Export messages fails using Windows Live Mail 16.4.3528.0331 on Windows 8.1

Anonymous
2016-02-12T21:45:50+00:00

I am using Windows Live Mail Application Version 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) on a Windows 8.1 laptop.

I am buying a new laptop which will come with Windows 10.  I am trying to export the emails from two of the three accounts I have in the current application to back them up and to hopefully import to the Windows 10 email application.  (The third account is a web based account so it does not need to be backed up locally.)  I want to keep the communications on my local computer and back up drives.  

I am following the Microsoft directions for exporting the emails from the application.  Although I had no problems exporting the contact files from the application, I am not able to export the emails.  A couple of different things have happened.

1 - At first I received a message indicating the data had been exported, but when I went to the folder to which it should have gone, the folder was empty.  (I tried this several times.)

2 - Then I was able to get as far in the process as browsing to find the folder I wanted to put the emails in, I was able to select the folders I wished to export, I was able to click on "next" and a split second later (way too short a period of time for the number of emails involved) to click on "finish." None of the emails were exported to the new file.

3 - I repeated the process as in step 2 above twice and instead of attempting to export only selected files, I attempted to export all files.  I had the same results - no emails were exported or in one case only one draft email was exported.

I feel confident I am following Microsoft's directions for this process as depicted in their Microsoft Essentials part of their website.  Would appreciate some advice.  I know I can simply copy the files from the section on my hard drive where they are stored.  My concern about using that approach is that importing them to the Windows 10 email application may not work.

Windows for home | Other | Email and communications

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-28T20:40:37+00:00

    I have now tried the mitigation registry key addition that you suggested on February 18 on my 32-bit 8.1 system. Unfortunately, it did not seem to make any difference.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-28T20:34:07+00:00

    I have reinstalled KB3126593, and confirmed that the export fails after it has exported one email. 

    Yes, I think we've established that beyond doubt. Are you sure that it's a message that was exported? Not a single file called wlmail.fol?

    I did not find any reports that matched the time that I tried the export.

    Pity. An error report like those given in the KB article would have proved pretty conclusively that the problem lies with the new DLL handling.

    However, you didn't say whether you'd tried exporting after adding the registry value I suggested and rebooting. If the export succeeds, we have a solution, and we know that the update's error handling is faulty. If the export still fails, we're no worse off than we were before.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-28T20:09:09+00:00

    I have reinstalled KB3126593, and confirmed that the export fails after it has exported one email. If WLM is handling multiple accounts, I suspect it is one email from each account, but I haven't done any real tests to confirm this. Normally I have filters that direct all incoming emails into specific folders all in the same account but I did find a couple of left over deleted emails that were backed up to different account folders.

    I have had a good look through the Event Logs, but I did not find any reports that matched the time that I tried the export. I wasn't really expecting to see any Event Log messages as WLM reports it has exported the emails successfully. I would have hoped that WLM would have picked up an event that would give rise to a log entry and report a failure.

    I have now set up a short cut to:

    C:\Users<my_user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail

    and I copy the contents of that folder as my email backup. It includes all the data that the export process should perform plus some other information, which I can ignore if I need a restore.

    To restore, I open the required backup folder, and drag the emails from File Explorer into an empty folder in Windows Live Mail. From there I can move specific emails to where I want them and delete any I don't need. It is rare that I need to restore more than a few emails. If I need to restore all my old emails, it is probably due to a some major event and as I keep complete image backups of my C: and D: drives, then I restore the entire drive.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-28T12:12:25+00:00

    I await a proper fix.

    You may well find that the 'proper fix' is the one specified in KB3126593: add the path to the program files to the Safe Load list.

    I'll say it again: it's not a good idea to uninstall a security update in order to correct a fault in a single program. That is no fix; it's a dangerous workaround.

    There is no point waiting for Microsoft to do anything about this isolated fault. Windows Live Mail is a 'legacy application' with no product team to keep it running smoothly. The KB article explains how to find out whether the fault in the program is caused by the new DLL loading behaviour: look for reports in the event log saying so. If anyone needs instructions for doing this, I'll happily provide them.

    If this is indeed the problem, then I gave a quick and easy way of solving it in my earlier post. We won't know whether it works or not until someone tries it. I'd do it myself, but I just don't have the necessary equipment.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-02-28T10:03:17+00:00

    Sorry to go off topic at this point, but "as soon as the user upgrades to Windows 10. Just one more reason to upgrade." has a negative side. I have two 8.1 machines both of which lost what I consider to be critical functionality as a result of the upgrade to 10. As both machines should now be registered with Windows 10 entitlement, they are both back on 8.1.

    Removing KB3126593 has temporarily solved my WLM export problem. I await a proper fix.

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