Windows Live Mail folders

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If I’m currently viewing my inbox and click on any other folder to view it, the response time to switch between folders
takes about 6 or 7 seconds before the newly selected folder opens. Anyone have any ideas?

If it comes to it…how do I do a complete back up of WLM. I may just want to uninstall the program and then
reinstall it. I’ve already went through the repair option with no improvement.

I’m using Win7 64 bit. 3.0Ghz, 7gb ram.

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Some tutorials:
How to Backup Windows Live Mail Accounts, Contacts and Messages
How to backup Messages and contacts in Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Mail Tutorial

I would recommend moving your store folder off your primary drive to a partition for storage and ease of backup, or by “exporting”
all messages, contacts, and email settings to a known location for backup, and then “importing” them back when you have everything setup again.

If you choose to move your store folder, do so just after WLM has been reinstalled and not before. Then import all your messages, they will be placed in the store folder.

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BEFORE MOVING YOUR STORE FOLDER
Before moving your store folder, decide on a location other than the default area that MS and the WLM client has
devised for you. Usually; C:Users­[username]/­AppData/­Local/­Microsoft/­Windows Mail.
My preference is a partition off of the main drive. Make a folder with two subfolders, then export to one of the subfolders. Give them a name, then export all your messages, contacts, & account settings to this folder. That will be a temporary backup folder
that will serve to import from once you have your client installed and move your store folder over to the other empty one.

You can do 2 forms of backup; A hard copy of the store folder in it’s entirety, and an exportive backup of all your messages and email accounts. This then can be burned to disk or kept on a USB stick.

MOVING STORE FOLDER
To move the store folder in WLM: Tools>>Options>>Advanced>>Maintainance>>Store folder. Select destination.
This should be done while your setting up the client and before all your messages have been imported.
Warning: Move to an empty folder on, preferably, a partition and not a folder that is already used for email.
your individual emails and folders will end up being duplicated and oddly named. Avoid lengthy filenames for folders as well.

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EXPORTING MESSAGES
In WLM go to Files>>Export>>Messages.
Go through the screens and locate the destination folder you whish to export to.
Once you have the location, click “OK”. When the “select folders” screen comes up you can either choose
the “All folders” option, or select the “select Folders” option and press ctrl on your keyboard and select individual folders.
Repeat this procedure with exporting “Accounts”.

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IMPORTING EMAIL MESSAGES
In WLM go to Files>>Import>>Messages, select the client your importing from, in this case: “Windows Live Mail”.
Go through the screens and locate the folder you whish to import from. You can also import account settings.
The photo is my example…

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IMPORTING/EXPORTING CONTACTS
Backing up your contacts folder can be done all at once, or by individual contact.
In WLM, open your WL contacts by clicking on the little book icon to the lower left of the client window. Go to Files>>Export>>
“Comma Separated Values (.CVS)”, or “Business Card (.VCF)”.
Comma Separated Values (.CVS): Will back up all contacts in your list in it’s entirety into a single file.
Business Card (.VCF): Will back up individual contacts from your list to individual files.

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IMPORTING…

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Well thanks everyone. I was able to successfully back up everything. Only thing is…when I uninstalled WLM going through
Windows Live Essentials in the add/remove section of control panel, and then reinstalled WLM on line, all of my folders
and messages were there waiting for me when I started WLM after the install. IOW…I didn’t have to import them back.

And I noticed during the install that I wasn’t given a choice as to where the program would set-up on my drive. So I really
don’t think it was a fresh install, especially since I’m still experiencing the slow response time when switching between
folders as I did before. Am I doing something wrong?

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WLM doesn’t delete the contents of your storage folder if uninstalled. You can still move it’s contents, provided that you
do so to a location that does not already contain email messages.

And I noticed during the install that I wasn’t given a choice as to where the program would set-up on my drive.

No, WLM does not offer you a choice. This has to be done manually. See post #3.
All your messages and folders will be preserved from your Hotmail account when you
run WLM for the first time after a reinstall.

So I really don’t think it was a fresh install, especially since I’m still experiencing the slow response time when switching between
folders as I did before. Am I doing something wrong?

The delay you experience seems to indicate that you would need to reorganize your folder structure, especially since the reinstall hasn’t resolved the delay issue, as we had hoped.
You may have to rebuild your folder structure from scratch, as I did some months ago. The problem may lie in the way your email
is distributed amongst your folders, or it may be some aspect of your folders themselves that are faulty.

It can be a very messy and tedious job rebuilding the folder structure, especially if you have thousands of emails, throughout
many folders, as are mine. I can help walk you through it if you like. As long as you have the bulk of your email messages
safely backed up you will loose nothing.

