If I install the update, I lose my complete e-mail address/contact list. If I don't install the update I can't open my Live Mail at all. I miss Outlook Express SO much! I'm a senior and I don't need Live Essentials bells and whistles.
Welcome to the forums JeanieD
Did you come across this page already?: How do I import and export email, contacts, and calendars with Windows Live Mail? - Import Email Messages or Back Up and Restore Windows Live Mail and http://www.emailquestions.com/window...il-2011-a.html
For outlook express, you could take a look at this tutorial: Windows Mail
HTH
Thank you for the link. As is typical with me and my computer, my results are not the same as the results described in the instructions.
I opened Windows Live Mail intending to import my contacts, but I don't have these sections, with their accompanying icons, arranged vertically:
Calendar
Contacts
Feeds
Newsgroups
Mine are arranged horizontally (Mail Calendar Contacts Feeds Newsgroups) and I don't seem to have a ribbon to click on.
But I do appreciate your trying to help.
I'm not sure what update people are talking about. Perhaps it only applies to those who have already upgraded to WLM 2011 from 2009 or are using 2011 from the start. In any case, no matter which version, every user has 2 contact lists to choose from: signed-in or not-signed-in, depending on whether or not the user has "signed-in" to WLM. So make sure your "signed-in" status is the same as it was when you set up your contact list. (If you don't want to sign-in just set the "Option" under "Connections" to "Stop signing in".) Keep in mind that signing in has the advantage of letting Microsoft keep track of you contacts at "contacts.live.com" so you will never have to worry about loosing them or backing them up again.
The update popped up in the lower right corner - I couldn't open Live Mail without agreeing to it.
I don't sign in to WLM and never have. I don't see "Connections" anywhere - if I did I'd be delighted to opt out!
I did a search for "contacts" and found it preceding Desktop and Downloads, so I guess I can just go there when I need an address. Annoying, but at least they aren't gone.
Referring back to the tutorial for Outlook Express - I consider myself to be relatively intelligent but that left me completely confused and I wouldn't dare tackle it!
1) The "Connection" tab is one of may tabs in the "Options" window.
2)The c:/<username>/Contacts folder is not used by WLM. If you like, if you have contacts in it, you can Import them into WLM's contacts pane by choosing "Import...Address book for current Windows user". It will be imported into WLM's "signed-in" or "not-signed-in" contact list depending upon whether or not you have signed in to WLM with your LiveID.
Unbelievable. I followed instructions to click on my user name, type "contacts" in the address bar, and sure enough up they came. Then the instructions said to click "Import" - which didn't appear in my toolbar. For some bizarre reason my contacts are in a Music folder, where my options are to include in library, share, burn etc. I certainlydidn't put them there! Im getting so tired of this. But I do appreciate your efforts to help this poor befuddled old woman.
"instructions"...I don't know whose instructions you are talking about or what program they are for. WLM is separate from your browser and does not have an address bar. It can share the same contact list as the one used by the browser-based Hotmail website. If you sign-in to WLM you can import contacts into its contact pane using the contacts pane choice to "Import...from Current Windows User" which will take them from the <username>/Contacts folder in Windows Explorer, if that's where you want to obtain them from. That may be easier than trying to do it through Hotmail in your browser.
Did a Windows Live Essentials update. After, my email contacts were all gone. Did system restore, exported the old addys to a folder. After closing Windows Live Mail, I could not reopen mail without re-doing the WLE update. So, I did. When I went to the CONTACTS tab (bottom left) it never really opens. It clears the emails or calendar from the main window, but leaves the same 'ribbon' (or task bar or whatever at the top). It doesn't show the options that should be there for 'contacts' (no import/export/etc). ANY suggestions?
Check this thread: Mandatory (?) WLE Upgrade
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