Installing older version of Windows Live Mail

[Roman5]

Hi. If I uninstall windows live essentials 2011 and install windows live essentials 2009, will the 2009 windows live mail automatically have all my emails in place without having to import them from my backup? My .eml files are in C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail, so I assume any version of live mail will associate itself with that automatically and the emails will show up? The only reason I'm doing this is because I hate the new live messenger, (which I uninstalled) and tried to install the 2009 version. But it won't let me install older versions until I uninstall live essentials 2011. And that means all other live apps get uninstalled, including email of course.

Unless, (and I know this is the browsers and mail forum), anyone knows a workaround to installing 2009 messenger while keeping live essentials 2011 installed?

 

[Roman5]

Thanks guys. I haven't tried your method yet Roderunner but I wanted to test what would happen, so I installed email to my lesser used laptop last night as it hadn't been installed yet. I transferred my live mail folder from C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail to laptop, then put it in the same AppData location. Then I installed windows live essentials 2009 and live mail, and all my emails showed up. Two things that didn't show though.

1. My imported folder in the storage folder (with my archived 1999 - 2009 eml files) didn't show so I imported them, wasn't a problem.

2. My email contacts aren't showing. Where are they located? These aren't windows live contacts as such, these are just where I've had email correspondence with people and their addresses seem to get automatically saved so that when I compose a new mail, I can click 'To...' and see those addresses. As in my screenshot from my desktop contacts:
imgur: the simple image sharer

 

[Roman5]

Hi Roman5,
I sign in to WLM on 2 computers using the same Windows Live ID. If I add, delete or change one of my contacts details on one pc, it is automattically changed on my other pc.
If I used an email account other than gmail, I would have to export my messages so that they didn't disappear without my doing so. Then read them as in my pdf without importing them.
Read This Please.

But I presume there's a file somewhere on my desktop which contains those 21 contacts as in my screenshot. So I just wanted to know where it is so I can transfer it to my laptop. Then when I open live mail on my laptop, it would presumably/hopefully show up, the same as my emails did.

 

[roncerr]

...My email contacts aren't showing. Where are they located?...

The complete story: Windows Live Mail – Contacts Database « The Field Guide

If you signed in to WLM you would be creating and using the contact list stored at the contacts.live.com website. Then you would not need to be concerned about keeping a backup copy of contacts up to date as Microsoft would be doing that continuously for you at the website. WLM syncs with the website list, including all contact groupings you may be using, unlike the export/import feature which saves only the contacts themselves (not the organization into groups).

 

[Roman5]

Guys, I'm not sure we're on the same page, or else I'm completely misunderstanding things, so please bear with me and correct me if I'm wrong. I've moved my windows live contacts folder from same location on desktop (as in Roderunner's screenshot) to my laptop, but that just holds all the same people that are on my MSN list, and the names I want that are currently under contacts on my desktop are not there. The names I'm trying to get back are people I've emailed but who are not windows live contacts, or, not contacts in MSN. Example, if I emailed roncerr or Roderunner right now, your email addresses would be saved in my windows live mail, and when I create a new email and click in the 'To..' box, your addresses would show up, so I can just click on them. On my desktop, I have 21 names of people under contacts just from email correspondence like that, and I want those to be duplicated on the laptop.

 

[Roderunner]

roncerr & I are on the same wave length. Both of us has advised you on what to do. Subscribe to this post is terminated.

 

[roncerr]

...The names I'm trying to get back are people I've emailed but who are not windows live contacts, or, not contacts in MSN...

There are 2 WLM contact lists but you only see one at a time in WLM. The one you see depends on whether or not you have "signed in" to WLM. Your seem to think there is a 3rd list just of people you have emailed. I doubt that is the case but I never rely on the "automatically add people I email to contacts list". I expect that you will find your contacts in one of the two lists. To make things less confusing, its best to decide to always sign-in or never sign-in so you will be using only one list.

 

[Roman5]

...The names I'm trying to get back are people I've emailed but who are not windows live contacts, or, not contacts in MSN...

There are 2 WLM contact lists but you only see one at a time in WLM. The one you see depends on whether or not you have "signed in" to WLM. Your seem to think there is a 3rd list just of people you have emailed. I doubt that is the case but I never rely on the "automatically add people I email to contacts list". I expect that you will find your contacts in one of the two lists. To make things less confusing, its best to decide to always sign-in or never sign-in so you will be using only one list.

Right, so when I installed windows live mail on my laptop, and I couldn't find the contacts I wanted, ie, the "automatically add people I email to contacts list", I signed into WLM and it added all my other contacts that I didn't want. I'm going to start over on my laptop and uninstall WLM and reinstall it and I won't sign in. So by not signing in, where will I locate the contact list I want of "automatically add people I email to contacts list"? I'm sorry I'm being a bit thick, but it's all a bit confusing. That link you provided may well have the answer but I find it a bit complicated.

