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

2014-04-28T23:00:22+00:00

I agree. WHAT A WASTE. I am just trying to get some work done and WINDOWS SUCKED UP my whole day and lost ALL MY EMAILS.

I reluctantly tried Windows Live when I got this computer. I will NEVER use it again. It is for amateurs.

Best advice I can ever give. NEVER UPDATE WINDOWS. If you computer is working fine. NEVER UPDATE IT - it is bound to mess up something.

And forget about all the threats about security risk. Ten years of using window and I have never had a security risk. But I have lost plenty of data from their updates.

I would go MAC if I didn't have $5K of PC software. What a headache.
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Anonymous

2012-03-08T08:03:13+00:00

Hi guys

I appreciate all your responses, I really do. But the problem has NOTHING to do with synchronisation between my emails on the server and the emails on my computer in Windows Live Mail!

I have explained as best I can what the problem is but I am now wasting huge amounts of time. Is it possible to escalate my query to a technical team please? If it is not possible then I guess there is no real help to be had here.

I feel disappointed everyone.

Elaine
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Anonymous

2012-03-06T09:31:18+00:00

Hi Abraham

I have managed to drag some files across to my Windows Live Email but I cannot confirm I have recovered them all. I was unable to drag folders across so had to recreate each folder and subfolder and then drag each subfolder individully.

As I run a home business, with a paperless office, I have some thousands of emails stored on my PC and it will take me some time before I can confirm whether, at least the crucial emails, have been 'recovered'.

Can you offer any explanation as to how this has happened? Clearly the emails were not actually deleted as this would have taken quite some time on the computer so I assume only the 'header' information was changed to make them appear lost? This is a major fault within Windows software.

I welcome you comments.

Thanks

Elaine
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Anonymous

2012-03-03T00:04:23+00:00

Hi Maudestan,

[quote user=Maudestan]Now if I search for '.eml' files I find some or all of the emails under[/quote] If you're able to locate the lost files, you can open Windows Live Mail and drag the following files to your inbox.

If this doesn't work, please let us know.

“Please mark this post as answer to make us aware that your issue has been resolved”

Thanks!

Rate This Moderator
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