WLM 2012 Contact Categories Won't Populate Email Address Fields

[Mike Kanze]

After upgrading to WLM 2012, I find that entering any of my contact categories into an email address field will no longer populate the field with discrete email addresses.

What should I do?

Mike K.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome Mike mate my addresses carried over when I did a fresh install. I take it you are using the same email address and that you mean when you type say an "S" it used to drop down a list of addresses associated with that letter?

The other thing I could suggest if you have another machine with WLM 2011 running on it is to send yourself a list from the machine of the addresses.

 

[Mike Kanze]

ICit2lol,

Thanks much. Maybe I didn't state my problem clearly enough.

In WLM 2011, I could do as you stated for any of my Category names ("Jokes Email List") and that Category name would appear in the email Address Box bolded and with a plus sign: + Jokes Email List. Clicking on this would populate the email Address Box with all the email addresses in that Category. Very simple and few steps to make. I'm trying to see if I can do this now in WLM 2012 - so far without success.

In WLM 2012, I can still enter the Category name in the Address Box as above, but clicking on the entered Category name returns a blank. Instead, I must now click on one of the Address Box identifiers ("To..." "CC..." etc.), scroll down to the Category name, select it, click on the "To ->" button at the bottom of the dialog box, click on the leading "+" sign of the Category name and populate the Address Box with all the discrete email addresses of the Category. Clicking on the OK button at the very bottom of the dialog box then moves these to the email Address Box with all the Category email addresses.

Mike K.

 

[Slartybart]

There was a good discussion on this earlier this year. As I understand yhe issue you describe:
1) you can manually add the category name, but you don't get the plus(+) sign to 'populate' the adress field
2) you can hit one of the adressee links to the contact list and categories works as it should.



If that's correct, it appears to be an issue related to upgrading as opposed to a new install. I've been running WLM 2012 since it was released without issue, but I'm a bit of a clean system freak. As soon as one issue crops up I do a fresh base install of the troubling application.

---

Ty a repair of WLM.
WinKey + R brings up the run dialog; type the following in the box to bring up the 'install' dialog
wlarp.exe

select repair



This was not effective in testing done earlier this year but things change.

---

I never did write the instructions, so I'll have to work through them again if you can't life without this feature.

The basic steps are:
backup your user data
uninstall WLM
rename folders associated with WLM (programs and user files)
CClean your system (WLM related registry entries)
Download WLM 2012
install from local msi/exe
reboot
rename user folders associated with WLM
copy original renamed user folders back to original name(s)

start WLM and test

I seem to recal losing contact information, but I have plenty of backups. You might also lose any filters (new mail moved to specific folder upon arrival, etc.) if you built any.

Your mail servers and eMail is unaffected.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

that mate I cannot see why they didn't carry across mine did when I went for 11 -12

 

[Slartybart]

When MS encorporated some Outlook features onto WinMail (creating Live Mail) they missed some integration. WLM 2009 was ok, 2011 was buggy, and 2012 is the most feature rich and stable.

Unfortunately MS was focused on Win8 and Mail app so there aren't too many maintenance recsources left for WLM. Then they rebranded it as Windows Essentials Mail and hotmail was rebrnaded as Outlook.com.

My thoughts on it are that they bundled a bunch of non essential programs (movie maker, picture gallery, messenger, and mail) inot one package... one development group that is a place for rookies and banished workers (not the best postion in development when all the cool stuff is in the cloud or OS).

Because all of those apps are part of the install, things get messy.

Perhaps that a good question John.

What WE apps do you have installed?

I only have mail (not movie maker, not picture gallery, not messenger, not writer, not skydrive).

Anyway, it is what it is. For some reason I think writer is/was the culprit.... but that was a long, long time ago.

that mate I cannot see why they didn't carry across mine did when I went for 11 -12

​

Robin, DavidWincus (I think) and I went a few rounds on this in the Spring. David verified in a test machine what Robin was saying: categories have to be put in the addressee fields by selecting them from contacts - essentially what OP is saying. This was a test of updating 2011 to 2012. Then David installed 2012 clean - not as an update and verified that the problem doesn't exhibit that behavior. So what exactly causes it - no one is sure.

