Windows Live Mail folders

[CLiNT]

EXAMPLES 1:
The attached images gives you a rough idea what the WLM "Store Folder" looks like from the windows explorer view.
All of these files and folders you will want to replace as there may be corruption in any one of them.

The red arrow indicates those email message folders and subfolders that are stored on my hard drive.

The "Hotmail (cl 4ed)" folder above represents all those folders and subfolders that reside on the Hotmail services servers.
You will want to move them over to the hard drives storage folder prior to begining.
There are a number of ways to move these messages out of this area, the simplest is to move them from within the
Windows Live Mail client [this should be done prior to deleting anything];
In their respective folders press the "Ctrl" key while left clicking on each email message, thereby highlighting them, let go of the "Ctrl" key then right click and choose "Move to Folder". Choose whatever folder you deem appropriate that is not located on the server.

Once the above has been done, logon to your Hotmail account through your browser, not the WLM client, then delete all folders
that are not part of Hotmail's simple default.

Do the same with your ISP's email as well if you have storage space on their servers.

[CLiNT]

Now that the above has been completed and all of your email messages have been safely backed up, you can start the process of rebuilding all of your folders and subfolder structures for both your web mail based email clients and the WLM client storage.



Uninstall your Windows Live Mail client; (See attaches image)
Uninstall WLM from the control panel and remove all Windows Live components for the sake of thoroughness.
Then run both CCleaner's in "Cleaner and "Registry" repair/fix mode. Restart your computer.

After you have restarted your computer, make sure that none of your message folders reside on your primary drive
and that you had previously renamed your WLM client's email "Store Folder" located off the primary drive. (unsually C
You can search through your username folder on the primary drive to make sure none of your messages and folders
have been preserved. Make sure you are able to view hidden files ad folder in explorer.

For the sake of being thorough, disconnect your internet connection prior to installing WLM. Once you have installed your
WLM client and run it, you will notice that there is nothing in there.
This will be your starting point for rebuilding all your new folders and subfolders.
From here on in we will be using windows explorer for the heavy lifting and moving.

[CLiNT]

Now that you have set up your Windows Live Mail client and are at the main screen;
Avoid using the wizzard should it pop up and ask to create an account. Close any dialog box asking for
permission to access the internet.

This is also a good time to move your WLM "Store Folder" to the empty subfolder that you would have created
under "EMAIL STORAGE FOLDER". Do this now before setting up an account.

Then set up your accounts, preferably manually.

The rational for previously deleting and then recreating a web based account is to avoid any potential
corruption from your previous installation from being transfered over.
Next we'll focus on getting your root storage folders setup.

[JIM2144]

If I'm currently viewing my inbox and click on any other folder to view it, the response time to switch between folders
takes about 6 or 7 seconds before the newly selected folder opens. Anyone have any ideas?

If it comes to it...how do I do a complete back up of WLM. I may just want to uninstall the program and then
reinstall it. I've already went through the repair option with no improvement.

I'm using Win7 64 bit. 3.0Ghz, 7gb ram.

An easy way to backup WLM is with the freeware program MailStore. I’ve used it for some time and it’s very good.

[Dick-Y]

Jim2144:
Does MailStore work with Hotmail on Windows 7?
Thanks,
Dick

[JoeP517]

Jim2144:
Does MailStore work with Hotmail on Windows 7?
Thanks,
Dick

If you accessing Hotmail with WLM it should work as you have local folders.

Joe

[Dick-Y]

Joe:
It does. I had a problem doing so, wrote a question on their support forum, and received a link which helped
me to get it to work. Here's the link if anybody else needs a 'how to':
http://en.help.mailstore.com/MailSto...rchiving_Email

Dick

[royw]

I had a problem with WLM folders. Originally every folder in the WLM database was duplicated. I overcame this by first making an up to date image of drive C, setting WLM to work offline,to stop WLM recreating the corrrupted database in the background, then deleting the WLM store folder (located at C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail, (not Windows Mail, as mentioned earlier in this thread),and then creating an empty store folder and dragging the correct storage folders from the image to the store folder. Having made sure I hadn't missed anything by checking with the contents of every folder in the image I then set WLM to work online and opened WLM,looked at the store folder and everything was as it should be.

