Update for Windows Live Essentials Mail 2012 (KB3093594) kills WLM

Peter D · 14 Dec 2015

Was using WLM Version 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) then stupidly applied the dreaded patch without doing enough background research and a few hours later lost my Calendar. Now back to Build 16.4.3528.0331 after going through the Uninstall and re-install WLM through the Windows Essentials item in Add/Remove Programs process. Mail has been OK (so far) through the whole nightmare but calendar entries still all gone. This data is important and I can't afford to lose it.

My system is NOT synched to anything and has never been. The Windows accounts used are all local and I do not use an MS account and do not use any of the MS (or Google) mail systems. Everything has been stored locally on my PC (within an extensive structure of storage directories for the mail) and I've never had any problems. This has been my arrangement for many years across several PCs and systems going back to Win95 when I first started using Outlook Express and finally got to WLM somewhere between Vista and Win7.

I've done a restore of the backed up \AppData\ directories but still no calendar entries.

Assuming the default settings because I've never tried to change them, where EXACTLY is the calendar data stored in the \AppData\ structure and what are the names of the relevant file(s)?

Once I know what I'm looking for, I should be able to get the data from the backups. I'm assuming here that Microsoft itself hasn't sabotaged WLM to force people onto the useless Win 10 app and that WLM will actually still recognise the calendar data stored in the local drive.

HeavyHemi · 14 Dec 2015

Peter D said:

Was using WLM Version 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) then stupidly applied the dreaded patch without doing enough background research and a few hours later lost my Calendar. Now back to Build 16.4.3528.0331 after going through the Uninstall and re-install WLM through the Windows Essentials item in Add/Remove Programs process. Mail has been OK (so far) through the whole nightmare but calendar entries still all gone. This data is important and I can't afford to lose it.

My system is NOT synched to anything and has never been. The Windows accounts used are all local and I do not use an MS account and do not use any of the MS (or Google) mail systems. Everything has been stored locally on my PC (within an extensive structure of storage directories for the mail) and I've never had any problems. This has been my arrangement for many years across several PCs and systems going back to Win95 when I first started using Outlook Express and finally got to WLM somewhere between Vista and Win7.

I've done a restore of the backed up \AppData\ directories but still no calendar entries.

Assuming the default settings because I've never tried to change them, where EXACTLY is the calendar data stored in the \AppData\ structure and what are the names of the relevant file(s)?

Once I know what I'm looking for, I should be able to get the data from the backups. I'm assuming here that Microsoft itself hasn't sabotaged WLM to force people onto the useless Win 10 app and that WLM will actually still recognise the calendar data stored in the local drive.

It's located at C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail

gtspeck · 14 Dec 2015

I saw this on Forbes Tech and it worked for me.
Uninstall the Hotfix KB3093594 (d-Mail.msp) Run Command Prompt as administrator .
Copy and paste the following code:"Msiexec /package {B775C26B-EAA8-4A11-ACBF-76E52DF6B805} /uninstall {342DCD5D-5946-453B-97AC-D53B7662EDF5}"

DON'T INCLUDE THE QUTATION MARKS

Click “Repair”, when the msp wizards asks to remove or repair the application.
Once it finishes you need to restart
After that you can synchronize the calendar again.
Hopefully Microsoft will come out with a patch for Windows 10.

Peter D · 14 Dec 2015

HeavyHemi...thanks for that...I expected that was the right general location but was looking for more specific detail down to the file level. Attached is a screen dump showing the hidden and system protected operating system files in the C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Calendars directory. I have only a single calendar but I've no idea where it is in this and I'm trying to figure out how to get it back to where it needs to be for the WLM to read it.

Update for Windows Live Essentials Mail 2012 (KB3093594) kills WLM-wlm-calendar-fix.jpg

I'm assuming (hoping?) that what I want is somewhere in the Backup folder from 09:30 on 14/12/2015 because the calendar data was still showing up then but was gone before the 18:41 folder the same day.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

HeavyHemi · 14 Dec 2015

Peter D said:

HeavyHemi...thanks for that...I expected that was the right general location but was looking for more specific detail down to the file level. Attached is a screen dump showing the hidden and system protected operating system files in the C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Calendars directory. I have only a single calendar but I've no idea where it is in this and I'm trying to figure out how to get it back to where it needs to be for the WLM to read it.

