backup windows mail messages

How do I create a backup of my windows mail messages? Not all of my files, just the windows mail messages. Where are they anyway?

Hello Teaman,

This will help show you how to with Windows Mail.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/90298-windows-mail-messages.html

Shawn

Brink said:

Hello Teaman,

This will help show you how to with Windows Mail.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/90298-windows-mail-messages.html

Shawn

Click to expand...

That did not work. I did the export as instructed. When I tried to import,I got a message saying that "no messages can be found in this folder". I did see some files in there that are *.eml files and one that is called winmail.fol. I can open the ones that are *.eml by double clicking on them, but can't import them into windows mail. The eml files are not the names I can read, they all have names like 1C7E2C98-000000001.eml.
When exporting, I chose the format "Microsoft windows mail"; when I tried to import, I chose "Microsoft windows mail 7". The only other choices did not have windows mail as part of the format name.
I am probably doing something wrong, but I don't know what it is. Teaman

Teaman,

It's critical that when exporting the messages that you create a new folder in step 1 - Option One, and when importing that you only highlight that folder and not click on it in step 5 Option Two. You might double check to be sure of this.

Brink said:

Teaman,

It's critical that when exporting the messages that you create a new folder in step 1 - Option One, and when importing that you only highlight that folder and not click on it in step 5 Option Two. You might double check to be sure of this.

Click to expand...

I did what you said. This time it imported (created) all of the folders, but only some (very few) of the messages were put in those folders. All the imported messages were put in a new folder called "imported folder" within Windows mail. Most of the imported folders were empty after importing. The place where I stored the exported files appears to have ALL of the messages (at least by a numerical count). Out of around 150 messages, I count about 20 that were imported. BTW, the messages that were imported and had attachments, still had those attachments.
Any other ideas?

You might see if this can work for you.

In Windows Explorer, navigate to the hidden folder at C:\users\(your username)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Local Folders\Imported Folder\Local Folders\Inbox. Copy and paste only the other missing .eml files from the exported folder into the Inbox folder in bold above.

In Windows Mail, you can then copy and paste or drag and drop the messages in the new Imported Folder to the Inbox folder of your choice, then delete the Imported folder when done if you like.

Brink said:

You might see if this can work for you.

In Windows Explorer, navigate to the hidden folder at C:\users\(your username)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Local Folders\Imported Folder\Local Folders\Inbox. Copy and paste only the other missing .eml files from the exported folder into the Inbox folder in bold above.

In Windows Mail, you can then copy and paste or drag and drop the messages in the new Imported Folder to the Inbox folder of your choice, then delete the Imported folder when done if you like.

Click to expand...

OK, this is too confusing. What "other missing files from the exported folder"? If I could go through all of this after a crash of my PC, why would I even want to export the messages anyway? I am lost here. Also, if my PC crashed, how would I know if there were missing files that did not get exported (except if there are no files at all)? Please explain better for me. Teaman

No problem Teaman.

The new folder that you exported all of your Windows Mail messages should contain all the messages if you had selected "All folders" instead of "Selected folders" while exporting them.

You should not have to go through this unless something went wrong while importing the messages as you have described above. The method I described is an attempt to manually add the .eml messages, that you noticed were missing after importing the messages back into Windows Mail, and not in any of the hidden C:\users\(your username)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Local Folders\Imported Folder\Local Folders folders, but are there in the new folder that you had exported the messages to.

When importing the messages back, be sure to also select "All folders" as well.

Hope this helps.