Windows Mail - Missing Messages in Folders

[mikecbig]

I have Windows Vista fully up to date with Norton 360 also up to date. When I
download POP emails into the inbox of Windows Mail all is good but when I
move them to newly created folders within WM, they show as present in the
lists but on double clicking, they are not present and the message 'mail not
found appears'. It appears to be spreading and I am seeing numerous reports
of other people having the same problem recently. There is no point telling
me that the windows mail folder must be corrupt because that is obvious and
the 3rd Party WMUtil has no effect on this problem. sfc /scannow from the
command prompt finds some corrupt files in the hidden windows mail folder and
is unable to repair them. I have triple checked for viruses with norton and 2
online checkers (Bitscan) and all is virus free. It started after the
November Windows Updates installed and it did the same on my laptop. Help.

 

[Gary VanderMolen \(MVP\)]

Norton security products are among the top three troublemakers for
Windows Mail. Symptoms often don't surface until an update occurs.
First, be sure to disable its email scanning, for the reason explained here:
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm

Disabling the Norton program is often insufficient. If so, do a trial uninstall,
followed by using their debris removal tool:
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

Instead of uninstalling your antivirus, another option is to upgrade to
Windows Live Mail, which is more resistant to the adverse effects of overly
intrusive antivirus products: http://download.live.com/wlmail

 

[Bob]

Norton is likely causing your problem.

Replace Norton with the free AVG http://free.grisoft.com/ or Avast
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html, and Windows Firewall and Windows
Defender.

Disabling it is not enough. You need to completely uninstall it.

If it doesn't solve the problem, get rid of it anyway. Norton is known to
cause many problems which don’t always appear immediately.

Download and run the Norton Removal Tool.
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

 

[mikecbig]

Now here is the funniest thing of all. When I investigated the hidden store
path of windows mail c:/users....app data\microsoft\windows mail... the
actual missing emails were there in local folders in the correct sub folder.
Double click on them and they try to open with Windows Mail and can't open.
BUT right click on the and choose 'open with' Windows Live Mail and there
they are. Even weirder is to drag them from the hidden folder directly into
the inbox of windows mail and they restore there and can be opened as normal.

So it is clearly not a loss of the email but of the indexing that windows
mail uses to identify each of its folders and sub folders contents.

 

[Gary VanderMolen \(MVP\)]

You have both Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail installed?

It is common knowledge here that Windows Live Mail is less prone
to suffering bad effects from overly aggressive antivirus programs.
Windows Mail does not like Norton.