live mail is not working after a recent update

Windows 10 Update 2004

Installing Windows 10's update, version 2004, breaks Windows Live Mail (WLM). For example, Windows Live Mail may be unable to open NEW messages in the Inbox and/or may be unable to send messages.

The following solution (posted on another thread by user WLMUser2020) involves editing or creating three registry entries (so ensure you have a reliable registry backup before proceeding):

1. Close Windows Live Mail.

2. Open the Registry Editor. In Windows 7 it is:

     C:\Windows\System32\regedt32.exe

3. In the Registry Editor, navigate to this location in the registry:

     Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail

4. Create these three DWORD entries in that location:

     RecreateFolderIndex=1
     RecreateStreamIndex=1
     RecreateUIDLIndex=1

Make CERTAIN that you create DWORD entries. There are several other types: this solution FAILS if you create the wrong type.

5. Restart your computer. This step is ESSENTIAL. Windows will only re-load the registry when Windows itself starts.

6. Start Windows Live Mail.

Then the message display should be back to normal, and those 3 values in the registry should have reset themselves to 0 (and can be left like that).

Step 5 is essential, and was kindly contributed by user DKO777. He reported the following on another thread: "My Registry did NOT have any of the lines mentioned, so I had to create all three and set them to 1. Following a PC reboot these reverted to 0 and WLM worked normally".


If the foregoing does not fix the problem, you've made a mistake:

1. You created the wrong type of entry in step 4 (you should have created DWORD entries); or

2. You failed to restart the computer in step 5 (restarting Windows Live Mail only is not enough).
 
 
 
For a user-friendly guide to how to do this in Windows 10 (which I can't give, as I run Windows 7), please read the following message, posted by user Echo Point on a separate thread -

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/livemail-email-read/windows-10-feature-update-2004-appears-to-have/9736c90c-17a9-444d-8ab2-1422c697e3a0?messageId=76232857-2961-439b-873b-c8b68219883e&page=4
 
 
 
Alternatively, it may be possible to get the Inbox working again WITHOUT manually tampering with the Windows registry.

Another Windows Live Mail user (who had a POP3 account) corrected this fault, on a different thread, by replacing the POP3 account with a new IMAP account. Alternatively, it should be possible to retain the use of POP3 if you prefer.

In either case, these are the steps to take:

  1. Backup ALL your e-mails.

  2. Delete the email account on the relevant Windows Live Mail tab.

  3. Add a new account (either POP3 or IMAP), with the proper settings.

The settings should be the same as in your current WLM installation (if you currently use POP3 and the new account uses it too, or if you currently use IMAP and the new account uses it too): if so, write them down on a piece of paper before carrying out step 2.

A new account (with Inbox, Sent, etc folders) will be created. The Inbox will start downloading e-mails immediately, from your ISP's server. When the downloading has finished completely, you can remove the e-mails from the "Recovered" folder's corresponding Inbox, Sent, etc sub-folders, if they have all been restored to their original places.