Hi,
I recently recovered the SSD and HDD from my old PC, which died (dead motherboard).
I have re- registered my retail copy of my Win 7 64X successfully, BUT cannot find all my old emails and original copy of eMCLient on either of my two drives.
Once I had succeessfully opened my drives and got back up on the Internet I tried to search for my emails online, without success. Then downloaded a new copy of eMClient, which seems to have wiped all my old eMClient data.
Can anyone help?
John
As you have recovered your hard-disk from your old computer, you can restore the data āto the same version of eM Clientā either via the eM Client backup.zip file or from the hidden database folder.
So first install the same version of eM Client that you had prior via the release history page.
Then āif you had been making regular eM Client backupsā and have the dated backup.zip files in the default āDocuments / eM Clientā folder on your old harddisk or other folder on your old harddisk depending on if you changed the default, then copy the latest dated backup.zip file to your new computer same folder and restore that in eM Client via āMenu / File / Restoreā. Skip the initial setup wizard when opening eM Client & restore.
Now āif you havenāt been making regular eM Client backupsā on your old computer, then after installing the same version on the new computer, āclose eM Clientā and go to the following Windows hidden database folder and rename it to eg: eM Client-Old. Then ācopy the complete eM Client hidden folderā from your old PC hard-disk to the new computer hidden data folder. Then āre-open eM Clientā and it will be exactly the same as it was before.
"Hidden mail database folder Windowsā
āUsers\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\eM Client"
Also see the following thread on importing and restoring messages from an old computer or from an old harddisk drive if you already have eM Client installed on the new computer.
Very many thanks Cyberzork.
The problem is eMClient will not allow me to download the same version, as I had downloaded ver 10 and ver 10 will not work with my old version of Chrome which is the last supporting Win 7 64 bit. (My talktalk webmail still works, but I think all my āLocal foldersā in eMClient were all stored on eMClient in the PCās hard drives.)
Do you think if I download Fire fox or R3dfox they will ārestoreā my old emails, so that I have a usable copy that I can read? (I know that Fire Fox is dropping support for Win 7 this month.)
Gmail will no longer syc with eMClient, used on Win 7 PCās, for security reasons.
Is there anyone you know who has worked out a way around this situation, so that we can still use Win 7, email clients that work on Win 7 and use a web browser that works and will continue to work into the forseeable future??
Iām 81, with an Essential Tremor (so need a large positive keyboard, NOT touch screen!) and am realistic enough to know that my PCās will last me out.
Cheers,
John
The problem is eMClient will not allow me to download the same version, as I had downloaded ver 10 and ver 10 will not work with my old version of Chrome which is the last supporting Win 7 64 bit.
I can only suggest to try Firefox. I havenāt personally used Windows 7 for years due to security reasons. Other users on this forum who run Windows 7 might be able to assist you.
You should really be looking at upgrading to min Windows 10 or preferably Windows 11, that will work with eM Client V10 and is currently officially supported by eM Client & Microsoft with security updates.
Many thanks for trying to help, but I will not ever āupgradeā to Win 10 or 11.
Iām going to try the Thunderbird route and to future proof, Iāll copy my old emails to Gmail, so that I can use Google.
Eventually Iāll junk eMClient and just use Gmail.
I will not ever āupgradeā to Win 10 or 11.
Iām going to try the Thunderbird route and to future proof.
The latest Thunderbird mail client v142 also requires Windows 10 or 11 as per the link below.
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/142.0/system-requirements/
I will not ever āupgradeā to Win 10 or 11
Then you could eg: go to a internet cafe or a friendās place who has Win 10/11 and download eM Client V10 and put it on a USB stick. Then try installing that on your Windows 7.
The issue you might get then even if you get eM Client V10 installed is eg: if you have an account that requires an OAuth token (passwordless login) is that usually also now requires the latest browser versions to work / authenticate when adding the account like eg: Gmail, Outlook etc which then the browser may not install or authenticate mail accounts in Windows 7 anymore as so much has changed in the OS and changed in the browsers over the years with security .
So you would probably then need to find an older browser build that still will install in Windows 7 and still supports OAuth for modern mail clients.
Itās a tough spot, because the lack of security updates for Windows 7 makes it a difficult platform for modern software to support.
Hi ,
Iāve tried everything, including letting our local computer shop have a go, but have been unsuccessful.
