---
title: "“Unable to retrieve MSN Address Book” on Pidgin on Ubuntu / Debian?"
description: "<p>Today I got the following error on Pidgin (I’m running version 2.5.2 on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex) while it tried to connect to MSN:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Unable to retrieve MSN Address Book”</p></blockquote>
<p>After searching a bit I found <a href="http://www.lifelog.be/2009/01/12/pidgin-unable-to-retrieve-msn-address-list/">this post</a> by Gijs Nelissen which said to use a different MSN plugin for Pidgin called <a href="http://code.google.com/p/msn-pecan/downloads/list">msn-pecan</a>.</p>
<p>I’ll reiterate the instructions for those with Ubuntu / Debian:</p>
<ol>
<li>Close Pidgin (make sure the process is really down)</li>
<li>Run “apt-get install msn-pecan”</li>
<li>Start pidgin</li>
<li>Change your MSN account type from MSN to WLM</li>
<li>Reconnect</li>
</ol>
<p><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">I don’t know if this error affects other libpurple based multi-headed IMs (such as <a href="http://www.adiumx.com">Adium</a>)</span> (<strong>UPDATE:</strong> It appears this IS a libpurple issue – so Adium IS affected), however, the msn-pecan project has a Windows binary release as well as source release (if you care/need/want to compile it for Mac OS X or other Linux distributions).</p>"
doc_version: "1"
last_updated: "2017-06-02"
date: 2009-01-12
tags: [Adium, libpurple, Linux, MSN, msn-pecan, Pidgin, Ubuntu, Unable to retrieve MSN Address Book]
canonical: "https://eran.sandler.co.il/2009/01/12/unable-to-retrieve-msn-address-book-on-pidgin-on-ubuntu-debian/"
---

## Sitemap

- [Home](https://eran.sandler.co.il/)

Today I got the following error on Pidgin (I&#8217;m running version 2.5.2 on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex) while it tried to connect to MSN:

> &#8220;Unable to retrieve MSN Address Book&#8221;

After searching a bit I found [this post][1] by Gijs Nelissen which said to use a different MSN plugin for Pidgin called [msn-pecan][2].

I&#8217;ll reiterate the instructions for those with Ubuntu / Debian:

  1. Close Pidgin (make sure the process is really down)
  2. Run &#8220;apt-get install msn-pecan&#8221;
  3. Start pidgin
  4. Change your MSN account type from MSN to WLM
  5. Reconnect

<span style="text-decoration: line-through;">I don&#8217;t know if this error affects other libpurple based multi-headed IMs (such as <a href="http://www.adiumx.com">Adium</a>)</span> (**UPDATE:** It appears this IS a libpurple issue &#8211; so Adium IS affected), however, the msn-pecan project has a Windows binary release as well as source release (if you care/need/want to compile it for Mac OS X or other Linux distributions).

 [1]: http://www.lifelog.be/2009/01/12/pidgin-unable-to-retrieve-msn-address-list/
 [2]: http://code.google.com/p/msn-pecan/downloads/list