[Users] Claws-Mail Address Book problem

[Abhay S. Kushwaha]

Excerpts from Ken's mail of Tue, 14 Jul 2015 13:41:34 +0100:

> the address book couldn't be read.
> but the address book was empty.
> 
> In /home/myavatar/.claws-mail/addrbook there are forty files named
> in the form addrbook-00000x where x is an integer, some with
> suffix .xml.bak and some with .xml.
> 
> Can someone show me how to get the files back into my address book
> other than by copying individually - it would take me days?

No idea what caused this. But here is how you could fix it. There are
maybe other ways of doing it.

1. Exit Claws-Mail.

2. Open addrbook--index.xml from your .claws-mail folder in text
   editor. It is in this format:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<addressbook>
  <book_list>
    <book name="List 1" file="addrbook-000001.xml" />
  </book_list>
</addressbook>

   Each "name" is the sub-book name that shows up in the Address book
   window. The "file" is the name of the xml file with email
   addresses.

3. Open up the addrbook-00000x in a text editor, and see which ones
   you want. Add a line in the addrbook--index.xml file for each
   good one, making sure there is a proper "name" and "file"
   references the right file.

    <book name="List 1" file="addrbook-000001.xml" />
    <book name="List 2" file="addrbook-000002.xml" />
    <book name="List 3" file="addrbook-000003.xml" />

   etc. :)

4. Save the addrbook-index.xml file.

5. Start Claws.

HTH.

PS: An easier way could be to create 1 line for each of the
    addrbook-0000x files and then loading up Claws-Mail and going
    through the 40-odd address books that show up and deleting the
    ones you don't need. But this is in theory -- I haven't tried it.
    So YMMV. ;)

[a]