How do I re-index Storage Folders in Windows Live Mail under Win 7?

Thank you Nick.   Somehow my email folders exhibited both problems discussed on this thread - always the same message body being displayed despite different headers shown, and "message not found".    I have no idea why this started to happen, though I note that I have kept the same email structure for 12 years across at least 4 computers and on changing computers exported from the old and imported to the new.   I noticed along the way that the "Storage Folder" / "Imported Folder" depth increased, and it was always a nuisance to have to shuffle things around afterwards to get the individual folders back to the first level under Storage Folders.   Yet a closer look seemed to indicate that although on the surface it seemed that the shuffling had achieved what I wanted, nonetheless the deep structure seemed to survive somehow.

I have a suspicion that the problem may have started because of shortage of "disk" space.   About 8 months ago I moved to a mini netbook with just 32gb solid state drive.   I have had capacity limit warnings, so maybe that's the cause.    Not that any software should get its database structure corrupted and just carry on as if nothing had happened.

Anyway, I followed your approach and it works well.   Only took 3 hours!!

Hello, Koudgen!

I am glad my method worked for you and solved your problem! Yes, it takes time if the damage is extended; it works the best when it happens to notice the issue early...

About the disk space reasoning: when it happened to me, I had no disk space issues. I am not saying that this couldn't be a possible cause but not in my case though. I guess that it is possible to have more than one causes that trigger that malfunction.

That thing you mention with the increasing depth of 'storage/imported folders' is really annoying. I have noticed that myself and it is really painful when you have to navigate to all those clones to find where the latest version lies!

I have ended up that Windows Live Mail is really fragile. I am not sure if I 've read it on this thread or on another one, but it is said that Windows Live Mail should be treated gently, meaning that after you close it and exit you should always wait for some time before you re-open it or before you shutdown your PC otherwise issues may arise.

Best regards

Nick