This is the second time in the last 3 years that my eMClient has disappeared, never to be seen again. Hundreds of important emails lost.
Surely there are many more eMClient customers who have had the same troubles as me, so it cannot be just about security updates, but all about how the eMClent program disappears and the way that it does not store emails securely.
Iām bitterly disappointed.
Hi, weāre very sorry youāre dealing with this, but eM Client definitely doesnāt and canāt autonomously uninstall itself, so no, we donāt have customers reporting eM Client disappearing. Uninstalls also donāt wipe data unless you explicitly choose to delete your database. Similarly, a new database is created during installation only if there is no preexisting database in the default location. We suggest checking any security software you have installed as thatās one explanation for what could be deleting your data.
In any case, we highly recommend setting up automatic backups whenever you store any data locally. Menu > Settings > General > Backup (and then restore from backups via Menu > File > Restore if needed)
Iām still waiting for a response to my ācriticalā paid support ticket, but maybe someone from EMClient here will respond sooner.
I was using v9 as v10 has in the past been unstable. I made two backups.
I wiped my PC drive for a pre-panned re-install of the OS, and then installed the latest EM Client v10 something. I then restored a backup. EM was sluggish, and then just wouldnāt work at all.
I wiped the OS again, and then installed EM Client v9 which I had saved and have been running for several years. After restoring the backupā¦made by v9ā¦I now canāt open the program because it keeps saying the DB was modified by a later version. This is impossible. I formatted that db folder away. This seems to be telling me EM Client is modifying BACKUPS, a severe violation of the number one rule in the computer world, or otherwise doing something it shouldnāt. So tell us exactly what is happening here. I should be able to install v9 on a new Win OS and restore a v9 backup and run, and I canāt.
Iām still waiting for a response to my ācriticalā paid support ticket, but maybe someone from EMClient here will respond sooner
How long have you been waiting ? If itās on a weekend might be a few days to respond depending on how many support tickets they have to process and the order they arrived.
I wiped the OS again, and then installed EM Client v9 which I had saved and have been running for several years. After restoring the backupā¦made by v9ā¦I now canāt open the program because it keeps saying the DB was modified by a later version.
If you have a V9 backup āprior to upgrading to V10ā and opening eM Client is saying wrong database, then that can only mean either āyou havenāt installed exactly the same version or close to the same version V9ā as you had before or itās a V10 database backup and not a V9 backup at all.
So if you have definitely got the correct V9 installed from the release history page and definitely have a matching V9 backup, then you would need your database checked out by official support.
Or you would need to ārename your current databaseā and start with a clean V9 database which if you have an IMAP, Exchange, Office 365 or iCloud account then will restore everything from your server end so you wonāt loose anything unless you had messages etc in Local Folders.
Or reinstall V10 and try reinstalling your saved backup.zip and see if that works which is a lot simpler to save you resetting up from scratch.
See the following support page on how to downgrade to V9.
Itās absolutely a v9 backup. I had a ton of trouble when the original v10 came out, and it destroyed my DB at that time. I have a long history of going back and forth with Gary over the loss.
The only way to fix it wasā¦ because the v10 was already outā¦ to use the existing download of v9 I already had stored and to rebuild my DB from all of my email servers, which understandably torpedoed an entire day.
Ever since I have been telling EM to screw off every month when it asked me to upgrade since v9 was working fine and I didnāt need a headache exactly like the one I have now. There was no reason to upgrade
I wasnāt going to let that happen again, which is why I made two separate complete backups.
I decided after two years maybe they had v10 working well enough.
When I look at the backups, I can see when the zip file was made, and I can also see inside it nearly every file and folder has a modification date/time of when I attempted to restore the backup using v10, long after I had made the backup. At a minimum, v10 is modifying files IN THE BACKUP.
I didnāt type the details in full here, but I just spent an enormous amount of time over the past week figuring out the new EM Client was locking up the PC. I had to reinstall the new OS FOUR times. Iām not using v10.
Itās a v9 backup.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>-
2026-05-22 15:43
eM Client
9.2.2258.0
MailClient.dll
9.2.2258.0
777
Before upgrading to V10, you should always first move your existing V9 backup file/s into another folder āto avoid the possibility of mixing up the backupsā which might then not restore.
Eg: if you currently use the eg: automatic periodic backup and set it to keep only x amount of days backup, that will then eventually after x amount of days overwrite your oldest V9 backup with a later V10 backup when it backs-up again. So make sure to move your V9 backup.zip file/s out first.