The photo below is an example of my email folder structure organization…
(from within WLM, not explorer…We will get to that later)

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A few things to try before any attempt to reorganize your email folder structure;

Check the emails in the folders you are experiencing delays in to ensure that none of the content/messages are corrupt.
If there are corrupt emails, move them off to a separate new folder or delete them, and see if the delay behavior persists.

Re-index or stop indexing to your emails store folder and check and see if the delay behavior persists.
the default location of WLM may be located at “C:Users­[username]/­AppData/­Local/­Microsoft/­Windows Mail”.

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Hi Clint,

First of all ,thanks for your excellent illustrated posts regarding Windows Live Mail.
I can well identify with your description ,since ,like you, I have thousands of email messages and a folder structure like yours

But if I may, I’d like to add some suggestions to this.
To be honest, I don’t trust WLM to keep its folder structure intact and not get corrupted.

So I devised a method which I’ve used since using Outlook Express.

On the same drive or preferably a separate drive or partition, I create a folder called EmailArchive and
duplicate the folder structure that I have in WLM.
Once in place, I copy the messages from each folder to the respective corresponding folder.
In principle you could delete the messages in WLM at that point.
For myself I delete just the oldest ones and keep ,let’s say just the last 2 weeks.
That lightens the WLM folders considerably and the program becomes more responsive.
Just do this every so often and it keeps WLM lighter to load.

To check mail in the archive ,I create a shortcut to it. Any mail there can be opened in WLM.
I don’t .but for that matter ,you could create shorcuts to any of the folders in your archive.

This is like a backup ,but unlike the backup created by WLM ,it has a readable structure.

Another point is to set the compacting frequency much lower than it is set by default – 100 runs of WLM
If I have a lot of mail at some point, I lower it to 10 or 15 runs and just leave it at that.
Found at Tools > Options > Advanced > Maintenance > Compact the database on shutdown every etc etc.
Like in OE ,it helps to keep the database straight 😉

Hope this was useful.

Pete

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Well I’m still a bit perplexed. I backed up all my contacts and messages to a separate folder called WLM backup off my C drive. I then uninstalled WLM
through Windows Live Essentials in the control panel uninstall/install. I then deleted all the contents of C:Users­[username]/­AppData/­Local/­Microsoft/­Windows Mail,
and then deleted the folder itself. I then reinstalled WLM…when I opened the program, all my previous stuff was still there. So for some reason I just can’t manage
to get a fresh install of WLM.

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Thanks for the input DiggerP, I find use in some variation in that very method as well.

Well I’m still a bit perplexed. I backed up all my contacts and messages to a separate folder called WLM backup off my C drive. I then uninstalled WLM
through Windows Live Essentials in the control panel uninstall/install. I then deleted all the contents of C:Users­[username]/­AppData/­Local/­Microsoft/­Windows Mail,
and then deleted the folder itself. I then reinstalled WLM…when I opened the program, all my previous stuff was still there. So for some reason I just can’t manage
to get a fresh install of WLM.

Is your WLM client synchronizing with a web based service for it’s email?

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Yes…WLM is set to synchronize with my Hotmail and Comcast accounts. But what I don’t understand is why it was set to do that after uninstalling
and then reinstalling WLM. I thought that I should have to set up the accounts again with server info and passwords. It was if I had never uninstalled
in the first place.

Update: I was able to uninstall WLM (by deleting some registry keys too)and reinstall to the point where I was asked all of my setup info again, e.g. account info, passwords etc. I also had to import messages and contacts.

But none of this made any difference. Switching between folders of the same account or other accounts is still slow. I also noticed that WLM is slow to show my contacts too.

Guess I’ll just have to live with it short of reinstalling Win 7 itself. Which there’s no guarantee that would work either. I have ran sfc /scannow and the report indicated there were no problems. So I’m at a loss.

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It sounds plausible that your folders or their structures are corrupt in some way and are in need of being rebuilt from scratch.
*****This would entail deleting everything and starting completely anew.

First, differentiate between folder structures added to the default Hotmail server (or any other web based email server) vs those that you have created for the purpose of storing on your hard drive in the WLM client’s “Store Folder” section.

POP vs IMAP
How to Set Up POP3 Mail
Setup your Gmail email account in Windows Live Mail

Prior to starting:
Make sure that you have all your messages backed up prior to doing anything.
If you have extensive emails stored on hotmail’s server, get them off now. If you like, you can manually add them back later.

As long as you have all of your messages backed up you will not loose anything.

