Solved Inbox Accidentally Deleted in Windows Live Mail 2011

PhilippeMonnet · Dec 21, 2012

Whilst deleting messages in my Inbox using the Shift Delete Keys (to delete permanently), a progress bar appeared for a couple of seconds saying "Deleting" ... Immediately after this, the Inbox and its related folders had disappeared.
It is now impossible to send or receive emails on that computer.
Is there any way of restoring the Inbox WITHOUT reinstalling ... which apparently would involve losing all existing messages permanently ?

Sir George · Dec 21, 2012

PhilippeMonnet said:
Whilst deleting messages in my Inbox using the Shift Delete Keys (to delete permanently), a progress bar appeared for a couple of seconds saying "Deleting" ... Immediately after this, the Inbox and its related folders had disappeared.
It is now impossible to send or receive emails on that computer.
Is there any way of restoring the Inbox WITHOUT reinstalling ... which apparently would involve losing all existing messages permanently ?

What email program are you using?

Roderunner · Dec 21, 2012

Post title says WLM 2011

Layback Bear · Dec 21, 2012

The only thing I can think of is a restore point before you made the changes.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html
Because your WLM comes from a cloud the changes were probably only on your computer.

PhilippeMonnet · Dec 21, 2012

Tried "Restore Point" : made no difference.
We are not aware of WLM being on "the cloud" ; how do we find out ?

Layback Bear · Dec 21, 2012

Your email is kept by Microsoft on a off site computer. Their computer some where in the world. When you receive your email it is downloaded from their computer to yours. That is a cloud. Very basic answer.
Are you saying that you went to a restore point before you deleted anything and it doesn't help or you can't get a restore point to work.

Sir George · Dec 21, 2012

PhilippeMonnet said:
Tried "Restore Point" : made no difference.
We are not aware of WLM being on "the cloud" ; how do we find out ?

Try this; In your IE search bar type "Outlook.com" (without the quotes) and use your MSN Passport to login. You should see your Hotmail account there.

Post back your results.

PhilippeMonnet · Dec 22, 2012

Yes, we found a restore point AFTER the disaster, but it changed nothing. Regarding Outlook.com, we'll try that later today and will let you know. Keep coming up with ideas ... my wife is not pleased!

robinb9 · Dec 22, 2012

PhilippeMonnet said:
Yes, we found a restore point AFTER the disaster, but it changed nothing. Regarding Outlook.com, we'll try that later today and will let you know. Keep coming up with ideas ... my wife is not pleased!

first even if you uninsatll the program and reinstall, you will still see everything there once you reinstall it. I have done this many times. Seems it keeps it in the registry.
But to be safe you need to back up Windows Live mail first and for pictures and a good site to go to, take a look at this. I suggest you print it out also How to Backup Windows Live Mail 2011 (this works for 2012 also)

Once you have backed it up. (Make a folder first in My Documents and call it Windows Live Backup) Aim the the backup to this folder (even though you are missing the In box), uninstall the program and reinstall it. Make sure you uninstall the right version. If you have 2011 then reinstall 2011, if you have 2012 reinstall 2012.
See if it brought back the In Box. You might have to make the hotmail/live /msn account account again and sign in. You might not have to put the backup on because I believe you will see all your folders again with all the emails in it, once you sign in.

robinb9 · Dec 22, 2012

attached is a word document on how to do this, I tried to copy and paste it in but it would not work. I converted it to an Office 2003 Document for those who do not have 2007 or 2010
Brink if you see this and want to put it in the tutorial section, I would be fine with that also
robin

A Guy · Dec 23, 2012

PhilippeMonnet said:
Yes, we found a restore point AFTER the disaster, but it changed nothing. Regarding Outlook.com, we'll try that later today and will let you know. Keep coming up with ideas ... my wife is not pleased!

Maybe a typo on your part, but you want a restore point from BEFORE the disaster

A Guy

PhilippeMonnet · Dec 23, 2012

Dear Robinb9,
Many thanks for this - the best reply yet - but we appear to have also lost our Account in Export Mail, as well as the Inbox, so the only thing that shows up in our "Accounts" window is "Microsoft Communities", so we are flummoxed. How could all this have happened by clicking on two key ?! How can a programme allow itself to lose its most vital component and be thus utterly crippled?
As we have another computer, we are temporarily out of trouble, and will wait until our "computer man" returns from his holiday in America (!). We are in London. Many, many thanks.

robinb9 · Dec 23, 2012

PhilippeMonnet said:
Dear Robinb9,
Many thanks for this - the best reply yet - but we appear to have also lost our Account in Export Mail, as well as the Inbox, so the only thing that shows up in our "Accounts" window is "Microsoft Communities", so we are flummoxed. How could all this have happened by clicking on two key ?! How can a programme allow itself to lose its most vital component and be thus utterly crippled?
As we have another computer, we are temporarily out of trouble, and will wait until our "computer man" returns from his holiday in America (!). We are in London. Many, many thanks.

the account you had was it a outlook.live account or a live.mail account or hotmail or msn account?
If so try this:
go onto the web browser and log into the account you had. EVERYTHING should be there,, inbox, out box etc. with all your emails.
If it is then all you need to do is either do a repair (try that one first- to do it go into Control Panel and Highlight Windows Live Essentials and uninstall it but instead of uninstalling it will give you an option to repair it. Try that first and see if it puts back everything.

