Live Mail deleted

Opinion sought.

Due to a password problem, my ISP suggested deleting the account, so that it could be reset-up. But in doing this all the emails went as well!! Not exactly what was planned (although I did have them backed up).

In the old OE days this was not an issue. So could someone tell me what I did wrong and how I can avoid a similar situation going forward?

A second issue was I exported the email settings (from Windows Live 7/32 to iaf file), but Live would not allow an import - anyone know why?

Thanks

Deleting an account does delete all its subfolders and messages. So before deleting an account either back them up or move them to the "Storage Folders" area.

I haven't tried using the export/import feature for accounts. I prefer to remember how to set up my accounts and set them up from scratch. Since you pointed out the feature, I'll have to try it out. You could test the process on a dummy account you set up for the purpose of testing exporting and importing.

Thank you for your support - I was really wondering if this was just me - why does Microsoft do these silly things - it doesn't do their reputation any good - its quite common for ISP's to delete account settings because of corruption and re-setting them. This will be more complex in future. I don't even understand Microsoft's logic here............

As for export/import account settings, unless there was a corruption at my end, it doesn't work - I exported from Win 7/32 Live Maill and tried to import to same but failed

Using the Tools/Accounts dialog of my version of WLM (2009), I created a test pop3/smtp account, checked and changed the properties, exported it, deleted it, and imported it from the .iaf file. The account was restored correctly. When I did the delete account part, I did get a warning that messages would also be deleted so I should back them up or move them to the storage area. If the new 2011 version is not working properly, all I can suggest is to do a repair of Windows Live Essentials via Programs and Features. That will fix at least one known bug in Junk Mail filtering and possibly other problems as well.

Thank you Shawn for posting this as I'm sure it may help others.

In this particular case the emails were fortunately backed up, plus the export and import of the email settings were actually done as per the tutorial - but failed on the re-import!

The main point here is though, Microsoft's strange and incongruous concept in Windows Live that to delete email settings that users would also want to automatically delete all the emails as well - doesn't happen in Outlook or any other email client system - its so silly one wonders if its a bug? I'm sure this will cause some angst to others when resolving/resetting email problems/parameters. Crazy!