Storage Folders Unexpectedly Empty

I retain copies of some news posts I want to keep.
I keep them in folders under "Storage Folders".
Two of these folders are now empty.

The corresponding hard-disc folders still exist.
So do the files ending in .nws in those hard-disc folders.
The following is a typical hard-disc path to such a folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Storage
Folders\Newsgroups\Keep\MICROSOFT\excel.progr 7b8

If I double-click a file ending in nws in one of these
hard-disc folders, it opens in Windows Live Mail, as
expected.

Why are the news posts not showing in the folders under
Storage Folders in Windows Live Mail?
How can I get them back please?

More information:
1. Windows Live Mail is playing up, causing reports to be
sent to Microsoft.
2. I've tried re-importing the news posts from Outlook
Express, but WLM says that Outlook Express may have them
open (which it doesn't). In any case, as stated above, the
relevant nws files are still on the hard disc.

TIA.
Geoff

Select the storage folder, then View, Show and Hide. Make sure that
Show all messages is selected.

--

Mike - http://TechHelp.Santovec.us



"GeoffG" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I retain copies of some news posts I want to keep.
> I keep them in folders under "Storage Folders".
> Two of these folders are now empty.
>
> The corresponding hard-disc folders still exist.
> So do the files ending in .nws in those hard-disc folders.
> The following is a typical hard-disc path to such a folder:
>
> C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application
> Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Storage
> Folders\Newsgroups\Keep\MICROSOFT\excel.progr 7b8
>
> If I double-click a file ending in nws in one of these hard-disc
> folders, it opens in Windows Live Mail, as expected.
>
> Why are the news posts not showing in the folders under Storage
> Folders in Windows Live Mail?
> How can I get them back please?
>
> More information:
> 1. Windows Live Mail is playing up, causing reports to be sent to
> Microsoft.
> 2. I've tried re-importing the news posts from Outlook Express, but
> WLM says that Outlook Express may have them open (which it doesn't).
> In any case, as stated above, the relevant nws files are still on the
> hard disc.
>
> TIA.
> Geoff
>
>
>

Hi, Geoff.

WLM's Storage Folders can be bewildering! Are you SURE your "lost" messages
are not actually there, after all?

Storage folders nests its subfolders to great depths, but this is not always
obvious when we look at the Folder list. Each one-line "Imported Folders"
caption should have a not-always-apparent small triangle in front of it,
just like in Windows Explorer. Clicking that triangle - or double-clicking
the folder name - should expand that listing. But there may be subfolders
that are similarly collapsed until you click on THEIR little triangles...ad
infinitum. If you keep opening deeper subfolders, you should eventually get
down to pay dirt - and find the actual messages.

Recovered Items folders are similarly nested many folders deep. Recovered
items can be generated by several kinds of events, anything from an abrupt
shutdown to simply exiting WLM while an operation is in progress. Many of
WLM's activities are hidden, such as when it checks for new messages every
10 minutes or so, or when it is performing other background operations. Did
you ever click Exit, then see that your "downloading" window was still busy?
If you start WLM again, then scroll way down to the bottom of the Folder
List, you may find Recovered items there. If you dig deeper and deeper to
the bottom of these items, you may find the last messages you were reading.
If you simply leave WLM alone for a few days, it might sort out these extra
copies on its own. Or you can delete them; they probably are duplicates.
After you delete them, you STILL may be able to find them again - for a
while - in the Deleted items folder.

Don't give up on finding your lost messages until you have drilled down to
the bottom of every folder in Storage folders.

And for those you find, do any manipulation (copy, delete, etc.) HERE in
WLM, not in Windows Explorer, so that WLM can - eventually - get its indexes
updated and corrected.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

"GeoffG" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I retain copies of some news posts I want to keep.
> I keep them in folders under "Storage Folders".
> Two of these folders are now empty.
>
> The corresponding hard-disc folders still exist.
> So do the files ending in .nws in those hard-disc folders.
> The following is a typical hard-disc path to such a folder:
>
> C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application
> Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Storage
> Folders\Newsgroups\Keep\MICROSOFT\excel.progr 7b8
>
> If I double-click a file ending in nws in one of these hard-disc folders,
> it opens in Windows Live Mail, as expected.
>
> Why are the news posts not showing in the folders under Storage Folders in
> Windows Live Mail?
> How can I get them back please?
>
> More information:
> 1. Windows Live Mail is playing up, causing reports to be sent to
> Microsoft.
> 2. I've tried re-importing the news posts from Outlook Express, but WLM
> says that Outlook Express may have them open (which it doesn't). In any
> case, as stated above, the relevant nws files are still on the hard disc.
>
> TIA.
> Geoff

Hi Michael,

Very many thanks for your reply.