If not- download the same version you have now, you can still get 2011 if that is what you have, once you install it, make the email account using the imap not the pop account for this account.
Once made Windows live mail will ask you to sign in- sign in with the account you signed into on the web browser. It will tell you it is doing a sync. It might take up to 10 minutes or so to sync the account.
Once it syncs all your emails should show up including contacts

Let us know if this works please, you have nothing to loose at this point but to try it

PhilippeMonnet · Dec 24, 2012

Dear Robinb9,
We have followed your advice and found all the steps, backed up all files and contacts, and ... repaired WLM 2011, only to find that, sadly, nothing had changed. Nothing lost, mind you! However, Inbox still either missing OR somehow hidden and seemingly irretrievable. When trying to send an email, a flag states "The message could not be sent. You do not have any accounts configured for sending email. Please verify your Account configuration." This is because we have an account with Onetel, not with Live.Mail. We only use WLM as software on our PC. Perhaps now we should reinstall, but if we do, how do we bring back all the backed up files from the My Documents (when right-clicking these, there is no option to Send To WLM) ? Many thanks for your time and consideration. Meanwhile if you have too much time on your hands, and want a little Christmas treat, go to The Films Of Orpheus Channel on YouTube and check out our New Year "Communication" called D Minor Suite - Trailer - Part TWO. All good seasonal wishes. Philippe and Martina Monnet.

robinb9 · Dec 24, 2012

This tutorial will show you how to export your backup
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/116162-windows-live-mail-export-import-email-messages.html
Happy holiday

robinb9 · Dec 24, 2012

Now that I realize you r only using the program with a regular ISP, you never said that before, when u set up wlm did you happen to set up in options. Leave the mail on the server? If you did, when u uninstall the program , reinstall it, reset up your ISP account, all your emails. And I mean All, ( except, the send ones) will come back in

If not you can still take the chance and reinstall, you might be surprised and once you put back the ISP email account it will all be there

The other solution, is if your ISP has web based email, find out the URL for it, as long as you know the username and password, when you sign in, all your emails should be there so at least you can view them this way, and anyone's you want to go to WLM, you can forward them back to you and bring them into the program

robinb9 · Dec 24, 2012

A guy, just so you know going back to a previous restore point does not work for WLM, unfortunately , I have intentionally deleted accounts , deleted boxes, and going back did nada.
I did the same thing but did not go back and boxes came back on a uninstall and reinstall. As good as this program is it has lots of bugs

Sir George · Dec 24, 2012

PhilippeMonnet said:
Dear Robinb9,
We have followed your advice and found all the steps, backed up all files and contacts, and ... repaired WLM 2011, only to find that, sadly, nothing had changed. Nothing lost, mind you! However, Inbox still either missing OR somehow hidden and seemingly irretrievable. When trying to send an email, a flag states "The message could not be sent. You do not have any accounts configured for sending email. Please verify your Account configuration." This is because we have an account with Onetel, not with Live.Mail. We only use WLM as software on our PC. Perhaps now we should reinstall, but if we do, how do we bring back all the backed up files from the My Documents (when right-clicking these, there is no option to Send To WLM) ? Many thanks for your time and consideration. Meanwhile if you have too much time on your hands, and want a little Christmas treat, go to The Films Of Orpheus Channel on YouTube and check out our New Year "Communication" called D Minor Suite - Trailer - Part TWO. All good seasonal wishes. Philippe and Martina Monnet.

I provided a possible solution in post #7 in this thread, did you try it? If not, it may be a simple answer to your problem.

The following link provides some information about Outlook.com, you may want to review it for more details;

Microsoft Outlook.Com: A Hands On First Look | PCWorld

Phone Man · Dec 24, 2012

You can also try Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download and see if it can recover your files. Does a great job and is free.

Jim

PhilippeMonnet · Dec 26, 2012

Dear Robinb9,

Done it! Backed up, reinstalled, etc. etc. although now we have WLM 2012! But to our utter dismay, there was still no INBOX in the reinstalled version!! But a flag came up stating "Connect to Live Mail". We typed in our email address and incoming and outgoing server addresses ... and the Inbox instantly reappeared. Interestingly, ALL our previous configurations of Folders and their messages were still all there. How we managed to sever our connection whilst deleting messages must remain a mystery.
However, many, many thanks for your time, encouragement, and help : we could not have done it without you. Happy New Year! Philippe and Martina Monnet.

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