I migrated my contacts from Thunderbird via Kmail's import tool as a LDIF file...When I open the Address Book Manager my contacts are there under Default Address book and Default Address book | Personal Contacts | Default Address book.

If I start a new message or try to forward an existing message the "To" field is blank with a "select button" to the right...I click on the "select button" and another box opens up offering me the following choices for address book:
All
Default Address Book
Distribution Lists
Recent Addressess
Selected Recipients

Regardless of which one I choose none of my contacts appear. I have check Yast to make sure all components of Kmail are installed...they are except the Debugger sofware...via Yast I am told that I'm using Kmail version 4.4.9-2.3.1 but when I open Kmail and check About | Kmail it says version 1.13.5...I dont understand that.

Sorry this is long, just trying to provide as much info as possible...using OpenSuSE 11.3.

So where are my contacts ? Thanks in advance for your reply...Happy New Year !

At one point, there was a problem with the early set up of the Akonadi server which could "hide" contacts. Have you considered upgrading to a more recent version of openSuSE? Version 12 is out now.

...as of now I have not considered the upgrade/update you suggested...but I have suspected that the problem might lie with the OS...since I upgraded from OpenSuse 11.2 to 11.3 the problem has arisen....never had an issue with TB until 11.3 ver OS....will consider your option strongly....thanks !!