7.01 address book doesn't work

The address book in 7.01 will not work -- cannot add an entry, import, export . The compose button is the only one that brings up anything. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Tried the "address book disappeared" solution at Netscape Solutions, but I can't export in .LDIF, possibly because there's no data showing in the book. I do see entries when reading the abook.mab file in Notepad. Help, please.

 

Hi lee2000,

Try this, since you can't export:

Manually Copy the Netscape 6.x and/or 7.x Address Book

Do you have a backup of your Profiles Folder? If so, copy the abook.mab from your backup, to the *.slt Folder, replacing the corrupt abook.mab.

Ramona

 

Thanks. Unfortunately manually copying the address book didn't help -- I still have a blank book that won't accept new information.
The newly created address book saved as abook.mab, not abook-1.mab (which was already there but also empty).
My backup abook.mab is probably corrupt, too, as it was made after the problems began.

 

Hi Lee,

Tell me the names of the *.mab files you have in your *.slt Folder.

Which of the files contain the Addresses.

Is you backup abook.mab current?

Let me know, and we will go from there.

Ramona

 

The .mab files are: abook.mab, abook-1.mab, history.mab, impab.mab, impab-1.mab, impab-2.mab, verisign.mab, and Xabook.mab. The abook.mab and Xabook.mab have the address data in them (when read in notepad) but it does not appear in the address book.

The backup is current. Actually, there are only a few email addresses stored in the file. I could recreate it without a problem if repairing the address book meant losing the data.

 

Hi Lee,

When you open the Address Book (if you can now open it) how many Address Books do you see listed? Are there addresses in the Collected Addresses AB?

Ramona

 

When I click the Address Book from the Window menu or from the icon in the lower-left corner, an empty address book comes up -- no entries, no lists of books. My preferences aren't set to collect addresses so my incoming/outgoing email isn't adding to it.

 

Hi Lee,

I have been trying to create your exact issue today. What I did to get a working Address Book, and what I would like you to try:

Move these files from your *.slt Folder. What I mean by "move" is to create another folder on your HD. Name it whatever... ABbackup, etc. Open your *.slt folder and remove these files:

abook.mab
abook-1.mab
Xabook.mab

Paste these files into the newly created ABbackup folder on the HD. I want to ensure is that you have NO abook*.mab files in your *.slt folder other than your security and IMAP Accts.

Now... open Netscape, so a new Address Book will be created.
Open the Address Book
You should see these two listings
Personal Address Book
Collected Addresses
There will be nothing in either Address Book

Close Netscape

In Windows Explorer browser to, and open the *.slt Folder
Open the abook.mab file
Delete the entire contents of the file
Leave the empty file open

Browse to the ABbackup Folder
Open the abook.mab file - the one with all the Address data
Copy the entire contents of the file and paste into the empty abook.mab file
Save the file

Open Netscape
Your Address Book should be intact with all addresses accessible

I went through this entire workaround, and it did work for me.

If no joy, then the only alternative that you have is to create a new Profile, and hope for the best.... OR ... recreate your Address Book.

Ramona

 

thank you

Thank you for all your suggestions and help.
The workaround didn't help. The entire address book function must have been corrupt.
I uninstalled Netscape and deleted my profile. After running Norton Utilities and defrag, I reinstalled 7.01 and recreated my profile. That finally worked. It will take awhile to re-enter my addresses and bookmarks, but it will be worth it. Netscape 7.01 is so much faster than IE6. Thanks again

 

Hi Lee,

Too bad that none of the workarounds helped you, although creating a new Profile isn't the worst thing to happen.

For future reference, it's not necessary to delete the existing Profile, or to uninstall Netscape. You will need the old Profile in order to copy your Mail folders, Bookmarks, etc., to the new Profile.

By chance did you have a backup of your old Profile? If so you can follow this guideline: Create a New Profile.

Ramona

 

I ran across the same problem when upgrading to Mozill 1.2. After I copied the history.mab file over, all the addresses were there! I don't know if that was the solution or if some other magic did the trick, but it sure was a relief to see them appear