I have left it rather late to abandon Vista and Windows Mail. I now have a new Windows 10 machine, and still have the old Vista machine. I read on your website that eMClient can import my history Mail files. In readiness for this, before I took delivery of the new computer I attempted to install eMClient on the Vista machine with the idea that I would import the Mail history to eMC, then copy over the new storage file thus created. Unfortunately eMClient would not install on my old machine (no helpful error message, but the process just stopped and I re-tried it a few times with no success).
I have copied the old Windows Mail file from my old computer on to a portable drive which I then connected to the new computer, and went to Import, but the applications listed in the Import window do not include Windows Mail and the file types do not include this “WindowsMail.MSMessagestore”. Any suggestions?
Hi Bob,
Don’t worry about leaving it late to abandon Vista Windows Mail.
I stil run it on a Win 7 and a Win 10 machine.
One thing I don’t quite get: "I have copied the old Windows mail file …
Which file and from where? Location?
Anyway, the way I did it is to use the export feature in WinMail
File > Export > Messages
Prepare a folder - or create it as you go along, on the portable drive or USB stick…
and export to that folder
Just let the program do its job.
Now in eM Client , I suggest that you create a folder named WinMail Archive or similar
under Local Folders. and Import the folder that’s on your portable drive
Same idea . Menu > File > Import > .eml files and choose the just created Archive folder
as destination *
* If you want to mix old and new mail, you can opt to do it by account - if you have the same accounts in Windows Mail as you have in eM Client - hence you don’t use my “dump” method. nor use the Archive - your choice - if possible to do so.
Remember that you can only have 2 accounts in the free verson of eM Client
and you may have more in Vista Windows Mail.
In that case use the dump method - so you can still read the old mail
without having an account in eM Client
Peter.
Thank you so much for getting back to me Peter.
I found the Windows Mail message store file sitting in (User)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail. It is large (36MB, emails going back more than 10 years). I have finally managed to copy that file onto my portable drive, but cannot get any program in the new computer to access it. I have tried the Export operation from Windows Mail you suggested. The Export operation offered me 2 alternative formats: Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Mail. When I tried the Windows Mail one it failed. It simply reported “The message export has failed”. The Microsoft Exchange one says it will export to Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Exchange, neither of which I have on that computer. I am beginning to suspect that there are some issues such as corrupted or missing files DLL files on that computer which may stop operations which it tries to carry out.
Apart from that I am now getting a whole lot of new problems connecting to the email account with my ISP on the Windows 10 computer; am about to start what will no doubt be a long session on the ISP’s helpline. It may be that this is what stops eMClient from accessing the old mailbox file. When I get that area sorted I will try again to get eMClient to import from my big old file.
Hi Bob,
Thank you for the feedback.
Yes, the way you did the first part - the Windows Mail Store folder,- is a perfect backup
from which you can get all your messages.
In that case forget about the export, which should be done on the Vista machine and contains
slightly less than the full backup which you have now.
I would suggest to copy the Windows Mail Store folder from the portable drive to e.g. your Documents on Win 10 and keep de one on the USB drive as backup…
In the new location you should have full acces to that folder…
We can discuss the Import to eM Client later and possibly off the forum
if you want - just send a mail to my forum name at outlookdotcom
correct to actual format…
First try to solve your connection problem with your ISP…
Good luck - I know what that can be like…
On the other hand -maybe I can help with that too…
Just give me a shout …