Microsoft Mail: Exported Mail, but Cannot Import it

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Brad - 10 May 2008 22:41 GMT

From Microsoft Mail, I exported each of my mail folders (Inbox and others) to
an external hard drive. I verified that the directories to which I exported
my mail had contents.

I then reinstalled Vista--a full installation that wipes out what was there.

After installation, I opened Microsoft Mail and tried to import what I had
exported.

Microsoft Mail displayed a message that either the mail cannot be found or
that the files are already open by another application.

Help, please! Can't Microsoft Mail import what it exports?

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Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM - 10 May 2008 22:52 GMT

> From Microsoft Mail, I exported each of my mail folders (Inbox and others)
> to
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> Help, please! Can't Microsoft Mail import what it exports?

Copy the exported folders to a new folder in your Documents folder and
import from that.

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Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM
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Brad - 11 May 2008 00:38 GMT

Thank you for the suggestion, Frank.

I copied the folders that contained the exported mail to Documents.

I then opened Microsoft Mail. Help > About says it's version 6.0.6000.16386.

When I go to File > Import > Messages, the provided list of formats shows
Microsoft Windows Mail 7, plus Outlook, OE, and MS Exchange.

I selected Microsoft Windows Mail 7, and clicked Next.

In the Location of Messages dialog box, it said "It was determined that your
messages are stored in the following location. If this is not the correct
location or you would like to import from a different location, select a new
folder.

The field was blank, so I clicked Browse, and pointed to Documents > Inbox
(for starters.) (I also tried other folders where exported mail was.)

RESULT: No messages can be found in this folder or another application is
running that has hte required files open. Please select another folder or try
closing applications that may have files open.

Any ideas what else? Why would Microsoft Mail 6.0 refer to a version 7?

Thanks.

> > From Microsoft Mail, I exported each of my mail folders (Inbox and others)
> > to
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> Copy the exported folders to a new folder in your Documents folder and
> import from that.

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Steve Cochran - 12 May 2008 10:36 GMT

The answer to the last question is that it is a bug. The rest may also be a
bug, but you need to verify that the path to the eml files is correctly
displayed when you use the Browse button. Part of it may be doubled and so
it may not actually point to the valid directory. See if that is the
problem.

If its not the problem, then you can create a new folder in Winmail and open
it to that folder's empty message list. Then drag the eml files from a
directory and drop them overtop the empty message list and it will then
incorporate them into that folder. You can then do that with each.
Alternatively, my OEX program (www.oehelp.com/OEX/) allows you to import a
directory of eml files into a WinMail folder directly with a single button
click.

steve

> Thank you for the suggestion, Frank.
>
[quoted text clipped - 49 lines]
>> Copy the exported folders to a new folder in your Documents folder and
>> import from that.

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