This question came up before.

1. In the Help menu (press Alt when not visible) or menu button > Help, select Troubleshooting Information
2. Click the Open Folder button. Close Thunderbird, rename the file impab.mab for anything you like really.
3. Restart Thunderbird.

I could not even find impab.mab!! history asks what app to open? Help with this please.

By default, Thunderbird only knows about the abook.mab and history.mab address book files (Personal address book and Collected addresses), unless you modify the prefs.js configuration file to tell it about others. The impab.mab file is an imported address book, so the question would be why Thunderbird asks for impab.mab. Does the same thing happen if you run Thunderbird in Safe Mode? If so, an add-on could be causing it, or perhaps something went wrong there during a previous import step?

More info can be found in this reply at the techguy forum. You could try the solution mentioned in that topic: create a new address book called e.g. Test Using File > New > Address Book, add no contacts, close Thunderbird, then rename the newly created file (that you just created and is likely called abook-1.mab) to impab.mab and restart Thunderbird.

Unable to load address book file history.mab. It may be read-only, or locked by another application. Please try again later. This is the message I am receiving. Please help.

You reposted your question, so please see the same answer and follow the steps, and try to respond to any questions asked.

If they are unclear, please post what you did not understand.

Unable to load address book file impab.mab. It may be read-only, or locked by another application. Please try again later.

Unable to load address book file history.mab. It may be read-only, or locked by another application. Please try again later. This is the message I am receiving. Please help.

The second message above is the one I am getting and question I submitted last. Note: address book file history.mab and not address book file impab.mab. Are they one and the same? Can you help me.

Sorry, I overlooked that - your message looked very similar at first glance.

Please provide more info, as just the error message itself isn’t always enough to help out.

- Did you update Thunderbird recently and if so, from a very old version to the current version? (See Options > Advanced panel > Update tab > Show Update History.) - What is your current Thunderbird version? - Does the issue occur in Thunderbird’s Safe Mode? - What add-ons do you have installed, and have they updated recently? - Did Windows update recently? - Did you migrate from e.g. Windows XP to WIndows 10? - Do you still see address book entries in the Address book, either Personal, Collected or Imported? - Do you use any security or antivirus software and if so, what is it?

Please keep this in mind: Thunderbird knows of 2 files by default, as posted above. If you imported an address book, there is a third one, hence the 2 questions in my second post - we really need to know. All 3 files are loaded by Thunderbird if available (or 2 by default), and if they can’t be found, are read-only or corrupt, the error can occur.

Also have a look at this thread at the mozillaZine forum - note that issue started with the default abook.mab and expanded to history.mab too and eventually involved a different path setting. Alltogether, I hope you get the point of different causes - we need to know more in order to know how to fix this, e.g. by "fooling" Thunderbird, and if possible, wat caused it, or keeps causing it if the issue returns.

Also, please make sure to repond to these questions.

Last security update was 8/18/2017 and was successfully installed. Do not use safe mode. Current version is: 52.2.1. No Windows update lately.Use Windows 10. I still see the address book entry only in Personal. (I used to have Collected and it disappeared). Use Kaspersky. Noticed in my profile: history.map modified 9/12/2016 9:34 a.m. MAB file 16KB. The folder is blank and when clicked on get asked "How do you want to open this file? Look for an app. I do not see any MAB files in my profile.

blandpa said

Last security update was 8/18/2017 and was successfully installed.

Did you update from e.g. a very old version, such as Thunderbird 2? (I asked because that may have used older file names for these files.) There is also a 52.3.0 meanwhile, but I’m not aware of (fixed) issues with regard to the address book(s).

Do not use safe mode.

You should - it was a question, as starting it will immediately tell you if an issue is caused by an add-on, as the article explains.

I still see the address book entry only in Personal. (I used to have Collected and it disappeared).

That’s why you get the history.mab error.

Use Kaspersky.

I wont start pointing at Kaspersky nor am aware of issues it may cause in this area, but did find a question with a similar issue where someone expressed their feelings on security software in general, naming Kaspersky, but also Windows. I would therefor disable it entirely before trying anything else. Antivirus software causes more issues than one would think - I don’t use it for that reason, or if installed on any system, to manually scan for downloaded files at most, nothing else.

Noticed in my profile: history.map modified 9/12/2016 9:34 a.m.