I personally manually move my V9 backup files to a V9 backup sub folder when testing V9 and V10 and never had any modifications to the backup files and no issues restoring V9 when I need to.
Itās absolutely a v9 backup
eM Client 9.2.2258.0
So as you definitely know itās a V9 backup and eM Client is saying wrong database try upgrading to the latest release V9.2.2307 and see if that will open or if it still says wrong database version.
Also when you install V9 āskip the setupā and restore your backup. If itās still saying wrong database version even with V9.2.2307 and wonāt open and ārenaming the current database and restoring still is saying wrong versionā then as I said you will need your V9 database checked out by offical support.
I juuust fixed it by downloading a NEWER copy of 2258 which tells me for some reason there were multiple versions of 2258 released somehow.
Sounds as if you all are experiencing the same problems as me, when I was fobbed off by EMC in Sept 2025 and previously when it happened to me three years earlier.
EMC are trying to catch Google up in the area of security and this is where the glitch is happening. v9 will not talk to v10 and because EMC use such an antiquated data system, ( introduced in the 80ās or 90ās) , users cannot access their data files. There are exploitative firms who know this and in England, charge Ā£200 to āunlockā your data files. As an 82 year old pensioner, on a limited budget, I cannot afford to subsidise their money making enterprises. So I simply changed over to Mozilla Thunderbird and have not had any trouble since! Good luck everyone, because after months of suggestions from Chat GPT, it told me that unless I paid the Ā£200, or was prepared to allow EMC to damage my mental health (and it was, at the time!), I should use Mozilla TB. Unfortunately your posts have reminded me of the dark EMC times.
Hello John, Iām sorry to hear you had such a difficult experience with eM Client. I want to clarify a few points so that thereās no misunderstanding.
Our database uses SQLite, a modern and actively maintained engine, introduced in this century. A newer version of the program (v10) can upgrade an older one (v9) directly; you just need to run the newer version on the same database folder.
You cannot restore an older backup directly in a newer version - for that you need to either restore using an older version of eM Client (all available in our release history) or unzip the backup in the database store location and then run the program.
We have these steps described for example on our blog:
Someday, you might trip and spill coffee all over your device and risk losing your important information forever. Or maybe you accidentally click the wrong button and somehow delete everything. Recovering your emails, contacts, notes, messages, andā¦
If you need to downgrade (ie. get data from newer version to an older one) we have those steps described in our knowledgebase here:
How can I downgrade back to eM Client 9, eM Client 8 or older?
You donāt need any license to export data, it can be done for free - it is possible to export all local data even when the program is offline and without an active license.
We do not endorse any thirdāparty services that charge for āunlockingā files. Iām sorry that ChatGPT gave you such misleading advice, but that is definitely not needed to get your data back!
If you ever decide to give eM Client another try or if you still need help restoring any data, my colleagues and I would be happy to help at [email protected]
And of course, if Thunderbird works better for you, we fully respect that.
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Dear Kim,
Thank you for replying to my post so rapidly and correcting the mis -information that I posted recently about your data system.
Unfortunately for several months I tried to follow the advice that you outlined in your recent post (with the help of Chat gpt) to no avail. v10 simply wiped v9 and would not communicate with it, when I reinstalled v9 several times. So v9 and v10 would not read my datās files. (Irrespective of how modern your date system is or was.) This long and fruitless process affected my health, so while, for old timeās sake I would like to retrieve my old database, Iām not prepared to return to my depressed state.
Iām 82 and lifeās too short. You see, we in England, tend to blame ourselves for failures like this. However with your product, I have adopted the modern approach, of blaming others for failure and ChatGPT agrees. So I will not be giving eMclient another chance, Iām afraid..
Thank you for trying to support your product, but itās not for me.
Unfortunately for several months I tried to follow the advice that you outlined in your recent post (with the help of Chat gpt) to no avail. v10 simply wiped v9 and would not communicate with it, when I reinstalled v9 several times. So v9 and v10 would not read my datās files.
If you do try again to reopen V9 or V10 and get an error message, post the error message or screenshot of the error message in this thread and we can then see what to do to get it working again.
Ignore Chat gpt advise for this specific problem as AI bots āare not always accurateā due to they make assumptions from searching the web.
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