How to get Thunderbird to collect addresses from not-already-downloaded IMAP messages

address-bookemailimapthunderbird

I've created a new Thunderbird account to work with an IMAP account of mine on some mail server. I have all the message headers downloaded now, not all the bodies, and have read a couple of messages. Unfortunately, Thunderbird's 'Collected Addresses' only seems to include addresses from the few messages I've read or written, not from all messages whose headers have been downloaded.

  • Is there some configuration value I can change to make Thunderbird look for addresses in all of my headers?
  • Is there perhaps some 'manual' way to collect these addresses, say into abook.mab?

Best Answer

The Email Address Crawler Plugin might work. Note that the earlier version is no longer maintained. To use the updated version:

  1. Follow the direct download link. (Attention this is not approved by Mozila jet, see comment below)
  2. Start Thunderbird (v31.0 or greater).
  3. Open the triple-bar menu (≡).
  4. Click Add-ons.
  5. Click the icon beside the search text box to open a drop-down menu.
  6. Select Install Add-on From File...*
  7. Browse to the download location for Email Crawler.
  8. Select the file (e.g., emailcrawler-5.1.2.xpi).
  9. Click Open.
  10. Click Install Now.
  11. Click Restart Now.

Then:

  1. Right-click on any folder.
  2. Select Crawl folder for email addresses.
  3. Check To and From.
  4. Set Choose a [sic] addressbook as a target for the found addresses to Collected Addresses.
  5. Optionally, set Needed # of occurrences to 2 (to help filter invalid addresses).
  6. Click OK.

If you want to use an approved Plugin from Moxilla Add-On Page, maybe the Email Address Crawler Plugin is a solution for you?

EMail Address Crawler by CySlider
Automatically fill your address books or send mass mails with e-mail addresses extracted from all your e-mails.

It is a bit outdated, but there is stated by someone it that still worked in 17.0, so maybe it still works in Thunderbird 31

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