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Windows Live Mail Import/Export Problems
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Dave Lee
Nov 8, 2012, 8:59:15 PM11/8/12
to
I am trying to move from an aging laptop (Vista) to a new Win7 laptop (both
Dell). I am running into myriads of problems trying to move my emails from
WLM on the Vista machine to WLM on the Win7 machine.
At this point I have two problems.
1) A set of folders that I exported (twice now) cannot be imported to Win7
(WLM, of course) because 'the file is in use or is empty' - it isn't empty
and it isn't being viewed with Explorer, etc).
2) Since this was my umpteenth problem I decided to just reinstall WLM. But
now when I try to export my two days worth of email messages from my Win7
machine, all I get is one email file (out of 50 or so) from my inbox (the
only folder that I am trying to export).
Something is seriously wrong here. Should I simply re-install WLM (or I am
tempted to restart the whole system install process)? Or are there some
other steps that I might try. Any known issues with simply uninstalling WLM
and reinstalling from a web download?
Thanks.
dave
ps. Due to other problems that I don't understand, when I export from my
Vista machine I have to export to my C; drive and then do a Robocopy (/MIR
parameter) to a flash drive for the transfer, if that is an issue.
Dell). I am running into myriads of problems trying to move my emails from
WLM on the Vista machine to WLM on the Win7 machine.
At this point I have two problems.
1) A set of folders that I exported (twice now) cannot be imported to Win7
(WLM, of course) because 'the file is in use or is empty' - it isn't empty
and it isn't being viewed with Explorer, etc).
2) Since this was my umpteenth problem I decided to just reinstall WLM. But
now when I try to export my two days worth of email messages from my Win7
machine, all I get is one email file (out of 50 or so) from my inbox (the
only folder that I am trying to export).
Something is seriously wrong here. Should I simply re-install WLM (or I am
tempted to restart the whole system install process)? Or are there some
other steps that I might try. Any known issues with simply uninstalling WLM
and reinstalling from a web download?
Thanks.
dave
ps. Due to other problems that I don't understand, when I export from my
Vista machine I have to export to my C; drive and then do a Robocopy (/MIR
parameter) to a flash drive for the transfer, if that is an issue.
Bruce Hagen
Nov 8, 2012, 9:08:51 PM11/8/12
to
"Dave Lee" <Dave...@ix.netcom.RemovE.com> wrote in message
news:pL-dnZ8YpoXI_gHN...@earthlink.com...
WLMail is not in my area of expertise as I hate it and don't use it, but
if nothing else works for you, this should.
•Create a Windows folder on the Desktop of the old machine.
•Open a folder in WinMail and drag the messages to the Desktop folder.
(They will remain in WinMail).
•Copy this folder to the Desktop on the new machine.
•Open the folder and drag the messages to a folder in the new e-mail
program. (Create folders first if needed).
Repeat for the other folders.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP 2004 ~ 2010
Imperial Beach, CA
news:pL-dnZ8YpoXI_gHN...@earthlink.com...
if nothing else works for you, this should.
•Create a Windows folder on the Desktop of the old machine.
•Open a folder in WinMail and drag the messages to the Desktop folder.
(They will remain in WinMail).
•Copy this folder to the Desktop on the new machine.
•Open the folder and drag the messages to a folder in the new e-mail
program. (Create folders first if needed).
Repeat for the other folders.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP 2004 ~ 2010
Imperial Beach, CA
Dave Lee
Nov 8, 2012, 10:06:08 PM11/8/12
to
"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message news:k7hojc$nkk$1...@dont-email.me...
Thanks. At one point I tried to just physically move the folders, and WLM
could 'see' the messages but could not open them.
dave
..winston
Nov 9, 2012, 3:47:07 PM11/9/12
to
Don't move folders into WLM from one pc to another. Doing so is likely to corrupt the message store index and prevent importing
messages exported properly from a different pc.
When exporting messages export choices are 'All folders or Selected Folders'. When choosing the latter select the email account
**and** the desired folders in the email account. Exporting must be done to a blank folder.
If exporting directly to another pc on the same network export create the blank folder in a location that will not create
permission problems (e.g. Public Documents).
As Bruce note, drag and drop (to copy) from WLM to a blank folder on one machine (Vista) then copy the folder to the new machine
and drag and drop into WLM (on Win7) should work.
