Transfer Windows Live Mail from Old PC w/Win 7 to new PC w/Windows 10


  1. Posts : 2
    Windows 10
       #1

    Transfer Windows Live Mail from Old PC w/Win 7 to new PC w/Windows 10


    The Scenario:
    My husband is a travel agent. We use Windows Live Mail. He keeps email files from clients in a WLM folder called "Clients", has a subfolder for each client, and stores information about their trips in the subfolders.
    His older computer runs Windows 7.
    The new computer runs Windows 10.

    This is what I have done that DOES seems to work...up to that point:
    1. On the desktop of the older pc that has Windows 7 installed on it, I created an empty folder.
    2. I used the Windows Live Mail email export feature to select his main folder titled "CLIENTS" and everything in it.
    3. As it exported the Client Folders and message contents, the Export feature carefully went through every single subfolder, one at a time, listed the name of each client subfolder, and did a careful countdown of how many messages it was copying from each folder. It took HOURS.
    4. From what I can tell, things seem to work up to this point.
    5. Also, I successfully managed to export and then import the contacts list, from one computer to another without a problem.

    This what I have done that I THINK is working:
    1. Create an empty folder on my external hard drive.
    2. Transfer the entire folder from the desktop of the older computer over to an empty folder on my external hard drive. This ostensibly worked, because it took HOURS, although it did not give me a specific progress report of exactly what it was working on. Also, when I click on the files on the external hard drive it shows that there are contents in each of the Client folders. (To do this, I dragged the folder on my desktop over to the folder on my external hard drive.)

    This is where I THINK things are going wrong:
    3. I plug the external hard drive into the new computer that has Windows 10.
    4. Go into Windows Live Mail on the new computer.
    5. Import the contents of the email folder on the external hard drive.
    6. The import effort takes all of 3 seconds.
    7. When I look at the downloaded folders, it has downloaded each of the client folders by name.
    8. The folders appear to be completely empty. I have "View" set to show all of the folders, and nothing is set to hide anything.

    So, where is the problem? What do I need to try and do? Am I missing something?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 2,538
    Windows 10 Pro 64bit
       #2

    The easiest way I've found is on the old computer to save the WLMail folder under C:\Users\yourcomputername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\ & then when you've set up WLMail on the new computer, open it to create a new folder & under the above file location there should be the Windows Live Mail folder, delete the folder & paste the saved WLMail folder from your old PC & when you next open WLMail it'll have all your accounts & mail available, you will have to enter the password for each account but that's fine.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Doctor9fan said:
    The easiest way I've found is on the old computer to save the WLMail folder under C:\Users\yourcomputername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\ & then when you've set up WLMail on the new computer, open it to create a new folder & under the above file location there should be the Windows Live Mail folder, delete the folder & paste the saved WLMail folder from your old PC & when you next open WLMail it'll have all your accounts & mail available, you will have to enter the password for each account but that's fine.

    I did come across this suggestion, and I tried doing this, even though it literally took overnight to save the entire folder. (I was following a youtube video that showed how to do this). However, it didn't work., much to my enormous frustration. Now I'm trying to just deal with his own folders that relate to his clients, instead of transferring everything that is in the original Windows Live Mail file on the older computer.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 2,324
    Win10
       #4

    Not sure why Doc's advise didn't work but If you are using Storage Folders for the Client Emails , you can move the emails back to the Main Account under new folders ( a bit of work since you can't drag and drop ) and then just sync WLM on the new Win10 computer and the folders should show up in WLM. The advantage is that you now have a copy on M$ servers which should always be up and available even if your computer dies.


    If you are using WLM still, you will need to switch the Account type to IMAP for Syncing as M$ is stopping ActiveSync this month for many Users. the downside is that WLM Calendar will no longer sync/Work , but it won't anyway without ActiveSync. (Win10 has a new Calendar built in though)
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 2,324
    Win10
       #5

    Kbird said:
    Not sure why Doc's advise didn't work but If you are using Storage Folders for the Client Emails , you can move the emails back to the Main Account under new folders ( a bit of work since you can't drag and drop ) and then just sync WLM on the new Win10 computer and the folders should show up in WLM. The advantage is that you now have a copy on M$ servers which should always be up and available even if your computer dies.


    If you are using WLM still, you will need to switch the Account type to IMAP for Syncing as M$ is stopping ActiveSync this month for many Users. the downside is that WLM Calendar will no longer sync/Work , but it won't anyway without ActiveSync. (Win10 has a new Calendar built in though)
    There is more info on the Storage folder in this Post at M$ ...scroll down a bit.....

    https://support.office.com/en-us/art...rs=en-US&ad=US
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 2,324
    Win10
       #6

    Churchroad said:
    I did come across this suggestion, and I tried doing this, even though it literally took overnight to save the entire folder. (I was following a youtube video that showed how to do this). However, it didn't work., much to my enormous frustration. Now I'm trying to just deal with his own folders that relate to his clients, instead of transferring everything that is in the original Windows Live Mail file on the older computer.
    I just tried this and found WLM has to be closed otherwise the copy won't complete 100% as it can not copy files in use , ( like temporary files etc) I would try again , it is the fastest way especially with a storage folder as large as yours apparently is.

    From Doc9Fan again in another thread :
    If you save the Windows Live Mail folder from here :

    C:\Users\yourcomputerusername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail

    then you can easily replace your accounts, folders incl storage folders when you install the program on a new computer or reinstall.

    Just open WLMail to create the folder then navigate to the above link on your computer & delete the newly created folder & replace it with the saved version.

    When you next open Live mail you'll have to sign into all your email accounts but your emails will be there

    I save this folder regularly , close WLM before you do it , so no files are in use.

    If you check the folder the old account may still be there with your missing emails.
      My Computers


 

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