I just told my neighbour about Em-Client. She had been using Thunderbird and I said Em-Client was much better, so I set it up for her.
However, when I exported the TB contacts as vcf (import worked fine), her one “group list”-- which was a subfolder of the main contacts, came over okay, but when you go into that folder via Contacts, all that shows are the email addresses. Since many people have odd email addresses, not associated to the person’s name, she can’t tell who is who. She sometimes wants to send a message to only a few of the members and not having their name in the list makes it odd.
Following the instructions in the Help File creates a distribution list with names and addresses, and there is no issue with it afterwards that I can see.
Sorry that you aren’t interested in how to create a distribution list like that. If you have a Pro License, please open a support ticket directly with eM Client and discuss any issue with them. They do not usually respond on this forum.
The issue is that when doing the regular, “create a dist list” via their own, provided menus, doesn’t work properly. It allows you to follow along and then fails. If following typical menu directions results in a failure, something is wrong.
I asked if you have experienced the same issue for which you’re offering advice. Did you import, using EMclient’s menu, a contacts list as vcards, successfully, from TB into EMC.
If so, please offer your step-by-step. I have no idea how you’re hurt (“Sorry that you aren’t interested in how to create a distribution list like that”) and unable to simply answer a very plainly asked question. It’s fine if you don’t know-- just don’t answer.
As far as I know eM Client does not import contact lists as distribution lists. You need to create the distribution list yourself in eM Client.
But importing of vCards works just fine. Yes, I did that successfully. I followed the steps given in the Help File. If being “in IT” precludes you from reading the Help File, here are the steps:
Go to Menu > File > Import.
Select Contacts as vCard (.vcf)
Point to the directory that contains your list exported from Thunderbird as a .vcf file.
Select a folder within eM Client Contacts as the destination. Maybe create a new one for this purpose.
Click on Finish.
You will now have a folder in your Contacts section that contains the contacts from the .vcf file. These are the full contact details from Thunderbird, not just names and addresses. If you want them in a distribution list, select them all and by right-click choose Create Distribution List.
If you need screen-shots, let me know and I will edit them into this post.
More details:
The contact list was exported from Thunderbird 78.6.0 by selecting the list and choosing Tools > Export. The .vcf was imported into eM Client 8.1.1084
I contacted EMC directly to describe the issue. I know many people who are in lots of groups. You shouldn’t have to “recreate the wheel” when the list exists already. It’s up to EMC if they want to leave things this way, but I think it would be better to fix it/add the functionality.
The thing is that a contact list in Thunderbird is a different thing to a distribution list in eM Client even though in the end they serve a similar purpose. In eM Client, the distribution list is a specialized single contact, and it contains only the names and email addresses imported from the original contact. In Thunderbird the list is a link to the original contacts which are each separate items and contain much more information.
Personally I think the Thunderbird implementation is better, because the information is dynamic. When you update the contact, the list is also updated.