Why your update works - beats me - maybe you're just special

I've been looking for my notes, but can't find them either.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Well as a matter of fact Bart I installed 2012 only two days go on top of other crashes I had to reinstall for so mate I don't know either.

If it makes any difference I do use a hotmail.com address and because it needs signing in through Live perhaps the addresses are carried over that way??

Now as another interesting fact when I went to download windows live mail it offered me 2013 on the Google site so I promptly changed it back to 2012.

 

[Slartybart]

Yeah, that's another area of confusion - you don't need a hotmail/outlook.com/live account. Yhey want you to extablish one and they bribe you with 5 or 7 Gb of storage, but it is not required.

Really, WE Mail 2013? Hmmmm 1st I heard of that.... let me quick search
hmmm - softonic mentions WE 2013, but it seems to reference WE 2012 for Win8 when you open the page.

Anyway, I only get apps from the source.

• Offline (full download): How do I install Windows Essentials while offline?
  -expand the list for your OS and select your language
  Essentials installer files for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2008
• web stub install : Windows Essentials: Other Programs - Mail

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep I know mate I only went to hotmail because my previous provider (the national carrier :sarc address kept on crashing and I got so fed up with it. I haven't had any problems with hotmail but....

Yes I saw the softonic one too and probably what made me say anything about it

But I still reckon the OP's addresses should go across because my old address ones do now as some folks I hadn't changed rang me and asked why I wasn't replying and it ha nothing to do with Live or m$ All I did was to add that a an account.

 

[Slartybart]

These might "reset" the feature

1. Try editing ALL of your Categories and saving them.
2. Alternatively, create a new Category and add all of your contacts to the one.

 

[Mike Kanze]

Slartybart,

Thanks (a bit tardy) for your suggestion here.

I tried the Repair option you suggested but found, as you did, that it did not fix anything.

I HAVE found however that I can add Category email addresses by clicking on the To: (or CC:, etc.) button opposite the Address field, scrolling down to the Category name in the Contacts scroll box, select and OK the Category, and then expand it in the email draft's Address field. A bit less convenient, but gets the desired result.

For now I'm going to hold off on doing an uninstall / reinstall of WLM 2012. If I get bored or really bugged about things later maybe I'll revisit this.

Best,

Mike K.

There was a good discussion on this earlier this year. As I understand yhe issue you describe:
1) you can manually add the category name, but you don't get the plus(+) sign to 'populate' the adress field
2) you can hit one of the adressee links to the contact list and categories works as it should.

View attachment 289039View attachment 288934

If that's correct, it appears to be an issue related to upgrading as opposed to a new install. I've been running WLM 2012 since it was released without issue, but I'm a bit of a clean system freak. As soon as one issue crops up I do a fresh base install of the troubling application.

---

Ty a repair of WLM.
WinKey + R brings up the run dialog; type the following in the box to bring up the 'install' dialog
wlarp.exe

select repair

View attachment 288936

This was not effective in testing done earlier this year but things change.

---

I never did write the instructions, so I'll have to work through them again if you can't life without this feature.

The basic steps are:
backup your user data
uninstall WLM
rename folders associated with WLM (programs and user files)
CClean your system (WLM related registry entries)
Download WLM 2012
install from local msi/exe
reboot
rename user folders associated with WLM
copy original renamed user folders back to original name(s)

start WLM and test

I seem to recal losing contact information, but I have plenty of backups. You might also lose any filters (new mail moved to specific folder upon arrival, etc.) if you built any.

Your mail servers and eMail is unaffected.

 

[Slartybart]

Glad you found the workaround.

Bill

 

[robinb9]

It was this robin who told everyone that there is a problem in 2012 sending group contacts, microsoft has known this issue for over a year and still have not fixed this. That is why i uninstalled it and went back to 2011 where it works perfectly
Sometimes if you logg off wlm and log back in it fixes it, sometimes if you close the program it fixes it