eM Client does not run

I have been using eM Client for a number of years on a notebook PC (Win 8, this being my main machine). In January this year I bought a desktop computer (Win 10) and switched to that as my main machine. I’m still using the notebook PC when I travel.

Usually before a trip I will copy the eM Client database to the notebook PC (where eM Client is also installed) and continue processing emails on the notebook PC when travelling.

To copy the database I copy the entire folder under C:\Users<user name>\AppData\Roaming\eM Client.

This procedure has worked fine a few times.

Now, I just came back from a trip over Easter this Monday evening and copied back the eM Client database from the notebook PC to the desktop PC. But this time things are not working anymore. eM Client will not start. Clicking on the icon doesn’t open a window. In the task manager you can however see an instance of the eM Client process.

Between yesterday and today I have tried everything. I have uninstalled/reinstalled multiple times eM Client, completely deleted all files in the AppData\Roaming\eM Client to allow a fresh restart, even tried installing different versions of eM Client, but nothing worked.

The weird thing is that eM Client is still reporting a database error after a complete new installation with an empty AppData\Roaming\eM Client folder.
DBrepair scans things, even if no database exists at all.

It would seem that something somewhere on my computer is indicating to eM Client that eM Client was previously installed on my computer and that there were problems. But I don’t know what this thing might be, If I knew, I could delete it to allow a fresh new installation.
I’ve also tried Revo Unistaller, but without success.

At the moment it would seem that only formatting the system drive and reinstalling from scratch Windows 10 would allow me to get eM Client running again on this desktop PC. It is really crazy.

What can I do to get eM Client running again on the desktop computer?

Ok, here is how I managed to solve the problem:

  1. completely uninstall eM Client (I used Revo Ununstaller to also remove the Windows registry entries and AppData\Roaming\eM Client folder).

  2. Install again eM Client (a recent version).

  3. Then check in the task manager if dbrepair is running. If not, kill the emclient task and restart eM Client.

  4. Then dbrepair and emclient both show up in the task manager (both by the way with 0% CPU load).

  5. Initially no eM Client window would open, so I just ignored eM Client and did other things.

  6. About one day later, suddenly I see an eM Client window asking me to set up eM Client, enter an email address etc. So I did that and then I closed eM Client.

  7. Then I replaced the (newly created) AppData\Roaming\eM Client folder with the backup I had (all files from the previous installation) and restarted eM Client.

  8. No window opened, but in the task manager you could see dbrepair and emclient processes (both with 0% CPU load).

  9. Again ignore eM Client and do other things.

  10. Hours later finally the eM Client window opens and eM Client is usable again.