Are you sure this is called history.map?

MAB file 16KB. The folder is blank and when clicked on get asked "How do you want to open this file? Look for an app.

Is that history.mab? The file size sounds fine. However and in general (please remember), you should not click files if you don’t know what you are doing - that’s the way to get viruses doing what they were designed for. The .mab files are text files not to be used by users, and even though they contain readable text and can be opened with a text editor, they should be opened by Thunderbird, but not by clicking on them from a file explorer.

I do not see any MAB files in my profile.

That sounds contrary to the above, and at least abook.mab should still be there if you still see your personal address book.

Anyhow, it may be best to do the following, provided that you have no valuable info (addresses) in lost address books.

1. Create a new Thunderbird profile and launch it, but don’t set up anything.
2. Open the profile folder for that profile (use Help > Troubleshooting Information > Click "Open Folder"), and close Thunderbird
3. Copy history.mab from that profile folder and paste it into the current/regular profile folder.
4. Launch Thunderbird with the regular profile.

At least Thunderbird should now find an undamaged / default / empty history (file) for Collected addresses and no longer complain. Its content should be rebuilt at some point since Thunderbird will scan your mailboxes and collect any addresses found.

Does the error still occur?

I will do the Safe Mode. Also, the abook.mab file also has the blank file folder and when clicked asked the same re: app to use. I do have the It is history.mab file - my error. I have no mab files at all in profile.

This may be my last attempt before I give up. I don’t want to be rude, but you were given instructions multiple times and do not seem to get the point. If you are uncomfortable with using computers, please ask a friend or relative for assistance to follow them and help you out.

I will do the Safe Mode.

This is good, but may no longer be necessary at this stage if you are sure the files are not present. Just remember to do this as a first step when running into future issues. The only question will be "does the same happen in Safe Mode"? (If not, the issue is likely caused by an add-on or theme.)

Also, the abook.mab file also has the blank file folder and when clicked asked the same re: app to use.

This makes no sense. A file "has no folder". Also, I told you NOT to doubleclick files. A computer is not a device to click on here and there and expect it to do "something" that you don’t know what it is, nor the application it belongs to. Even though the file belongs to Thunderbird, it is not a registered file type for the application, and hence Thunderbird will not open an address book, nor solve your issue.

I do have the It is history.mab file - my error.

Good. Where is it?

I have no mab files at all in profile.

Again, this is contrary, as you just wrote you found a history.mab. The file should be in your main profile folder, which is likely the folder that looks like xxxxxxxx.default. You need to be sure you are in the right profile folder.

Please retry the previous steps in my last post. I just tried and it worked. Slightly adapted:

1. Create a new Thunderbird profile as instructed in Use multiple profiles in Thunderbird and launch it, but don’t set up anything - click Skip Integration and I think I'll configure my account later button. For running the Profile Manager, you can simply add -p to your current startup shortcut for Thunderbird like the link(s) on that page show, or to a copy of that shortcut.
2. Open the profile folder for the Thunderbird running with that profile (use Help > Troubleshooting Information > Click "Open Folder"), and close Thunderbird.
3. You should see 2 files called abook.mab and history.mab, both sized 1402 bytes. These are the default files you need.
4. Copy history.mab from that profile folder and paste it into the current/regular profile folder for you regular profile.
5. Launch Thunderbird with the regular profile.

If all is OK, you can choose to delete the profile you just created using the Profile Manager, but you should be very careful not to delete the regular one.

Hey I'm also having this problem too after Tbird automatically updated this morning to Tbird 52 on my powermac running OSX ElCapitan 10.11.6.

Not only am I getting this same error message above when I restart, but my address book window in TBird says there are no Mac address book contacts when in fact I have over 2000.

Plus my collected email addresses don't seem to auto-propagate the address field even though the address book window says I have over 4000 collected addresses and can see them in there.

Have restarted TBird several times since the upgrade without it correcting these problems. Get that same darn error message above with each restart. Been a faithful Tbird user for about 15 years on Mac with many software updates and never have had a problem like this ever before. Usually everything on TBird Mac goes smoothly, this really is frustrating.

HELP! Now my entire collected emails address book is missing! Thunderbird this is really annoying and frustrating in the middle of my extremely busy work day and work flow. Is there I way I can downgrade back to the previous version before the automatic vers52 update that happened today? I just need the software to work