Windows Live Mail 2012 Backup Questions

[Carbo]

About to do a complete wipe of my hard drive and reinstall Windows 7. My concern is being certain that I have Windows Live Mail 2012 backed up. I have five different accounts running through WLM and it is critical I don't lose any emails sent or received.
I took a look at the tutorials and played around but I must be doing something wrong. For example, when I trying exporting and then importing some test messages I wasn't able to find them. The storage folders, where I think the test emails should have been imported, were empty. Tried a few times and always the same result.
Now I'm thinking it might be easier if I just back up all the folders in the Windows Live Mail folder on the C drive. Is this a viable and fool proof way of saving all emails and then being able to restore them?

 

[paul1149]

If the accounts are IMAP, the mail will be retained on the remote server no matter what you do with your local client (except for deleting mail from within the client, which will delete it remotely as well). POP is another story, because once downloaded it usually, though not always, is gone from the remote.

I don't see why you couldn't back up the entire WLM folder, which is probably in c:\users\<user name>\appdata\local....

In fact, when I do a reinstall, I always do a file back up of most of the appdata folder. It invariably comes in very handy.

Another way for an independent mail backup, POP or IMAP, is to use MailStore, which is free for private use.

 

[Carbo]

These are all POP3 accounts. I was hoping I could do a backup of the WLM folder, then reinstall WLM 2012 and manually input the settings and passwords. From there, I would hopefully be able to import all emails to their original accounts and folders. . .or am I in for a painful surprise??

 

[NoN]

These are all POP3 accounts. I was hoping I could do a backup of the WLM folder, then reinstall WLM 2012 and manually input the settings and passwords. From there, I would hopefully be able to import all emails to their original accounts and folders. . .or am I in for a painful surprise??

You should be able to save the entire WLM folder to a backup place on another hard drive.

In fact i'm doing a save of that WLM folder every so so.

The emails that are saved on the Microsoft mail server will be kept and will reappear once you set back the Windows Essential 2012 setup and your accounts.

Those that are saved on your computer (moved from inbox to another location folder) will need to be imported and will remain in the same folders.