Suddenly lost all my emails in Windows Live Mail

Anonymous

Question Summary

Other Windows Live Mail issues

Please provide your impacted Email address :

elaine_******@ntlworld.com

Did you receive an error code or message?

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.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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.

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44 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-05-23T13:36:18+00:00

Hi,

Please be informed that if you have exported all the emails that were present in Windows Live Mail you can import them back but if you have not created the back up, I am sorry to inform that there is no way to get those emails back. As the emails present in the draft folder and the local storage folder are stored locally on the computer.

However, you can get all those emails which you see on the web browser. To get all those emails please configure your Windows Live Mail with the required email address. (The email address that you want to configure).

To import the emails to Windows Live Mail please refer to the Microsoft help article below and check if it helps:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/mail-import-backup-restore

Hope this helps. Please get back to us if you need any further assistance.

Thank you.
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Anonymous

2016-05-23T01:49:20+00:00

Hi Elaine,

I know this happend to you a long time ago. But were you able to resolve the issue? I recently got the windows 10 upgrade. My husband did it. I didn't like it so I had to contact Microsoft to get them to revert back to Windows 7. In the process, I lost my folders in my windows live mail. Not the inbox, the other folders, like Drafts, Sent, etc. All of which important emails were in.

I am so frustrated with Microsoft and their inabilithy to help me. Was wondering what you did.

Thanks,

Giselle
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Anonymous

2016-03-29T20:24:30+00:00

Question Summary

Other Windows Live Mail issues

Please provide your impacted Email address :

*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

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.
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Anonymous

2016-02-17T14:45:53+00:00

I suddenly lost my e-mails. I did not delete anything.
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