Hi folks,

I have a "small" problem with Kontact resp. Kmail and Akonadi. The problem is: I have my contacts in Kaddressbook but when I want to write an E-Mail, and I click on "add" in the mail itself I can not choose any of them. I also tried all the addressbooks which are available for choosing in the drop down menu in the "add"-window. I just can choose some contacts whom I wrote an E-mail (with address from memory)... One of them isn't even in my addressbook...
When I open the addressbook in Kontact, I can see every contact.

I have set up the default addressbook in the KDE resources and set it to standard.
Both, the default addressbook in KDE resources and the addressbook in Kaddressbook are pointing to the same VCard-file I have imported in /home/user/.kde4/share/apps/kabc/std.vcf
But in this folder there are now 5 std.vcf files, called "std.vcf_1" and so on, counting up...

So now I would like to ask, if someone could help me with that. Another problem is that I am not really useful in understanding software and I don't have any clue how all this Akonadi stuff works.
So if I should provide some report files or anything, just tell me how I get it...

Would be great if someone of you could help me...

Thank you very much in advance!
Steffen

Hi, Steffen. You have several issues to address here, so let's get started.

But in this folder there are now 5 std.vcf files, called "std.vcf_1" and so on, counting up..

That's normal. the _1, _2 etc. are backup files. The 'working' one is std.vcf.

I just can choose some contacts whom I wrote an E-mail (with address from memory)... One of them isn't even in my addressbook...

What you are seeing there is a list of Recent Addresses - ones you have used recently. They are not from your addressbook, but stored within /home/steffan/.kde/share/config/kmailrc.

It's not clear which version of KMail you are using, but in 1.13.3 the button Select opens your addressbook list. If I remember correctly some earlier versions had a small button .... which showed Recent Addresses and a larger one that should open the addressbook. Is that what you are seeing?

Two things that will help you understand the issues better -

1. Read http://userbase.kde.org/KAddressbook and the pages linked from there.
2. Read the topic "Restoring Kontact Contact Lists" where you'll find details of how to set up a good Akonadi-controlled addressbook. Personal Contacts should be your default.

If after all that you still have questions, come back to this topic and ask again.

Hi Annew,

thank you for your help and sorry for the late answer...

I read all the threads but to be honest, I am still lost.

It's not clear which version of KMail you are using, but in 1.13.3 the button Select opens your addressbook list. If I remember correctly some earlier versions had a small button .... which showed Recent Addresses and a larger one that should open the addressbook. Is that what you are seeing?

I am using now KDE 4.4.5 with Kmail 1.13.5 and Kontact 4.4.5 (updates were installed yesterday).
Maybe it is just a case of "lost in translation" because I am german and have a german system. I mean the button "select" in a new mail. After clicking this button, a small window pops up, in which I could choose the addresses, if Kmail or whatever could see them. In the upper part of this small window I can choose the addressbooks ("default", "all", mailinglists and so on). No matter which addressbook I choose in this window, no addresses are loaded in there.

I read in the thread you mentioned, that I should set up an Akonadi Resource in the system settings. This does not exist on my system resp. in my system settings, so I assume, that I should set up this resource in "KDE resources". That's what I did. I also tried to point this resource to /home/user/.local/share/contacts. The folder itself exists but when I have it in the "file open" dialog, I could click millions of times on "OK" - nothing happened. As I understood now, I have to set up a different addressbook for the "default addressbook" in the system settings, in order to make Kaddressbook able to "see" my actual addressbook... right?
I did that. I copied the std.vcf file from /home/steffen/.kde4/share/apps/kabc/std.vcf to /home/steffen/.local/share/contacts/std.vcf
But I still can not choose my contacts in a new mail.

Before, I had both addressbooks (the one in system settings --> KDE ressource and the Kaddressbook) pointing to the /home/steffen/.kde4/share/apps/kabc/std.vcf file, which did not work either.

Maybe I have missed something or understood something in a wrong way. So if you could help me with that, I would be very grateful.

Thank you very much in advance
Steffen




BTW:
I have to admit, that all that is beyond my horizont. Thats why I would like to send a small marginal note to the KDE guys, especially the developers of Akonadi, Kaddressbook and Kontact:
I just want to use this amazing piece of software. Thats it. I do not want to write a diploma thesis in IT technology "how to set up an addressbook". So can you please change this to a way, that the user just imports his contacts and is done? This is BTW the purpose of an addressbook and an mail program...
--> sorry, I am a bit frustrated at the moment...

Okay guys, I have it.

for sharing knowledge, here is what I did.

in KDE systemsettings --> KDE Resources, I added a new addressbook, called Akonadi Addressbook. I did this by clicking "add" and choosing "Akonadi Addressbook". Then a wizard pops up, which asks some questions. I have choosen a vCard file, which is not saved in .kde/share/apps/kabc because when I do this, it does not change anything. I saved my vCard file somewhere else in my home directory and with that it works.

I deleted the default addressbook. Because, no matter what I did to it, it did not change anything at all. But to delete it, you need a new one at first.

Then I changed the Akonadi-Addressbook by choosing "edit". There another window pops up in which some sources for the addressbook are mentioned. When you click on "manage Addressbook-sources" (or something like that - I have it in german) then you see some sources. Some are "ready" and some do not work (easily to see, marked with a red cross). I deleted all the not-working sources and linked the ones which are "ready" to the vCard file in my home directory (not in .kde/share/... or .local/share/contacts).

Then I tried it again and Kontact did not start at all. After a system reboot, it works now.

I still don't know what I did and what brought this addressbook into the mood to work, but anyway, it works now.

Some clearification on this, what I did and what of this leaded to a working addressbook function in Kmail, would be very much appreciated.

once again, thanks for your help Annew!

best regards
Steffen

Edit: when I start Kontact now, after I have done this, I do not get this small message "starting Akonadi Server" anymore. But it works anyway....

Sorry I was away when you needed to talk about this, but I'm glad you got it sorted. The first problem was that I didn't know for sure which version you were using. Finding what you needed in KDE Resources does tell me a lot You will find that when you get the 4.5 update that disappears and you will find an Akonadi section directly in SystemSettings.

In many ways you were close to getting it right, but you had a few misunderstandings. For instance your belief that you had to create yet another addressbook to be the default. I think that that particular problem could have been a translation problem - it's possible that my explanation didn't translate well to what you see in a German one, causing confusion. The biggest mistake was when you said you copied your std.vcf to /home/steffen/.local/share/contacts/std.vcf. Again, I may not have explained this clearly enough. You needed to import it into home/steffen/.local/share/contacts/. The reason is that the old addressbook was a vcf file - that is, a single file containing all your addresses. When you import it they are broken down into individual vcf files - one address per file. When you expected to see your addresses upon creating a message, you were asking for a file from home/steffen/.local/share/contacts but it was not finding single address cards, so couldn't give you the answer.

In the end you did exactly the best thing - using the supplied tools - and I'm glad it worked. I hope this helps you understand a little better what the original problem was.

Thanks for the solution, screwdriver. This step is still needed in KDE 4.5 unfortunately.

(I had already created akonadi address-books in a previous KDE version. These showing up under the "contacts" tab of Kontact and yet only recent contacts (neither of my akonadi address books) showing up when writing an email was both annoying and confusing; it would be more logical if Akonadi made sure its resources were used by KDE without extra configuration since there is no point running akonadi if its services are not going to be used!)

I can confirm this issue is still a case in newest fresh install of Kubuntu 11.04 - it is KDE 4.6.2
I am Polish and I have got polish localization and system language.

I didn't have any contacts when I tried to write new email - even though in Kaddressbook there were many of addresses.

I went to System Settings - > Personal Information (KDE Resources) and I added new akonadi address book and set it to be default. I have restarted Kontakt and bingo - I have contacts when I write new email - lastly after 2 years - former Kubuntu 10.04 had the same issue.

Thanks for solution!