Export messages fails using Windows Live Mail 16.4.3528.0331 on Windows 8.1

Anonymous

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.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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66 answers

Anonymous

2016-03-12T15:18:02+00:00

Thank God for your post firedog. I am so sick and tired of microsoft jamming "important" updates on us that constantly break things! For what it is worth, I was able to get my WLM Message export to work perfect by removing only the following updates: 3127222 and 3126593. Irritating problem is even though I "hide" these updates, they persistently present as new updates to install every time I check for updates. Frickin Microsoft!!! How to prevent these updates from continually showing up again and again? Also, SOOOO sick of the windows 10 update icon coming back. I deleted them months ago but sneaky MS reintroduced them AGAIN recently! ****! If I want to upgrade to Win 10 i will. Geez. Problem is my Lenovo Y510P not compatible. Verified this with intense research and numerous phone calls to Lenovo and Intel. LOL I'm ready for a damn Macbook pro like the entire rest of my family. Anyway, thanks again. If you have an idea as to how to prevent these updates from showing up again and again as "new" important updates I'm all ears. Staff (many) and MS have been completely useless. Surprise!!!
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Anonymous

2016-03-16T15:43:05+00:00

The steps in that article are exactly what I stated I had done up to the point it fails. Still not working.
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Anonymous

2016-03-16T19:52:56+00:00

Using WLM 2012 with Windows 8

I hope you don't mind, but I merged your question into a thread where a (manageable) number of users have reported the same problem. As you'll see if you read through the thread, there's no known solution at this stage, except to use other methods to back up your mail folders. Simply copying the store folder may be the simplest.

The fault seems only to arise on Windows 8.1 with security update KB3126593 installed. I can't recommend uninstalling the update to correct it, though, because it involves the security of Windows itself. Can you please confirm your OS and program version and that KB3126593 is installed?
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Anonymous

2016-04-15T07:58:19+00:00

I uninstalled KB3126593 and got it working a few weeks ago. Been ducking that update ever since and then had to uninstall KB3147071 today to get Windows Live Mail to export messages.

(I'm running Windows 8.1 with Media Center.)
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Anonymous

2016-04-15T15:54:17+00:00

Following advice from various people, I decided not to avoid specific updates that prevented the export from working. I used the export for security backups, and I now copy the contents of

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

to my backup locations. '<my user>' is the name of my actual user on the PC and will depend on what user name you are using.

To restore emails, I open WLM in one window and File Explorer in another window alongside. I make sure I have an empty folder in the WLM window (normally I empty the 'Deleted items' folder and use that). Then I drag as many .eml files from the backup locations in File Explorer into the empty folder as I want. I can then review the emails I have restored. I move those I want to keep to more appropriate folders and delete the rest of those that I restored.

Although 'exporting' emails by copying the contents of the folder above does add a few extra MB to the backup size, it is very easy to implement. I have set up a favourite in File Explorer that takes me directly to the folder indicated above where I select the entire contents and copy those to the backup. The whole backup process is entirely in File Explorer.

I suggest you look at the details of the updates you are avoiding to see if they are likely to leave you exposed to other security issues.
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