Import from Windows Live Mail on Old or New PC?

1

This is an attempt to describe a fairly complex situation and then ask for advice. First the situation:

I started using eM Client a couple of years ago and imported my Windows Live Mail environment. I don’t remember much about how I did that. I had good intentions of doing the same thing on my wife’s PC but never got around to it. She is still plodding along with WLM and putting up with its limitations and errors. In order to get it to run on the latest Windows 10 2004 update I had to change three Registry settings. I really want to get her converted over to eM now!

Actually, I did try once several months ago to convert my wife from WLM to eM, but I tried to import everything at once, including many storage/local folders, and the attempt failed. Someone here recommended not importing everything at once.

We have now ordered a new PC for my wife to replace her Dell 6-year-old model, and I will be setting it up. Now for the questions:

  1. Would it be better to complete the WLM to eM conversion on the old PC first before moving the eM environment to the new PC?

  2. If I did not do #1 above but instead installed a clean new version of eM on the new PC and copied all of the WLM data files to it from the old PC but did NOT install WLM on the new PC, could I still import all of the WLM folders to eM on the new PC?

  3. Regardless of what method I use, it is critical that I maintain access to the Sent folder in the current environment, which contains around 18 months worth of sent messages. Any special considerations for doing this?

  4. The current WLM incoming server is set up as POP3. I’ve heard it is better to use IMAP. Is that what I should plan to use for the new eM environment?

A final note: The existing account is POP3/SMTP using servers from Cox, our Internet provider - not Gmail.

Any advice will be appreciated!

2

I would first configure EM Client as an IMAP account with your current Live account which will show at the top left. In my opinion much better to go IMAP and is great then to sync to IMAP Mobile apps. Just make sure you have good passwords on your IMAP Mail account with eg: letters, numbers & special characters etc so cannot be hacked.

Then export your WLM POP account email folders to .eml or .mbox on your old computer and then copy that to your new computer in a temp directory. Then open EMC (once you have configured EMC with your new Live IMAP account as above) and click File / Import .eml or .mbox option. I cannot remember if .mbox is directly supported as an export option in WLM. I haven’t used it for years.

Once the import is completed your old POP Mail Folders will normally show (down at the very bottom left) of EMC. To see the local folders in EMC, click “Menu / Settings” and click “Show Local Folders”.

Once you have got all your old POP Mail showing in then local folders within EMC at the bottom left, then drag all your old WLM POP mail from the bottom left to the (Same folders) in your IMAP Live account folders at the top left.

Also export your WLM Contacts from your old computer to a .vcf contact format and again copy that to your new computer in a temp directory. Then open EMC and click File / Import .vcf option.

Good luck :slight_smile: