Logon to Gmail webmail account using a browser. Select Contacts at the top of the left panel. Select 'More' and Click 'Export'. Select 'Outlook CSV' from the formatting options. Click 'Export' to generate the contacts.csv file and save on eg:desktop or 'downloads' folder

In Thunderbird Open 'Address Book' 'Tools' > 'Import' An 'Import' window opens. Select 'Address Books' and click on 'next' select 'Text file (LDIF, .tab, .csv, .txt) and click on 'Next' Locate and select the saved .csv file and click on 'Open' Another window now asks you to map the gmail contact fields with the left Thunderbird fields. Use the 'Move up' and 'move down' buttons to align the fields correctly. click on 'OK' Click on 'finish'

the question was did it solve my problem Reply will be did it **** as like At the top of left panel - oh right - there was no button that could / would help

So via Settings I tried a job of my own and as you would have expected NO SUCCESS which is why I enquired of Mozilla - a mistake not to0 be repeated Patricia

You may have better luck importing a vcf file than a csv:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1148390