I had checked that already and "Show All Messages" was the
selected view.
For some reason, all messages have since reappeared.
I've done nothing to make this happen!
WLM sent several reports to Microsoft while it was having
some difficulty.

I'm relieved the messages have returned.
Thanks again.
Geoff

"Michael Santovec" <> wrote in
message news:...
> Select the storage folder, then View, Show and Hide. Make
> sure that Show all messages is selected.
>
> --
>
> Mike - http://TechHelp.Santovec.us
>
>
>
> "GeoffG" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> I retain copies of some news posts I want to keep.
>> I keep them in folders under "Storage Folders".
>> Two of these folders are now empty.
>>
>> The corresponding hard-disc folders still exist.
>> So do the files ending in .nws in those hard-disc
>> folders.
>> The following is a typical hard-disc path to such a
>> folder:
>>
>> C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local
>> Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Live
>> Mail\Storage
>> Folders\Newsgroups\Keep\MICROSOFT\excel.progr 7b8
>>
>> If I double-click a file ending in nws in one of these
>> hard-disc folders, it opens in Windows Live Mail, as
>> expected.
>>
>> Why are the news posts not showing in the folders under
>> Storage Folders in Windows Live Mail?
>> How can I get them back please?
>>
>> More information:
>> 1. Windows Live Mail is playing up, causing reports to
>> be sent to Microsoft.
>> 2. I've tried re-importing the news posts from Outlook
>> Express, but WLM says that Outlook Express may have them
>> open (which it doesn't). In any case, as stated above,
>> the relevant nws files are still on the hard disc.
>>
>> TIA.
>> Geoff

Hi RC,

Very many thanks for your reply.

The subfolders (all sub-levels) under "Storage Folders" have
reappeared in WLM's folder list, as have the messages in
those subfolders. So, for now the problem has disappeared.

However, I have made some comments on your reply (below).

> WLM's Storage Folders can be bewildering! Are you SURE
> your "lost" messages are not actually there, after all?

Yes, I had checked that.
I clicked the right-pointing, white-filled triangle to the
left of one of my subfolders under "Storage Folders"
expecting it to turn into a downward-pointing black triangle
(pointing to further subfolders); but nothing happened. The
right-pointing, white-filled triangle stubbornly remained
just that!

> Recovered items can be generated by several kinds of
> events, anything from an abrupt shutdown to simply exiting
> WLM while an operation is in progress.

The major errors that caused WLM to send several reports to
Microsoft did, I think, interrupt WLM in some operation or
other.

I didn't notice any "Recovered Items" folders.

I believe I rebooted once and that didn't solve the problem.
I'm not sure if I rebooted a second time before all levels
of subfolders under "Storage Folders" reappeared with their
respective contents.

Many thanks for the tips on how recovered items can behave.
Very useful to know this.

I never had this experience with Outlook Express 6, which
I've just moved from for Newsgroup postings.
(I use Microsoft Outlook for email.)

If the folder-disappearance problem was caused by an
indexing or speed error, could I have restored indexes from
a tape backup? If this is possible, where are the indexes
stored please? Just a thought to save me further anguish!