The only problem I have now is that the store folder does not show the correct full name of those storage folders which have long names. For example, a folder name correctly shown as Centric Computers when I open WLM is shown in the message store as Centric Com 86a. If anyone can tell me how to stop the store folder changing long folder names in this way I would be grateful.

Thanks and regards, Roy

[royw]

Further to my post #23, Microsoft Answers Forum told me that the names of WLM folders, including spaces, must not exceed 15 characters, and that if any name exceeds the maximum then their names will be truncated in the store folder to 11 characters plus 3 random characters, consisting of a mix of letters and numbers, and a space. I shortened the name of all folders within WLM (not in the message store) but the message store still shows the "system generated truncated name" of all folder names which originally exceeded 15 characters in length,inclusive of spaces. Furthermore, the message store contains 2 sets of storage folders, one with the correct full names, which contain no messages, and one which includes the truncated names, and the latter folders contain all the storage folder messages.

It seems that I will have to follow the procedures outlined earlier in this thread to end up with an uncorrupted message store, with no folder names exceeding 15 characters.

Why on earth do Microsoft make life so difficult? What logical reason do they have to restrict folder names to 15 characters?

Having said all that, if anyone can tell me if it's possible to overcome the 15 character restriction, and if so how, I would be very grateful.

Thanks and regards,
Roy

[CLiNT]

No way to avoid the trunicated folder issues in WLM that I am aware of.

[royw]

Further to my post #23, the storage folders in the store folder are now reflecting those shown when I open WLM, except that 2 are duplicated with the addition of (1) after the name, for example there is a folder named Air Malta and another named Air Malta (1). The Air Malta folder is empty and the folder with the (1) suffix contains the relevant emails. The same applies to the other duplicated folder. Also the store folder has a sub-folder named Imported Folder and there are 2 sub-folders to that which are folders that should be simply listed as sub-folders in the storage folders list. I tried deleting the 2 empty folders and transferring the 2 sub-folders of the Imported Folder to the storage folder sub-folder list, and then deleting the Imported Folder, but the next time I checked the store folder the layout had reverted to what it was before I made the changes. Is there any way to make the changes permanent, and why do Microsoft complicate matters in this way?

Advice would be appreciated.

Thanks and regards, Roy

[royw]

Further to my post #26, I found a way to set up WLM the way I wanted it, including the store folder, and thought it was worth repeating here in case it is of use to anyone else.

1.I set WLM to offline.

2.I made an up to date image of my C drive with Macrium Reflect.

3.I cut and pasted the complete WLM folder (C:\Users\Roy\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WLM) to a different internal drive,and then edited that folder to leave just the folders associated with my mail account(Inbox,Drafts,Sent,Junk and Deleted), and the storage folders I wanted.

4.I uninstalled Windows Live Essentials (I only had WLM and WLPG installed) with the Pro version of Revo Uninstaller.

5.I deleted remnants of Windows Live Essentials manually.

6.I then used regedit to delete any remaining entries for Windows Live. (Regedit missed entries for WLM, but I found and deleted them).

7. I did a final search for Windows Live with the "Everything" search program.

8.I restarted my computer, having ignored the earlier prompt from the WLE uninstaller to do so.

9.To double check I repeated steps 5,6 and 7. (Just as well, because some items that I previously deleted had resurfaced).

10.I reinstalled the latest version of WLE (WLM and WLPG) 2011.

11.I then created my mail account in WLM.

12.I recreated the storage folders I wanted in WLM, copying folder names from the folders referred to in step 3, then dragged and dropped the inbox and storage folder messages (from the folders referred to in step 3) to the relevant folders in WLM. (Why do Microsoft make life so complicated, i.e. why can't users drag and drop folders)!

13.I then made a new image of my C drive.

N.B. I restricted all folder names to 15 characters, including spaces, to follow Microsoft's arbitrary rules.

A lot of work, but it was worth it to me. The store folder is now in perfect order.

I hope others will find this detailed explanation helpful, although I appreciate not everyone would want to go to these lengths.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,

Roy

[ElSupremoGrande]

CLiNT,
Procedures you provided about Backup/Restore are very well documented.
Best I have seen out of hundreds I enconter on forums and even Microsoft's.
Thanks,
ESG

[CLiNT]

Your welcome
This is something I believe MS should have done themselves. It certainly would have saved me a lot of pain.
I think Tom Tom [??] had something similar at one point back in the OE days.