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
    2016-02-28T21:25:23+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.

    Rats!

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-29T00:02:07+00:00

     Are you sure that it's a message that was exported? Not a single file called wlmail.fol?

    I have tried it again to make sure. There were four mail messages in the Inbox and six messages in another folder I have created. The folders in the exported emails had just one email (18BE6784-00000064.eml) in the Inbox folder but no wlmail.fol file. Of the other folders in the account in WLM, only those folders that were empty appeared in the export, and each had a wlmail.fol file. The folders that had emails in them were not exported at all. The algorithm seems to be:

    If the mail folder is empty of emails, export it with its wlmail.fol file.

    If the folder contains one or more emails, and these are the first emails to be found during the export, export the folder with just one email from the folder and don't export the wlmail.fol file.

    If the folder contains emails, and these are not the first emails to be encountered, skip the folder completely.

    I'm not sure this is much help, but it is a bit more information as I am experiencing it on my 32-bit 8.1 machine.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-29T18:39:09+00:00

    I have tried it again to make sure.

    Thanks for helping to troubleshoot. I don't think that what you describe can be attributed to a required DLL not loading, because the process would fail completely if that were the case, for example with only the wlmail.fol file turning up in the exported folder. There must be something else at play. We need more troubleshooters ...

    I'll see if I can drum up some official support for this, but I'm not hopeful.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-03-07T18:14:38+00:00

    Using WLM 2012 with Windows 8 and trying to back up my mail. Chose Export email, Email messages, Microsoft Windows Live Mail, browsed to and selected a folder I created, selected All Folders, then Next and immediately get a message it's finished.  Nothing actually gets backed up in the folder I selected except a tree of folders that ends with one message.  I've done this back up on this same PC this way numerous times but can't make it work today. Anyone have any suggestions?

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