Rationalising the File Explorer folders in Storage of Windows Live Email (2012)

[Sebastian42]

In 2014, Terry 60 gave advice in this forum relevant to this topic, but that thread is locked - I hope he is still around to help me.
My WLM client works satisfactorily, but since I may want to move my storage elsewhere, I would first like to remove the anomalies from the Storage folders.
1. The bulk of my stored email is in a folder tree sub-branch of 'Recovered Items' - but my WLM Client has no such folder as 'Recovered Items'.
2. A top folder in my WLM Client is 'ByName', but in the storage, 'ByName' folder has only a small number of empty folders, which get recreated if I delete them.
3. 'Received' folder in storage is empty, but in my WLM Client it is well populated.
I hope this shows that there is a great disconnect between the storage folders and the items in the Client.

 

[Terry60]

I take it you're referencing
How to clean up your Windows Live Mail Storage folders.
If so, you'll see it starts with the assertion with which you concluded.
The neat and tidy structure in the WLM GUI is not reflected in the underlying bird's nest you find in Explorer.
Unknown and invisible to you WLM is constantly "recovering" things as you go about your daily business and its default action is to create new folders and chain them all together beneath the visible surface.
As long as your longest filename in the most deeply nested folder is not close to 259 chars, you can safely ignore the hidden complexity and simply "export" your archive to a new location if you desire.
I haven't touched my file structure since that tutorial was written and it's still fine after another 5 years.
If you are experiencing problems from hitting the 259 limit, that tutorial will guide you through the clean-up.
Read it carefully and follow the golden rules.
They're the result of many many hours of trial, error, hair-loss, frustration, foul-language and blind rage as I deduced that any other approach will drive you mad with the apparent illogicality of the WLM sub-surface.
Make a copy of the entire file structure somewhere safe and untouchable before you begin.
One mistake and you could lose your archive in a black hole in an instant. (I did, several times, but had the backup copy to start again from)

 

[Sebastian42]

Thank you for your reply - your advice certainly will spare me much heart ache.
I dont know what referencing means in this context.
I will do a trial run - secretly still hoping that it will not be a mirror image, but a more rational assemblage.

 

[Sebastian42]

Sad to report that after deleting everything in the Client, and rebooting, the File Explorer folders are STILL a mess (fig 1); and even when the client is closed, the Windows Live Mail File Explorer folder is deleted the PC is rebooted, after copying just ONE email from the old storage into new structure, [into _Received] and opening the client again, the File Explorer folders arrangement is no longer tidy as promised - fig 2. Moreover the icons for the new folders in File Explorer have a new mark in top right corner - fig 3

 

[Terry60]

The underlying structure will never look as neat as the WML GUI.
The point of the clean up is not to make it look neat, but to remove the degree of folder nesting which makes the most deeply nested filenames fall foul of the 259 character Windows limitation.
If you're not approaching that limit, leave it well alone. It's not worth the effort unless it's causing you a problem by making your oldest archived mail unreadable.

 

[Sebastian42]

The WLM client is causing no problems.
The bizarre behaviour triggered in the File Explorer folders, must be triggered by unforgettable memories - in the Registry, for lack of a more reasonable location - as the entire File Explorer structure had been deleted, yet got recreated in that past-referencing way.