- Note: If the number of messages is large, do not close WLM or interfere (it may appear to not be doing anything but it needs to
not only copy the messages to the WLM message store location but also update the entire index).
--
...winston
msft mvp
"Dave Lee" wrote in message news:VNWdnWlaZ_qe7gHN...@earthlink.com...
messages exported properly from a different pc.
When exporting messages export choices are 'All folders or Selected Folders'. When choosing the latter select the email account
**and** the desired folders in the email account. Exporting must be done to a blank folder.
If exporting directly to another pc on the same network export create the blank folder in a location that will not create
permission problems (e.g. Public Documents).
As Bruce note, drag and drop (to copy) from WLM to a blank folder on one machine (Vista) then copy the folder to the new machine
and drag and drop into WLM (on Win7) should work.
- Note: If the number of messages is large, do not close WLM or interfere (it may appear to not be doing anything but it needs to
not only copy the messages to the WLM message store location but also update the entire index).
--
...winston
msft mvp
"Dave Lee" wrote in message news:VNWdnWlaZ_qe7gHN...@earthlink.com...
Dave Lee
Nov 9, 2012, 9:54:27 PM11/9/12
to
"..winston" wrote in message news:k7jq7h$5jf$1...@dont-email.me...
Don't move folders into WLM from one pc to another. Doing so is likely to
corrupt the message store index and prevent importing
messages exported properly from a different pc.
When exporting messages export choices are 'All folders or Selected
Folders'. When choosing the latter select the email account
**and** the desired folders in the email account. Exporting must be done to
a blank folder.
If exporting directly to another pc on the same network export create the
blank folder in a location that will not create
permission problems (e.g. Public Documents).
As Bruce note, drag and drop (to copy) from WLM to a blank folder on one
machine (Vista) then copy the folder to the new machine
and drag and drop into WLM (on Win7) should work.
- Note: If the number of messages is large, do not close WLM or interfere
(it may appear to not be doing anything but it needs to
not only copy the messages to the WLM message store location but also update
the entire index).
--
...winston
msft mvp
Winston, thanks for the comments.
At this point I am going to proceed on the assumption that I corrupted
something in this process when I tried to do this with a 'direct file xfer'
between computers. So I will be reinstalling WLM and trying again.
dave
..winston
Nov 10, 2012, 1:39:19 AM11/10/12
to
Uninstalling WLM does not remove the WLM message store folder
- thus if you wish to start fresh on a new machine that has already had WLM installed, you'll have to delete the leftover folders
prior to reinstalling WLM to ensure WLM installation is clean, likewise...uninstalling WLM does not remove all Current_User
registry settings.
--
...winston
msft mvp
"Dave Lee" wrote in message news:3bqdncYclc1eXADN...@earthlink.com...
- thus if you wish to start fresh on a new machine that has already had WLM installed, you'll have to delete the leftover folders
prior to reinstalling WLM to ensure WLM installation is clean, likewise...uninstalling WLM does not remove all Current_User
registry settings.
--
...winston
msft mvp
"Dave Lee" wrote in message news:3bqdncYclc1eXADN...@earthlink.com...
Dave Lee
Nov 11, 2012, 6:16:04 PM11/11/12
to
"..winston" wrote in message news:k7ksok$pk2$1...@dont-email.me...
Uninstalling WLM does not remove the WLM message store folder
- thus if you wish to start fresh on a new machine that has already had WLM
installed, you'll have to delete the leftover folders
prior to reinstalling WLM to ensure WLM installation is clean,
likewise...uninstalling WLM does not remove all Current_User
registry settings.
--
...winston
msft mvp
Winston, FWIW I did CAREFULLY re-export all the relevant messages and
accounts and CAREFULLY re-imported on the new laptop. With a couple of known
(but unexplained) individual email message problems, all went smoothly. And
I did delete the old email store file structure (the one on the new
computer) before repeating the re-import.
Oddly enough my old WLM (on the old computer) can now no longer read ANY of
the email messages, although I can go directly into the old email store and
open them directly (which then uses WLM - go figure). I have no idea
what/how the simple process of doing an export would totally corrupt my old
computer email store. But at this point I'm not sure that this is a problem
worth solving. But if you have any thoughts ....
Thanks again.
dave
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