is better - it IS annoying!

I'm curious though as to what happened to change the default - I'm certain that no one would have made that sort of change by design. It was working perfectly well before, so what happened?

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Wayne Mery said

Thanks for poisting this. It is a reported bug with the contacts sidebar. We hope it wil be fixed in 38.1.0 or 38.2

How do I revert back to a previous version where the contact list came up first?

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I am amazed how software programmers can take a perfectly good program and "upgrade it" and make it worse. Then take forever to fix it.

Proper software makes it easier, less keystrokes, for the end user not more keystrokes.

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"How do I revert back to a previous version where the contact list came up first?"

Now there is a fast fix. Just reissue the program that worked.
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jondough said

"How do I revert back to a previous version where the contact list came up first?" Now there is a fast fix. Just reissue the program that worked.

I don't know how you revert back to the version where the contact list came up first, but you can recognize it by the fact that it will require you to highlight and then type Ctrl+V to insert a link into text. The current version requires only copy-and-paste. I hope you find this helpful, but not the hand-wringing-insomniac kind of hope: more the wouldn't-it-be-nice-if-that-person-weren't-suffering, kind of hope.

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Dickel said

Contontos said
Yes, the same thing happened here too, as I have an identical "Dummy" address at the top of each of my addressbooks and now they all show up at the top of "All Address Books".

Having the same addresses in each address book seems considerably more labor intensive than creating just one to cue the memory, but okay.

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Contontos said

Dickel said
Contontos said
Yes, the same thing happened here too, as I have an identical "Dummy" address at the top of each of my addressbooks and now they all show up at the top of "All Address Books".

Having the same addresses in each address book seems considerably more labor intensive than creating just one to cue the memory, but okay.

Not at all. The identical addresses were 'pre-existing' (years). As previously mentioned, "happenstance" (the All Address Books quirk) brought the 3 together - I didn't need to do anything!

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