Missing Local Messages after Converting to Live Mail

[Jerry Bryan]

I received the message that DAV support was going away and that I needed to convert from Outlook Express to the MicroSoft Live client. I did so. After doing so, a bunch of messages (many hundreds of messages) were missing from my local copy of my E-mail folders. I should mention that I choose to keep all my messages local and to do my own backups rather than depending on Microsoft. I always immediately move all messages local when I start Outlook Express.

None of my local folders were missing in the Live client and none of them were completely empty, but many messages from within the local folders were missing. When I shut down the Live client and opened Outlook Express again, all the messages were there and nothing had been lost. I'm not sure if Microsoft Live was using the same copy of the local folders as Outlook Express or if it had made its own copy. But either way, I can't afford to lose many hundreds of messages just because I'm converting to Live.

In the meantime, I have deinstalled Live and starting using Outlook Express again. I have until June 30th to solve this problem, or I will be forced to drop my Hotmail account and go elsewhere for E-mail service. Any ideas?

[gregntechnologist]

Had the same issue. This link explains a manual fix, which worked fine for me...

http://www.codeconscious.com/outlook-express/exporting-from-outlook-express.html

Would hate to have deleted my outlook express message store and then discover it had imported only about 20% of my storage folders... ouch!

[Marty]

I had the same problem and submitted the following to Microsoft using their support form:
https://support.live.com/eform.aspx?productKey=wlmaildesktop&ct=eformts

===============
Problem I submitted:

"About one week ago I installed Windows Live Mail as instructed to do by email from Microsoft telling me that I will no longer be able to use Outlook Express to access Hotmail via HTTP after June 30, 2008. During the installation, my accounts and local folders were migrated to WLM. I just dictovered that the migration was not complete. Although all the local folders were recreated as storage folders and some of the content was migrated, not all of the content was migrated. I am missing hundreds of messages. In some folders I am missing everything from the past year, and in others even more, like back to 2006. How can I get ALL my stored messages from Outlook Express 6 into WLM? THANKS."

I received a reply from John G. on WLM tech support team. It did not help me because the same problem occurred again (when I ran the manual import process, not all of the messages are copied from Outlook Express 6 to WLM). In my case, in one particular forlder, it loses about 600 out of 4700 messages. Other folders have similar results although most of the others do not contain that many messages.

Here is what I received from John, in case it will help somebody else. I will update here if John replies again with a followup. I would appreciate if others would do the same as I am still seeking a solution. Thanks.

================
Reply received from John:

Hello Marty,

Your message was forwarded to Windows Live Mail Technical Support. My name is John and I gather that you are having issues importing your e-mail messages from Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail. I understand how important it is to have your issue resolved immediately and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

Marty, when you install Windows Live Mail, existing e-mail messages and contacts from Outlook Express are automatically imported into a new Windows Live Mail data store. Please be assured that you will continue to have copies of your contacts and e-mail messages on your hard drive since Windows Live Mail does not overwrite your Outlook Express program and content, but keeps your Outlook Express data store intact in case you want to use it again. This initial import process is designed to help you get your data into Windows Live Mail so you can easily transition quickly and smoothly.

Should you encounter any issues importing your e-mail messages and address book, please follow the steps that I have provided below:


A. Importing messages from Outlook Express 6 in to Windows Live Mail:

1. Open Windows Live Mail.

2. Click the "File" menu option.

3. Click "Import" and select "Messages."

4. Select "Microsoft Outlook Express 6" on the list of programs then click "Next>"

5. Browse for the location of your Outlook Express e-mail messages then click "Next>"

6. Click "All folders" or select the folders that you would like to import then click "Next>"

7. Click "Finish"

Note: Imported messages are usually being placed under "Storage folders." If you see an "Imported folder" under "Storage folders," please click on that folder to reveal all the folders that were imported from your Outlook Express.



B. Importing contacts / address book from Outlook Express 6 to Windows Live Mail:

1. Export contacts from Outlook Express:

a. In Outlook Express, click on "File" menu then select "Export" then click on "Address Book".

b. On the new box that will appear, click on "Text File (Comma Separated value)" then click on "Export" button.

c. Type the name of the file and click on the "Browse" button to select the location where the information will be stored then click on "Next" button. The preferred storage location is the "My Documents" folder or your "Desktop" for easy finding later.

d. Select the fields that you wish to export.

e. Click on "Finish".



2. Import contacts to Windows Live Mail:

a. Access your Windows Live Mail application.

b. Click on the "Contacts" button below the list of folders.

c. On the Windows Live Contacts window, click on the "Show Menu" button near the "Help" button or press "Alt" and "M" keys on your keyboard.

d. Click on the "Import" option from the list and select "Comma Separated Values (.CSV)" option.

e. On the CSV Import dialogue box, please click on the "Browse" button and locate the ".CSV" file that you have stored.

f. After locating the file, Click on "Open."

g. Click on "Next" and map the fields that you want to import by clicking on the "Checkboxes" on each field.

h. After doing this, click on the "Finish" button.


We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for using Windows Live Mail.

Sincerely,

John G.

Windows Live Mail Technical Support

[JIM]

These instructions are fairly obvious, but has it occurred to anyone at Microsoft that we have already followed them? Even the instructions to delete the account and start over

The import program isn't working. It doesn't get everyhing, and it doesn't display any errors. When you try the import again it creates duplicates.

[Frits]

All this works perfectly;
IF
Before you do the import, you first delete all the folders in "Imported Folders"

[JIM]

My conversion to Live Mail also left many messages missing. Thousands, in fact. The last eight months of ten years of messages. Even worse, the folders have been duplicated each time I attempted an import.

Can Outlook be used, and can Outlook be told to download the messages and delete them from the server? I tried Outlook last year, but it left the messages on the server. Response was simply too slow.

I am now on my forth support person, each having promised to work with me to resolve the problem.

Now my email is hopelessly snarled up, some in Outlook Express, some in Live, and the stuff in Live is scattered across the duplicated folders.

[Marty]

My missing messages seem to be from the period approx. April 2007 to the present (April 2008 when I originally attempted to move to Live Mail).

It occurred to me that April 2007 is about the time I moved to a new computer. I migrated my Outlook Express configuration using Windows "Files & Settings Tranfer Wizard". Both computers were Win XP SP2 and I use the same user name on both, however they do have different/unique computer names.

I wonder if this has anything to do with messages not being migrated from Outlook Express to Live Mail.

Does anybody else have a similar situation, perhaps even a change or addition of a new user name (used for your mail) in Windows?

Just speculating.

Thanks,
-Marty

[Marty]

Microsoft told me to delete and recreate my Hotmail account in Live Mail and then rerun the import. This appears to have resolved the problem for me - all messages were imported. However, it did create a duplication of many messages because a new copy of all the imported folders was created under "Imported Folders" under "Storage Folders". I also had to manually copy messages that I had saved into the original (incomplete) set of imported folders. Afterwards I deleted the incomplete folders to eliminate duplication. So after some screwing around, everything appears to be back in order. The following is the procedure they had me use, which is the same thing we were doing before except manually deleting and creating the Hotmail account.


A. Remove your existing Windows Live Hotmail account.

1. Launch Windows Live Mail.

2. Right-click your account and then select the "Remove account" option.

3. Click on the "Yes" button in the confirmation window.


B. Add the same account to Windows Live Mail.

1. Click the "Tools" menu option

Note: If you do not immediately see the "Tools" menu option, please click the "Show menu" drop down icon that is beside the "Help" icon and the select the "Show all menus" option. You can also press the "ALT" and "M" keys on your keyboard to open the "Show menu" drop down list.

