Suddenly lost all my emails in Windows Live Mail

Anonymous
2012-03-01T12:17:58+00:00

Question Summary

Other Windows Live Mail issues

Please provide your impacted Email address :

elaine_******@ntlworld.com

Did you receive an error code or message?

No

Please enter the error code or message you received

None

Which version of Windows Live Mail are you using ?

Version 2011 (15.4.3538.513)

Choose your Operating System version :

Windows 7

Additional Details

Opened Windows Live Mail yesterday afternoon and all my emails had 'disappeared'.  My Calendar, Feeds and Contacts were all in place.  I had not deleted anything.

I looked in the Recycle bin and found a huge 20mb (ish) file called 'MSMESSAGESTORE' which I restored although, at the time it told me the file already existed so it recovered it to a secondary location.

Now if I search for '.eml' files I find some or all of the emails under

C:\Users...........\Windows Live Mail\Storage(1)\Recovered items..............

I do not have a Hotmail account.

Please help me recover these emails.

Thank you.

Windows for home | Other | Email and communications

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2012-03-08T13:26:13+00:00

It seems that the moderators that responded do not understand the WLMail maintenance procedure and do not understand what it means to not have a Hotmail account.

[quote user=Maudestan]The only thing that happened was that as I 'Shut Down' the PC the message 'Recovering unused disk space' came up which happens every few weeks.[/quote]

When WLMail closes some housekeeping is performed.  You should always close WLMail several minutes before turning off the computer.

After 100 closes, unused disk space is recovered.  You can change the setting by going to Alt, F, O, M, Advanced tab, Maintenance button, ..........

I am not clear on the maintenance procedure.

My guess is that a copy of 'MSMESSAGESTORE' is placed in the recycle bin and 'MSMESSAGESTORE' is rebuilt.   The rebuilding process was stopped which created your problem.

Follow this procedure and see if you have recovered all of your emails.

1. You will first need to select the Show hidden files option.

a. Open Windows Explorer and click Organize / Folder and search options. Click the View Tab.

b. Place a check mark in the Show Hidden files, folders and drives option.

Click Apply/OK.

c. Close and restart Windows Explorer.

2. Open the WLM Store folder.

a. Navigate to the following folder.

C:\Users\your name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail

(Where 'your name' is the name of the account that you use to logon to Windows 7)

b. In this folder you will see all of the WLM storage folders. Each email account will have its own group of folders.

c. Any general storage folders that you created will under the main Storage Folders item.

3. Make a copy of the Windows Live Mail folders previous version.****

a. Right clickthe Windows Live Mail folder and select Properties / Previous Versions Tab.

b. After the list populates, select a version of the folder with a date and time prior to when the folders were deleted.

c. Click the Copy Button. In the Copy dialog box, select the Desktop as the location to place the copied folder.

Was this answer helpful?

50+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

44 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2017-01-26T15:44:44+00:00

    did not resolve my problem

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-11T13:30:29+00:00

    Hi Mary,

    May we know if this concern happens after the migration of Hotmail to Outlook? Also have you tried logging in at Outlook.com? We need to do this so we can determine where this concern started.

    We'll be waiting for your response, thank you.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-10T12:02:32+00:00

    I AM ON WINDOW7 AND i HADHOTMAIL NOW THATS GONE AND i HAVE OUTLOOK BUT i DON'T HAVE MY MAIL ACCOUNT WITH ALL MY MAIL i HAD ON LIVE MAIL WHERE DID IT GO

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-31T04:13:59+00:00

    Hi,

    To get a better clarity about the issue could you please tell what is the exact issue that you are facing? Is your emails lost?

    Please post back with the answer to assist you further.

    Thank you.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments