Microsoft Update Last night and now Windows Live Mail won't work

Edited by hamluis, 12 August 2020 - 10:29 AM.
Moved from W10 Spt to Web Browsing/Email - Hamluis.

Are you using an IMAP or a POP email account? in other words, are your emails stored locally, or on the server, using IMAP?

 

Do hope somebody can help. I am elderly and non techie.....

Following last night's Microsoft update I find that emails are still coming in but they won't open.

The reply and send options are also greyed out.

In the panel where the email would be displayed is a message saying "Message could not be displayed. Windows Live Mail encountered an unexpected problem while displaying this message"

I can still access my Folders and can access and deal with emails in Virgin Webmail.

My windows version is Version 2004 (OS Build 19041.388

Many thanks

 

What kind of update was it on Monday, August, 10 2012? I am a Microsoft Insider and I am not aware of ANY updates on Monday, August 10th, 2020. What kind of update was it?

Edited by Rocky Bennett, 11 August 2020 - 03:44 PM.

I've checked an apparently am using IMAP
‹Thanks

There was no update on Monday, August 10th, 2020 from Microsoft. What kind of update was it?

Hi Rocky Bennett
Perhaps I've got it wrong - could it have been a Windows Update?   Sorry I don't understand this stuff.
I know in the middle of the night the screen was yellow and something was going on
​Then in the morning I had to sign in again and had the usual problem of them trying to sign me into Microsoft Edge instead of Chrome
Does any of that help?  Thanks

Windows Live Mail was discontinued by Microsoft in 2014 I think. One of the latest Win10 updates finally killed it. Time to move to a new mail app.

Was your OS an upgrade from Windows 7 because in order to get Live Mail on Windows 10 you have to download Windows Essentials and then it may only be a matter of time before Windows Live Mail ceases to function. I would look at using the mail app included with Windows 10.

Even though you’re able to run and use Windows Live Mail on Windows 10, we can’t tell how long will it last, because Microsoft encourages users to switch to the built-in universal Mail app, and it’s possible that the support for Windows Live Mail 2012 will eventually end.

Edited by JohnC_21, 11 August 2020 - 04:08 PM.

Sorry for some reason I thought my replies weren't posting but they were!
I have heard that Windows Live Mail is now unsupported but I am so used to it.  
I am thinking of eM Client because it look similar but will I be able to copy across loads of important folders I have in Windows Live Mail?
I have somebody helping me who knows a little more than I do 

So does it look as if there's no answer to my problem of the unopening emails and the only solution is a new email program.

I have tried something called Mail and can't really get on with it - eM Client looks closer to my needs.

thanks people for trying to help a novice oldie...

According to the below link emClient gives you the option to import your emails from numerous clients like Live Mail. 

Import from Windows Live Mail

When you click on one of these options, it will automatically find the program on your computer. It will then pull all the information it finds from it. Yes, it's that intelligent.

https://de.emclient.com/blog/transfer-all-data-from-your-current-email-client-to-em-client-easily-85

The data store of Windows Live Mail got corrupted. Windows update did not kill it although it might be related.

Since you use IMAP, the messages are stored on the server, that means you can safely delete the data folder and it will recreate it and download messages again. That is why I asked, because with POP, the messages are downloaded and are stored on your PC. Be careful though if you have some messages in your "Storage Folders" as these are NOT on the server and they are only on your PC and deleting would lose them permanently.

Most likely the database file got corrupted. The contacts should remain intact because they are stored in another location (Windows Contacts folder).

As a first step, you might try to repair the database file by issuing this command (from the command line):

C:\Windows\system32>esentutl.exe /p "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"

Do not omit the quotes!

Esentutl is a command-line tool that is built into Windows Vista. To run esentutl, open a command prompt, type Esentutl with the appropriate parameters, and then press ENTER. It is used for repairing the MSMessageStore file which is in Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) / JetBlue database format.

To be clear - esentutl.exe also exists on Windows 10 as well in the "C:\Windows\system32" folder

Command line options for it:

Defragmentation: ESENTUTL /d <database name> [options]
Recovery: ESENTUTL /r <logfile base name> [options]
Integrity: ESENTUTL /g <database name> [options]
Checksum: ESENTUTL /k <file name> [options]
Repair: ESENTUTL /p <database name> [options]
File Dump: ESENTUTL /m[mode-modifier] <filename>
Copy File: ESENTUTL /y <source file> [options]

You can also try the recovery mode flags, just replace with this:

C:\Windows\system32>esentutl.exe /r "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"

Assuming the above is the path to the Windows Live Mail data folder.

That might work.

As "Budapest" above has already mentioned, Windows Live Mail was discontinued, but this is not the reason for this error.

As for the alternative program to Windows Live Mail, the best choice is OE Classic - https://www.oeclassic.com - as it was designed as Outlook Express replacement and as such is very close to Windows Live Mail as well which is a 2nd successor to the Outlook Express (1st successor being Windows Mail from Vista).

Edited by phz, 12 August 2020 - 06:08 AM.

Have you tried this suggestion?

https://www.tenforums.com/browsers-email/157703-live-mail-2012-screwed-up-after-v2004-update.html#post1991043

I am so grateful to all of you for this valuable advice.
I have accepted that Live Mail is not supported so sooner or later I'm going to have to switch
So I'm now set up with eM Client and it seems to be working well.
Thank you especially to PHZ for the mine of info and I just hope this will be useful to others reading this with similar problems.

So glad you folk are out there

Thanks again.
PS  Maybe I should have gone for OE classic - read about that too late but I know what to switch to if eM Client doesnt work out.

Thank you for the info in this post.  I had the same problem with Windows Live Mail unexpectedly presenting the same error message and based on info here I somewhat successfully downloaded the eM Client (not all the folders from Windows Live Mail were migrated over)..but I was interested in OE Classic, and downloaded v3.0 of that.  After many attempts to add my existing live mail accounts, I finally sent them an email for assistance, as could not get them to work.  The response this morning says that I did everything correctly but 3.0 has a bug and I need to download 3.1, which appears to be only available as a paid version?  I thought that was a little strange; can anyone comment or give me further guidance?

It looks like you're using IMAP. Version 3.1 of OE Classic is required if you use IMAP, as what you describe is an old bug from the OE Classic 3.0 version.

3.0 is now a fairly old version (November 2019) and OE Classic 3.1 most recent update is just a few days old (Aug 11th, 2020) and is updated on a regular basis.

It has actually received lots of IMAP and other feature updates since November 2019. If you update to OE Classic 3.1 it will work well.

You can take a look at - https://www.oeclassic.com/news - for the list of updates made in 3.1 since the release of the 3.0 version.

Edited by phz, 20 August 2020 - 07:27 AM.