I keep losing most of my folders in windows live mail

I keep losing most of my folders in windows live mail - sometimes they return but the management of them is a complete mystery e.g what purpose do the arrow heads on the left of the screen perform>

Hello Franfleet,

The arrows to the left of mail box folders are to expand (open) and unexpand (close) the folder. The solid black arrow indicates that it's expanded open, while the while outlined arrow indicates the folder is not expanded. You would click on them to expand and unexpand the folder.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

windows live mail folders - management

Thank you Shawn. All I have to do now is see if I can find my missing folders. AT the bottom of the foldrers list it says 'recovered folders' and I can find them separately but am unable to see how to return them the the list of folders on the left of the screen. 73 FF:: (ZL1WV)

You should be able to either "drag and drop" or "right click on and Move" them back into the email account.

The recovered folder usually happens when there is database corruption due to a improper shutdown of WLM. For example, shutting down Windows 7 without closing WLM first.

Disappearing Live Mail Folders

Yes, I have experienced exactly the same thing. I thought it was due to some boo-boo I had made, but your experience makes it sound more integral to the Live Mail program, (we are unlikely to have mad identical boo-boo's).

I have made c:/users/*username*/AppData visible, but manipulating the lower reaches of this tree-root system hasn't helped.

I have created a new folder on my Desktop and called it "WinMail Folder." Then open Live WinMail and go to File/Options/Mail/Advanced/Maintenance/Store Folder/Store Location/Change. Make your desktop folder, the new mail storage location.

When you close the Live WinMail, it automatically copies gigabytes into the new desktop folder, but gigabytes of past messages do not then seem to appear in the screen. Perhaps re-indexing is the answer, I am pursuing that now.

Best wishes. 9th November 2012.

Belliger

As I posted earlier I lost one storage folder where I kept business emails so important and for the life of me cannot find it. You sound experienced so I hope you can get to the bottom of this. It does sound like a Windows Live Mail glitch. If I remember when I went from XP to 7 I could pay for Outlook Express which I had no problems with or go to Live Mail. Not sure there were other free options.