Windows Mail folders disappeared

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Windows Mail folders disappeared

Posted by: m8ty ()

Date: September 26, 2008 11:41AM

When I got my new laptop I initially moved Pegasus Mail to it and kept using this. I thought however that it would by quite handy to be able to use the Calender and Cantact integration offered by Windows Mail, so I started to use Winows Mail (while still keeping Pegasus going).

I was happily setting up new folders and moving new emails between them (The folder tree does not refresh after adding or modifying a folder ???), when all of a sutton all the Windows Mail folders had disappeard, and the message th

After some searching I found this WMUtil, a handy little utility which repaired my Windows Mail Database and all my folders and messages were back:

Here is what the utility does:
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Quote:
WMUtil is a small utility to allow users to compact and repair the Windows Mail database in Windows Vista.

The Windows Mail database periodically needs compacting and defragmenting to function with maximal performance. Currently there is no manual method to compact the database in Windows Mail, unless one tinkers with the values set at Tools | Options | Advanced | Maintenance. WMUtil allows the user to manually compact the database to remove any wasted space from it.

Occasionally the database becomes corrupted as indicated for example by the inability of being able to delete messages from various folders. The Windows Mail database has a built-in repair feature that can sometimes fix such problems. Windows Mail provides no access to this feature, so clicking on the Repair button will manually run the repair feature on the database. Clicking on the Clear Outbox button will remove references in the database to phantom outbox messages.

In addition a number of .eml and .nws files of zero byte length tend to accumulate in the message store, which can lead to a reduction in performance. The two buttons under the File Utilities allow the user to assess the number of messages and to remove the zero byte / blank messages.

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I also found this page, which explains a bit more about the problem and recommends to turn off mail scanning in the anti virus software (it's the third point on the page, you have to scroll down a little).

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2008 02:51PM by m8ty.

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Re: Windows Mail folders disappeared

Posted by: m8ty ()

Date: September 26, 2008 11:44AM

Just another note ... the main reason I want to use Windows Mail is because it integrates well with the Calender and Contact applications in Vista. Some of the posts I found when trying to figure out the above problem were to use Windows Live Mail instead. Windows Live Mail doesn't integrate with the Calender app though (or does it? Have I missed something?). Does anybody know of a suitable alternative? If so, please leave a post in this forum. Thanks

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2008 10:10AM by m8ty.

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Re: Windows Mail folders disappeared

Posted by: m8ty ()

Date: October 01, 2008 10:09AM

Looking into this a bit further I've come accross posts which state that Avast Antivirus is fully compatible with Windows Mail and does not cause the disappearing folders problem. The Home Edition of Avast Antivirus is free and can be found at http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html.

Not sure if I can trust this though, so does anybody know of an easy way to back up windows mail?

Ok ... so here is another update! In a post in Microsoft Communities the problem of not being able to send emails is being discussed (not related to the disapearing folders problem, but relevant in terms of AntiVirus recommendations), which finally was traced down to an incompatibility with Windows OneCare. In there they recommend either AVG or AVAST as alternative AntiVirus products but state that for BOTH of them emails scanning should be turned off. You can find this message thread at http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.vista.mail&tid=2f9c26ca-0a63-4794-b0f8-788beefa4c94&cat=en_US_0F13D7E8-6EEF-4471-A336-41CAA3BF9ABC&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1.

Why does the Windows Mail message store have to be so sensitive? Other email clients manage to work in conjuction with AntiVirus products?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2008 11:08AM by m8ty.

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