 

[roncerr]

It's not necessary to remove/reinstall anything. When signed in, manage your singned-in list or delete them all...doesn't matter. When not signed in, manage your not-signed-in list or delete them all. The website will follow what you do only for the signed-in list. Once something is deleted from either list it is deleted period. You can't get it back after you told the system to delete it unless you try to confuse things by actively using and managing both lists separately. (Not worth the trouble, imho.)

 

[Roman5]

roncerr, thanks very much for your help and patience. Having properly read your link and it making more sense to me now, I've had some luck, but not completely. I decided to uninstall WLM 2009 from the laptop and reinstall WLM 2011. Didn't take long. Let me explain what I did if I may, and where I am now. I hope I make sense!

I copied the whole windows live folder from my desktop in C:\Users\Lee\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live to my laptop, same location. This contains a) Default offline contacts for Windows Live Mail 2011 (QFE3 version) with 15.5\DBStore.

I uninstalled windows live essentials 2009 and WLM 2009 on laptop, and installed windows live essentials 2011, including of course WLM 2011. I loaded WLM 2011 after installation, saw I was signed into windows live and saw my online contacts, and when I signed out, they disappeared and the offline contacts that I want showed up. Hooray!

But it's windows essentials 2009 I want installed. So now that I saw the offline contacts appear in 2011, I decided to uninstall windows live essentials 2011 and install essentials 2009 again. I left the Windows Live folder in C:\Users\Lee\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live.

This is where I'm stuck. Your link says that the path for default offline contacts database for WLM 2009 is:

Windows Live Mail 2009 (see notes below)
· Windows 7 or Vista
C:\Users\<windows username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Contacts\{0a1c1d7e-4a67-4693-bd70-1ba1490ddac8}\DBStore
(The numerical 16-digit hexadecimal number ( GUI {0a1c1d7e…) shown(above) for WLM 2009 is randomly generated by WLM and will be different on each pc/operating system.)


So I already transferred my folder at C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Contacts to the same location on the laptop, and it contains 5 subfolders with different 16-digit hexadecimal numerical names. Yet the offline contacts aren't showing up in WLM 2009 on the laptop. I had WLM 2009 on my desktop before it got deleted by a virus and I installed WLM 2011 over it, and the offline contacts I want were originally saved in WLM 2009. Something I'm obviously still missing?

Obviously the worst is over as I've learnt now how to get my offline contacts to show in WLM 2011 and if need be, I can just install WLM 2011 again. At least I know everything I want is there and intact. But I hate windows live messenger in essentials 2011, which is about the only reason I'm going to this trouble to get everything to show up in WLM 2009. I wish microsoft would have made it possible to mix up different versions of live apps, instead of having everything (mail, messenger, etc) all lumped into one version.

 

[roncerr]

I would not try moving the 16-digit folders from one PC to another since they are custom generated upon installation. But it should be possible to move all the (non-signed-in called "offline") contacts from one PC to another (or one version of WLM to another) via the export/import feature. All you will loose by using export/import is the groupings which can be recreated.

 

[Roman5]

I would not try moving the 16-digit folders from one PC to another since they are custom generated upon installation. But it should be possible to move all the (non-signed-in called "offline") contacts from one PC to another (or one version of WLM to another) via the export/import feature. All you will loose by using export/import is the groupings which can be recreated.

Ah I see. So if I understand you correctly, I should load WLM 2009 on my laptop, and import the C:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live folder (that contains default offline contacts for Windows Live Mail 2011 (QFE3 version) with 15.5\DBStore) into WLM 2009? Well I'll try that anyway. Thanks.

 

[roncerr]

That may be possible, but it's not exactly what I meant by "export/import". What I was thinking was that while the old version is still running on your PC (2011) in not-signed-in mode go to the "Contacts" pane and "Export" your contacts to a known place on your hard drive (e.g. Documents). Do a similar "Export" for messages via the main window of the old program (2011). At this point you can uninstall the old program (2011) which will still leave behind the 2011 folder structure under <username>/appdata. (At this point all your messages and contacts have been saved elsewhere so you can delete or move the appdata Mail and Contacts folders out of the appdata folder.) When you install the new program (2009) it will recreate all the folders it needs just as though you never had WLM installed at all without any left-over files and folders from the old 2011 installation. At that point run the new program (2009) in not-signed-in mode and do the import processes for messages and contacts, navigating to your exported files.

This process is perhaps more complicated than necessary but keep in mind tha Microsoft never anticipated people upgrading backwards from 2011 to 2009. They assumed you would upgrade once to 2011 and then stick with that folder structure (or a newer version) from then on.