I'm assuming (hoping?) that what I want is somewhere in the Backup folder from 09:30 on 14/12/2015 because the calendar data was still showing up then but was gone before the 18:41 folder the same day.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The WLCalendarStore.edb in the Backup directory should be the data store for the calendar

Peter D · 14 Dec 2015

HeavyHemi, you are a lifesaver!!! Thank you so much.

Copied the WLCalendarStore.edb file from the backup folder to replace the one in the DBStore folder and when I reopened the WLM my calendar entries were back!!! Bloody marvellous!

Thanks again.

Harrierbird · 14 Dec 2015

afleischer: Let us know if Joakim's instructions worked for you. I just unistalled WLM, installed it again, installed the patch and it was still crashing. I will try to run it without the patch but of course this is not a long term solution as according to microsoft it will stop working soon.

I am avoiding changing to a new e-mail client as moving all my calendar entries will be a MAJOR pain... :S

afleischer · 14 Dec 2015

Yes, Joakim's instructions worked! To be clear, here's what you do:

Install the patch, let WLM crash, close it, re-open it, Repeat the process 10 times, and then re-open it one more time and leave it open after the crash for 30 minutes or longer (the window containing "Debug or Close Program" will remain open). Close and re-open and it should work fine. WLM is patched and running fine now for me!

TheCanadaMan · 14 Dec 2015

I installed the patch and finally uninstalled it after 2 days. I had the original WLM 2012 on Windows 10 - no problems.

My wife and I share our WLM instance, and each have ~5000-6000 messages in our accounts (sent, received etc). I have sorted most of my email into sub-folders. Went through the usual problems described here, and then some.

We use the calendar extensively as well, so that in itself was a deal breaker (the Windows 10 calendar app only syncs back 90 days - no options). I did turn off the calendar sign in on WLM to get it to work. I found that depending on when you toggle it on or off, it goes to the start or end of the sync list, which affects whether WLM crashes on startup, or at some 'random' time after.

Back to email - it took more than a few dozen attempts to get the email sync'd. I tried with the old storage location, and then again by creating a new one (assuming that some newer indexing was causing the issues). On every run, it would pick a random number of emails from an arbitrary folder to download. Then it would pull "0 of nnn messages", and finally get stuck showing connection errors. Restart app, and the cycle starts again with another arbitrary set of messages.

For the longest time, it only got headers by repeating this over and over. Finally it got most messages, but skipped random message's content and they remained headers only. All this over a period of ~12-15 hours, forcing WLM to check mail again, or closing it and starting it manually.

Finally, once all the mail and content was sync'd (except the few random ones which remained as headers) I had the following findings:

the skipped messages all had more than one attachment
the total size of the message folder containg ALL our email was ~3.5GB
All the 'Sent' messages lost their "To" field - "To" showed my email address from which the messages were sent, and "From" itself was empty.
As reported by someone else, most messages showed "unsafe sender" message, and did not allow me to mark them as safe - I could only select the option to display images.
Last straw was that the folder structure disappeared. After having taken so long to download, the structure was there on the file system, but WLM just refused to open folders (it showed them initially while I was downloading - then the were gone from the UI).
I finally gave up on this, until MS forces me to update when our accounts change to ActiveSync. Went back to the old version of WLM2012, and it downloaded.

Just for perspective, WLM original version took ~30 minutes to bring down the 12,000 odd messages totaling 3.5GB to a new storage folder (vs 12-15 hours and lot of pain with corrupted messages on the patched version) - so it is not because there are too many messages or because the connection is slow.

On a side note, I also have an account set up on Outlook served out of India. That got upgraded to ActiveSync / Outlook a couple of months ago. It stopped working with the unpatched WLM2012 at the time of the change. That started synchronizing with the patched version, and that is a small account (only a few hundred text emails and NO custom sub-folders), but that also took many iterations and was very very slow to pull the messages down.

lgentry · 14 Dec 2015

Peter D said:

My system is NOT synched to anything and has never been. The Windows accounts used are all local and I do not use an MS account and do not use any of the MS (or Google) mail systems. .

It's my understanding that unless you are using WLM to get @outlook.com, @Hotmail.com, @msn.com email you will not need the update. It will continue to work for other @emailaccouts just fine.

Update for Windows Live Essentials Mail 2012 (KB3093594) kills WLM

Mail OK but Calendar suddenly gone

Issues within folders