TIA
Geoff


"R. C. White" <> wrote in message
news:#...
> Hi, Geoff.
>
> WLM's Storage Folders can be bewildering! Are you SURE
> your "lost" messages are not actually there, after all?
>
> Storage folders nests its subfolders to great depths, but
> this is not always obvious when we look at the Folder
> list. Each one-line "Imported Folders" caption should
> have a not-always-apparent small triangle in front of it,
> just like in Windows Explorer. Clicking that triangle -
> or double-clicking the folder name - should expand that
> listing. But there may be subfolders that are similarly
> collapsed until you click on THEIR little triangles...ad
> infinitum. If you keep opening deeper subfolders, you
> should eventually get down to pay dirt - and find the
> actual messages.
>
> Recovered Items folders are similarly nested many folders
> deep. Recovered items can be generated by several kinds
> of events, anything from an abrupt shutdown to simply
> exiting WLM while an operation is in progress. Many of
> WLM's activities are hidden, such as when it checks for
> new messages every 10 minutes or so, or when it is
> performing other background operations. Did you ever
> click Exit, then see that your "downloading" window was
> still busy? If you start WLM again, then scroll way down
> to the bottom of the Folder List, you may find Recovered
> items there. If you dig deeper and deeper to the bottom
> of these items, you may find the last messages you were
> reading. If you simply leave WLM alone for a few days, it
> might sort out these extra copies on its own. Or you can
> delete them; they probably are duplicates. After you
> delete them, you STILL may be able to find them again -
> for a while - in the Deleted items folder.
>
> Don't give up on finding your lost messages until you have
> drilled down to the bottom of every folder in Storage
> folders.
>
> And for those you find, do any manipulation (copy, delete,
> etc.) HERE in WLM, not in Windows Explorer, so that WLM
> can - eventually - get its indexes updated and corrected.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
>
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate
> x64
>
> "GeoffG" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> I retain copies of some news posts I want to keep.
>> I keep them in folders under "Storage Folders".
>> Two of these folders are now empty.
>>
>> The corresponding hard-disc folders still exist.
>> So do the files ending in .nws in those hard-disc
>> folders.
>> The following is a typical hard-disc path to such a
>> folder:
>>
>> C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local
>> Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Live
>> Mail\Storage
>> Folders\Newsgroups\Keep\MICROSOFT\excel.progr 7b8
>>
>> If I double-click a file ending in nws in one of these
>> hard-disc folders, it opens in Windows Live Mail, as
>> expected.
>>
>> Why are the news posts not showing in the folders under
>> Storage Folders in Windows Live Mail?
>> How can I get them back please?
>>
>> More information:
>> 1. Windows Live Mail is playing up, causing reports to
>> be sent to Microsoft.
>> 2. I've tried re-importing the news posts from Outlook
>> Express, but WLM says that Outlook Express may have them
>> open (which it doesn't). In any case, as stated above,
>> the relevant nws files are still on the hard disc.
>>
>> TIA.
>> Geoff
>

"GeoffG" <> wrote in message
news:##...
> If the folder-disappearance problem was caused by an indexing or speed
> error, could I have restored indexes from a tape backup? If this is
> possible, where are the indexes stored please? Just a thought to save me
> further anguish!

WLMail handles messages in a very different way from OE. Each message is
stored as a file with a .eml or .nws extension. These are put by the app
into folders in the Store folder. Then a database (Mail.MSMessageStore)
keeps a note of the message headers (date, from, to, subject...) and
appropriate flags together with pointers to its location. During normal
operations, log files record what happens to each message. Then, on
shut-down, the contents of the log files are written to the database. Once
in a while, something goes wrong with bits of this process*. Usually, there
is enough redundant information available for the database eventually to
work out what happened and put it right, but it might take a restart or two
before all's well again - as you discovered.

You can probably speed up this 'recovery' process by forcing a
re-indexation of the database. At [Tools >] Options > Advanced >
Maintenance there is an option to 'Compact the database on shutdown every n
runs'. The default is, I think, n=100. This may be optimistic for an
installation with many accounts and lots of traffic. I have n=1, which
means I am invited to 'Recover unused disk space' every time I shut down.
Usually I decline (it's only one extra click), but if it's been a long time
since I accepted, or if I've done a lot of file manipulation (deleting,
moving or copying messages), then I'll say Yes and the database will be
re-indexed. (I'll also recover a bit of disk space as database records for
deleted messages and log files are removed). This will often resolve
'missing message' and similar errors, which probably occurred because the
message was not where the database thought it was. To make sure the
re-indexing can proceed, I always switch to Mail mode and select Work
offline before closing down. You may find it worth while to adopt a similar
procedure.

* There can be any number of reasons why this happens - interference from
other programs like AV apps, or just too many things going on at once, for
example. If the program waited for every process to be completed before
starting the next one, it would be unbearably slow, so there may be as you
suspect some trade-off between speed and accuracy.
--
Noel

Hi Noel,

A terrific answer.
Very many thanks.
I'll retain and consider your reply carefully, particularly
the issue of re-indexing.

My experience with Microsoft Outlook has been that, if a pst
file is corrupt, it's not a good idea to compact it; doing
so makes it impossible then to recover it using Microsoft's
utility scanpst.exe. That being the case, if all is well, I
regularly compact pst files manually (as you're similarly
suggesting for WLM), but I wouldn't compact if corruption
had occurred (as it did once on my brother's computer, when
compacting destroyed the possibility of recovery).

I appreciate from what you say that WLM is usually able to
recover. That's reassuring. I'd be pretty peeved if I lost
the very material I wanted to retain and had no way of
restoring from tape as a last resort. It would be nice to
know that, if the worst happened, WLM would recreate an
index using the files present on the hard disc as source
material. I understand that these files may not know about
operations that WLM may have performed, but something would
be better than nothing. I guess Microsoft have already
thought about this. I just like to be prepared for the
worst before it happens! If you have any further
information, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again.
Regards
Geoff