Corrupted Windows Mail Local Folders

[Mailless User]

On a few occasions recently, emails in some local folders all show the same
message body. If I try to move the emails to another folder I get error
messages telling me that Windows Mail cannot find the message body - then all
the emails are empty.

What causes this - can it be fixed - is there a known bug in Windows Mail ?

Some save emails are really important, and I can't afford to keep losing them.

 

[Steve Cochran]

WinMail may have some database corruption. Try repairing the database with my Windows Mail utility (www.oehelp.com/WMUTil/).

The messages themselves are stored as eml files (see www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#wm), so those should be intact, if present. You can check the message store.

For the future see point 3 here: www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 as it would appear some 3rd party program is interfering with WinMail's functioning.

steve

 

[Mailless User]

Thanks for the ideas - unfortunately they did not fix the problem.

I have looked at the message store and the emails are there, but if I try to
open any of those in a corrupted folder I get "...could not be opened because
it does not exist or is being used by another application". I have turned off
email scanning by my antivirus program - it made no difference - I cannot
think of any other software that I use that could have any impact on the
email system.

I took a copy of the emails in a corrupted folder and pasted them into a new
folder (outside of the windows mail messgae store). The copies open normally
- is there some way I can import these back into the windows mail message
store to replace those that are locked?

 

[Steve Cochran]

Well, a repair of the database should have fixed the issue.

What you can do is create a new folder in WinMail. Then open it so you see an empty message list. Then go to the directory of eml files in Explorer and select the eml files (only eml files or it won't work) and drag the selection overtop the WinMail folder message list and drop it and those eml files will then be incorporated into the folder. I would certainly make a backup of those eml files also.

steve

 

[Mailless User]

Great suggestion - I now have new folders with clean mail messages and it
looks like you have solved my problem. Thanks for the help.

I like the "MVP" tag - about right in my view. Just off to make another
backup.

Bye.

 

[Steve Cochran]

Glad it worked for you.

steve

Great suggestion - I now have new folders with clean mail messages and it
looks like you have solved my problem. Thanks for the help.

I like the "MVP" tag - about right in my view. Just off to make another
backup.

Bye.

 

[andreas baier]

On a few occasions recently, emails in some local folders all show the
same
message body. If I try to move the emails to another folder I get error
messages telling me that Windows Mail cannot find the message body - then
all
the emails are empty.

What causes this - can it be fixed - is there a known bug in Windows Mail
?

Some save emails are really important, and I can't afford to keep losing
them.