[Storing hundreds or even thousands of emails in complex folder structures on hotmail’s server can be a cause of slowdowns
in itself. You’ll want to keep control of email by storing them on your hard drive & doing regular backups instead.
It is also possible that the server stored folders or folder structures have become corrupt as well].

BEGIN:
Set yourself up with a root folder structure similar to the below image.
Do not open or run Windows Live Mail.
1. In Windows explorer, rename your current store folder (the one with all your email messages) to something like: “OLD BACKUP”.
Become intimately familiar with the contents of the root folder and think carefuly about what you want to do.
Make certain that you are not still using Microsoft’s default storage location. This needs to be gone. The act of renaming your currently used storage folder will render WLM incapable of seeing it when you do open your WLM client. This is what you want.
2. Create a new & empty folder beside it, name it whatever you like. (this will be the folder that you will point the WLM to later on).

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CLiNT,
Procedures you provided about Backup/Restore are very well documented.
Best I have seen out of hundreds I enconter on forums and even Microsoft’s.
Thanks,
ESG

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EXAMPLES 1:
The attached images gives you a rough idea what the WLM “Store Folder” looks like from the windows explorer view.
All of these files and folders you will want to replace as there may be corruption in any one of them.

The red arrow indicates those email message folders and subfolders that are stored on my hard drive.

The “Hotmail (cl 4ed)” folder above represents all those folders and subfolders that reside on the Hotmail services servers.
You will want to move them over to the hard drives storage folder prior to begining.
There are a number of ways to move these messages out of this area, the simplest is to move them from within the
Windows Live Mail client [i]this should be done prior to deleting anything[/i];
In their respective folders press the “Ctrl” key while left clicking on each email message, thereby highlighting them, let go of the “Ctrl” key then right click and choose “Move to Folder”. Choose whatever folder you deem appropriate that is not located on the server.

Once the above has been done, logon to your Hotmail account through your browser, not the WLM client, then delete all folders
that are not part of Hotmail’s simple default.

Do the same with your ISP’s email as well if you have storage space on their servers.

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Now that the above has been completed and all of your email messages have been safely backed up, you can start the process of rebuilding all of your folders and subfolder structures for both your web mail based email clients and the WLM client storage.

Uninstall your Windows Live Mail client; (See attaches image)
Uninstall WLM from the control panel and remove all Windows Live components for the sake of thoroughness.
Then run both CCleaner’s in “Cleaner and “Registry” repair/fix mode. Restart your computer.

After you have restarted your computer, make sure that none of your message folders reside on your primary drive
and that you had previously renamed your WLM client’s email “Store Folder” located off the primary drive. (unsually C:)
You can search through your username folder on the primary drive to make sure none of your messages and folders
have been preserved. Make sure you are able to view hidden files ad folder in explorer.

For the sake of being thorough, disconnect your internet connection prior to installing WLM. Once you have installed your
WLM client and run it, you will notice that there is nothing in there.
This will be your starting point for rebuilding all your new folders and subfolders.
From here on in we will be using windows explorer for the heavy lifting and moving.

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Now that you have set up your Windows Live Mail client and are at the main screen;
Avoid using the wizzard should it pop up and ask to create an account. Close any dialog box asking for
permission to access the internet.

This is also a good time to move your WLM “Store Folder” to the empty subfolder that you would have created
under “EMAIL STORAGE FOLDER”. Do this now before setting up an account.

Then set up your accounts, preferably manually.

The rational for previously deleting and then recreating a web based account is to avoid any potential
corruption from your previous installation from being transfered over.
Next we’ll focus on getting your root storage folders setup.

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If I’m currently viewing my inbox and click on any other folder to view it, the response time to switch between folders
takes about 6 or 7 seconds before the newly selected folder opens. Anyone have any ideas?

If it comes to it…how do I do a complete back up of WLM. I may just want to uninstall the program and then
reinstall it. I’ve already went through the repair option with no improvement.

I’m using Win7 64 bit. 3.0Ghz, 7gb ram.

An easy way to backup WLM is with the freeware program MailStore. I’ve used it for some time and it’s very good.

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Jim2144:
Does MailStore work with Hotmail on Windows 7?
Thanks,
Dick

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Jim2144:
Does MailStore work with Hotmail on Windows 7?
Thanks,
Dick

If you accessing Hotmail with WLM it should work as you have local folders.

