[Users] Solved: import address book from previous version

[RON SCHWIESOW]

On Mon, 14 Oct 2019 08:37:00 -0000
Paul <claws at thewildbeast.co.uk> wrote:

> On Mon, 14 Oct 2019 04:40:26 +0000
> RON SCHWIESOW <nanron62 at msn.com> wrote: 
> 
> > I am trying to import my address book from Claws Mail 3.11.1 to a
> > new installation of Claws Mail 3.17.3 in Debian Linux Bullseye. I
> > have the old files from the backup copied in the
> > new .claws-mail/addrbook/addrbook-00000n.xml where n runs 1 to 9.
> > The files look OK. When I try the Tools>Address book>Tools>Import
> > LDIF with the book name and the file name, I receive the message
> > Bad file format. I tried changing the file extension to .ldif, but
> > receive the same error.  
> 
> They're not LDIF files, that's why.
> 
> The address book files should be listed in the file
> addrbook--index.xml, which is in the same location as the files it
> lists. Presumably this file was not part of your backup.
> 
> In the index file you will see a  <book_list> ... </book_list>
> section. Within this section are items referencing your address book
> files. e.g.:
> 
> <book name="Common Address" file="addrbook-000001.xml" />
> 
> You can edit this manually while Claws Mail is not running.
> 
> with regards
> 
> Paul
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Paul,

Thank you! That was the information that set me straight. My index file
was corrupted by reinstall attempts. One additional kink to work out
was that I was editing the index file with Libreoffice Writer. I needed
to save the file as .txt and edit the file name to .xml in order for
Claws Mail to read it successfully.

Ron