When renaming an address book through properties, I can no longer see the new address book in my list. Where did it go?

Question

I have about 30 different address books. Some of them where old but i didn't want to delete them. I no longer wanted them at the top of my list so I went to properties and added "z-" to the folder name to have them at the bottom of the list. Now I can't see the address books that I renamed. What happened to them and how do I get them back?

Answer 1

Make hidden files and folders visible:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders
'''First locate all address book filenames in thunderbird.'''
* In Thunderbird:
* Help > Troubleshooting Information
* click on 'show folder' button
a new window opens.
If you were going to alter anything you would need to close Thunderbird, but on this occasion you are just looking for information.
* organise the list by 'Type'
* look for all files that have MAB File type
each file will have a .mab extension and these are the address books.
Two address books are default address books called:
abook.mab = Personal Address Book
history.mab = Collected Addresses.
Other addressbooks maybe called eg: abook-1.mab
* Make a list of all the address book.mab filenames. Careful.. as spelling is important.
'''Now to check what filename = what desciption in config editor'''
* In thunderbird:
* Tools > Options > Advanced > General tab
* click on 'config Editor' button
it will tell you to be careful :)
now to locate info for each address book.
'''How to search for each address book using info gained from checking the Profile folder.'''
In top search type: abook.mab
you should see this line:
ldap_2.servers.pab.filename; abook.mab
notice the 'pab' in ldap_2.servers.'''pab'''.filename
In top search type: pab
you will now be able to locate:
* ldap_2.servers.pab.description; Value = Personal Address Book
* ldap_2.servers.pab.dirType; Value = 2
* ldap_2.servers.pab.filename; Value = abook.mab
* ldap_2.servers.pab.position; Value = 2
Using the above method will identify which .mab file in profile uses what info in config Editor.
'''You can do this same method to check to see if the 'Z addressbook name' is in the list and which .mab file is assigned to that description.'''
In top search type the name you assigned: Z addressbook name
it should return a line:
* ldap_2.servers.XXXX.description; Value = Z addressbook name
make a note of the XXXX part in description
In top search type: XXXX - whatever the actual description XXXX said to get the 'description', 'dirType', 'filename' and 'position'
'''Please report back on results.'''
Did you locate:
eg: ldap_2.servers.XXXX.description; Value = Z addressbook name
or was this still listed as old name without the Z part?
Did you locate all of these 'description', 'dirType', 'filename' and 'position' for each of the missing address books?
or were only some of these shown? Tell us what you found.
Did you find that there were .mab files in Profile folder but they were missing in Config Editor or in Config Editor but not in Profile folder?
Please state what was found. You can copy paste from the config editor.