Joe

--Joe

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Joe:
It does. I had a problem doing so, wrote a question on their support forum, and received a link which helped
me to get it to work. Here’s the link if anybody else needs a ‘how to’:
http://en.help.mailstore.com/MailStore_Home_Help:Archiving_Email

Dick

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I had a problem with WLM folders. Originally every folder in the WLM database was duplicated. I overcame this by first making an up to date image of drive C, setting WLM to work offline,to stop WLM recreating the corrrupted database in the background, then deleting the WLM store folder (located at C:UsersUser NameAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows Live Mail, (not Windows Mail, as mentioned earlier in this thread),and then creating an empty store folder and dragging the correct storage folders from the image to the store folder. Having made sure I hadn’t missed anything by checking with the contents of every folder in the image I then set WLM to work online and opened WLM,looked at the store folder and everything was as it should be.

The only problem I have now is that the store folder does not show the correct full name of those storage folders which have long names. For example, a folder name correctly shown as Centric Computers when I open WLM is shown in the message store as Centric Com 86a. If anyone can tell me how to stop the store folder changing long folder names in this way I would be grateful.

Thanks and regards, Roy

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Further to my post #23, Microsoft Answers Forum told me that the names of WLM folders, including spaces, must not exceed 15 characters, and that if any name exceeds the maximum then their names will be truncated in the store folder to 11 characters plus 3 random characters, consisting of a mix of letters and numbers, and a space. I shortened the name of all folders within WLM (not in the message store) but the message store still shows the “system generated truncated name” of all folder names which originally exceeded 15 characters in length,inclusive of spaces. Furthermore, the message store contains 2 sets of storage folders, one with the correct full names, which contain no messages, and one which includes the truncated names, and the latter folders contain all the storage folder messages.

It seems that I will have to follow the procedures outlined earlier in this thread to end up with an uncorrupted message store, with no folder names exceeding 15 characters.

Why on earth do Microsoft make life so difficult? What logical reason do they have to restrict folder names to 15 characters?

Having said all that, if anyone can tell me if it’s possible to overcome the 15 character restriction, and if so how, I would be very grateful.

Thanks and regards,
Roy

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No way to avoid the trunicated folder issues in WLM that I am aware of.

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Further to my post #23, the storage folders in the store folder are now reflecting those shown when I open WLM, except that 2 are duplicated with the addition of (1) after the name, for example there is a folder named Air Malta and another named Air Malta (1). The Air Malta folder is empty and the folder with the (1) suffix contains the relevant emails. The same applies to the other duplicated folder. Also the store folder has a sub-folder named Imported Folder and there are 2 sub-folders to that which are folders that should be simply listed as sub-folders in the storage folders list. I tried deleting the 2 empty folders and transferring the 2 sub-folders of the Imported Folder to the storage folder sub-folder list, and then deleting the Imported Folder, but the next time I checked the store folder the layout had reverted to what it was before I made the changes. Is there any way to make the changes permanent, and why do Microsoft complicate matters in this way?

Advice would be appreciated.

Thanks and regards, Roy

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Further to my post #26, I found a way to set up WLM the way I wanted it, including the store folder, and thought it was worth repeating here in case it is of use to anyone else.

1.I set WLM to offline.

2.I made an up to date image of my C drive with Macrium Reflect.

3.I cut and pasted the complete WLM folder (C:UsersRoyAppDataLocalMicrosoftWLM) to a different internal drive,and then edited that folder to leave just the folders associated with my mail account(Inbox,Drafts,Sent,Junk and Deleted), and the storage folders I wanted.

4.I uninstalled Windows Live Essentials (I only had WLM and WLPG installed) with the Pro version of Revo Uninstaller.

5.I deleted remnants of Windows Live Essentials manually.

6.I then used regedit to delete any remaining entries for Windows Live. (Regedit missed entries for WLM, but I found and deleted them).

7. I did a final search for Windows Live with the “Everything” search program.

8.I restarted my computer, having ignored the earlier prompt from the WLE uninstaller to do so.

9.To double check I repeated steps 5,6 and 7. (Just as well, because some items that I previously deleted had resurfaced).

10.I reinstalled the latest version of WLE (WLM and WLPG) 2011.

11.I then created my mail account in WLM.

12.I recreated the storage folders I wanted in WLM, copying folder names from the folders referred to in step 3, then dragged and dropped the inbox and storage folder messages (from the folders referred to in step 3) to the relevant folders in WLM. (Why do Microsoft make life so complicated, i.e. why can’t users drag and drop folders)!

13.I then made a new image of my C drive.

N.B. I restricted all folder names to 15 characters, including spaces, to follow Microsoft’s arbitrary rules.

A lot of work, but it was worth it to me. The store folder is now in perfect order.

I hope others will find this detailed explanation helpful, although I appreciate not everyone would want to go to these lengths.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,

Roy

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Your welcome
This is something I believe MS should have done themselves. It certainly would have saved me a lot of pain.
I think Tom Tom [??] had something similar at one point back in the OE days.

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