Fortunately, there are quite a few different ways which you can use to try and restore any and all lost Windows Live Mail email folders. The following are the three methods that have proven to be the most effective at restoring lost Windows Live Mail folders:
Method 1: Restore the folders using Compact View
The most popular fix that allows Windows Live Mail users to recover folders that were lost and not actually deleted by them is restoring the folders using Compact View. Enabling the Compact View feature allows the user to access a list of ALL the Windows Live Mail email folders on their computer, consequently enabling them to simply choose the folders that are missing and restore them. To restore the Windows Live Mail folders that you have lost using this method, you need to: Open Windows Live Mail. Click on View in the taskbar. Click on Compact View. Doing so will collapse all of the Windows Live Mail folders listed and a green sign in the shape of a plus will appear under them.
Click on the green plus. As soon as you do so, a dialog box that lists ALL of the Windows Live Mail folders on your computer – including the ones that you have lost – will appear.
Simply check each of the lost folders that you want to restore by clicking on the checkbox beside them, and then click on OK. Once done, click on View and then click on Compact View.
As soon as you click on Compact View the second time, all the email folders that you thought you had lost should appear exactly where they should be.
Method 2: Restore the folders that were lost using the import feature from the default directory where the mail’s are stored
The first step is to Hold the windows Key and Press R. Then, type %appdata% and click OK. Once there, check the following locations:
You will then see your folders in one of those directories, copy everything and create a new folder on Desktop. Name it as “Back Up Live Mail” or something. This will be the back up folder, the reason it is supposed to be copied is to not corrupt or mess up the existing data. AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail
Now you’ve got the back up, from here if you are restoring/importing from the back up we did above or from another back up, the steps below will apply to both.
Open Windows Live Mail. Open the File menu located in the upper left corner of the window. Click on Import messages in the File Select the file format in which you saved your Windows Live Mail backup – Microsoft Outlook Express 6, Windows Live Mail or Windows Mail. If you’re restoring from the back up in the above method, then use the Windows Live Mail option and click Next. Click on Browse, navigate to the folder in which your backup is stored, click on the backup file (the folder or mailbox) you want to restore to select it and then click on Next. Click on Next. As soon as you receive a message confirming the success of the restoration of the folders, feel free to click on Finish and see that the folders you restored are now visible in the left pane under Storage folders or where they were imported.
What is LOST.DIR Folder? How to Recover Lost.Dir Files?How to Recover Deleted Contacts on Windows Live MailFix: Windows Live Mail Duplicate Folders and EmailsHow to Change your e-mail settings in Windows Live Mail