2. Select "Accounts."

3. Click the "Add." button.

4. Click the "E-mail Account" icon in the "Add an account" window then lick the "Next" button.

5. Fill-out the fields with your username account, password and display name.

6. Remove the check mark if it is present in the "Manually configure server settings for e-mail account" option.

7. Click the "Next" button then select the "Finish" button in the next window.

8. Click the "Close" button to close the "Accounts" window.



To manually import messages in Outlook Express:

1. On the "File" menu, point to "Import", and then click "Messages."

2. Click on "Microsoft Outlook Express 6" and then click "Next"

3. Click on the "browse" button and locate the .dbx file saved in your computer (Use the search functionality of Windows XP to search for these files if you are not sure where they are located.) and then click "Next."

4. Choose the folders you want to import, click "Next, and then "Finish."


Notes:

- If you are unsure which e-mail program and version you want to import messages from, check the e-mail program's Help documentation.

- Make sure that Outlook Express is not running while you are importing your e-mail messages.

[Chris R]

Post by Jerry Bryan
I received the message that DAV support was going away and that I needed to convert from Outlook Express to the MicroSoft Live client. I did so. After doing so, a bunch of messages (many hundreds of messages) were missing from my local copy of my E-mail folders. I should mention that I choose to keep all my messages local and to do my own backups rather than depending on Microsoft. I always immediately move all messages local when I start Outlook Express.
None of my local folders were missing in the Live client and none of them were completely empty, but many messages from within the local folders were missing. When I shut down the Live client and opened Outlook Express again, all the messages were there and nothing had been lost. I'm not sure if Microsoft Live was using the same copy of the local folders as Outlook Express or if it had made its own copy. But either way, I can't afford to lose many hundreds of messages just because I'm converting to Live.
In the meantime, I have deinstalled Live and starting using Outlook Express again. I have until June 30th to solve this problem, or I will be forced to drop my Hotmail account and go elsewhere for E-mail service. Any ideas?

[Chris R]

I had the same problem. All my Outlook Express 6 (OE) Local folders were
copied as Windows Live Mail (WLM) Storage folders during the automatic set-up
process but hardly any of the messages were transferred.

Here's what I did and it worked! (sorry if it's a bit too detailed but we're
not all IT experts):

1. Delete all the messages in the WLM Storage folders that were
automatically transferred during the set-up process so that they are all
empty (this avoids any duplication - don't worry, they're all still in the OE
Local folders).
2. Create an empty folder on the desktop and open it - this will be the
'Transfer' folder.
3. Open OE and WLM
4. Re-size and arrange the 3 windows so that you can see them all (I did it
so that they were side-by-side with the 'Transfer' folder window between the
other 2)
5. Open the first OE local folder and the corresponding WLM folder.
6. Select all the messages in the OE folder and drag-and-drop them into the
Transfer folder (the file names will reflect the message subject).
7. Drag-and-Drop all the messages from the Transfer folder into the WLM
folder (the 'From', 'Subject' and 'Date' fields will duplicate those in the
OE local folder)
8. Delete all the files from the Transfer folder.
9. Repeat for all the other OE Local folders.

This took me 15 minutes for about 1,000 stored messages in about 35 folders.

Post by Jerry Bryan
I received the message that DAV support was going away and that I needed to convert from Outlook Express to the MicroSoft Live client. I did so. After doing so, a bunch of messages (many hundreds of messages) were missing from my local copy of my E-mail folders. I should mention that I choose to keep all my messages local and to do my own backups rather than depending on Microsoft. I always immediately move all messages local when I start Outlook Express.
None of my local folders were missing in the Live client and none of them were completely empty, but many messages from within the local folders were missing. When I shut down the Live client and opened Outlook Express again, all the messages were there and nothing had been lost. I'm not sure if Microsoft Live was using the same copy of the local folders as Outlook Express or if it had made its own copy. But either way, I can't afford to lose many hundreds of messages just because I'm converting to Live.
In the meantime, I have deinstalled Live and starting using Outlook Express again. I have until June 30th to solve this problem, or I will be forced to drop my Hotmail account and go elsewhere for E-mail service. Any ideas?