Windows Live Mail on multiple pc's - I need a new email client?

I've tried using Windows Live Mail 2012 on multiple pc's by putting the message store on an external hard drive. It worked fine up until this morning when it "lost" all original emails (inbox, sent, storage folders, etc), and then repopulated my mailbox with new copies. I realize each pc has it's own registry, db info, etc so that's likely what created my mess.

I'm giving up on WLM as my email client, but wondering if there's anything that would keep me in sync on multiple pc's (home, work, laptop)? Preferably freeware and also hoping I can export all my WLM 2012 emails to it. I have a lot of old messages I need to access along with my new messages. Keeping them indefinitely on my email server isn't an option.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I'm tearing my hair out with WLM 2012 :cry. I'm going to check Thunderbird for one, but not sure if it can both kept in sync and also allow importing of my old messages? I hate to buy MS Outlook (currently have Office Home & Student 2010), but if I have to I will...

Again thanks in advance for any suggestions - and I can clarify anything needed. Oh and it needs to run on both Windows 7 & Windows 8.1...

 

Change your accounts from POP to IMAP and you won't need a new client as all computers, phones and other devices will stay in sync with the server. You would only use your external drive to store local copies where necessary.

 

Thanks - I'd read switching to IMAP as an option, but not sure it'll work in my situation. The complication is it's a team mailbox so it's on about 6 or more pc's. All are set to retain only 4-5 days worth of email on the server (we have a 5Gb storage limit) The other team members don't care about the syncing as I do. And I want to be able to sync my sent emails along with my incoming emails (and view my older, "historical" emails).

Would this still work just setting it up on my pc's? Also wouldn't there be a concern regarding space on the server? If I tried another email client w/db located on the external hd, am I still going to run into issues (due to each pc's registry & installed config files be "out of sync")?

Not trying to be a "naysayer" on IMAP, just not sure it'll work especially w/the 5 Gb limit and so many other pc's(?). If you think it's viable, I certainly will try. And any tips on setting it up (saw something about Sent box having to be set up special, etc...)?

Thanks!!

 

As you need to retain emails that you know will be deleted from the server in a while then you would need to manually drag and drop them into your local folders on WLM. I use Thunderbird rather than WLM so can't give you step-by-step on anything but I'm quite sure WLM allows you to locate your local folders on any drive you wish, though if you have multiple computers that would have to be a network attached drive. As to the other users I'm not sure whether their POP accounts would continue working or not. I suspect they would but just not sure, though they would have to be configured to leave a copy on the server - as they must be at present..

 

It wouldn't take much work getting all the other pc's set up to leave all mail on the server. Unfortunately though, no networked drive that I can connect to from home & work (hmm...possibly some software that'd allow sharing of my work drive at home?).

I had been moving all my emails/sent/etc into local storage folders in WLM but then all just "hit the fan". It lost all the original stored messages (still has them listed but I can't read the content) and recreated copies of all. Presumably the db store lost track and recreated/reindexed every one of my local messages??

Seems a somewhat simple thing that is becoming more and more complicated if I need to now create a networked drive, lol!

 

I'm certainly not trying to complicate matters, that's bad enough already, but I don't understand how several PCs could have their message store on an external hard drive if it wasn't a network drive already. Or am I misunderstanding your situation?

 

Lol, no worries - not complicating matters...I appreciate your help and suggestions!!

It's a USB external hard drive I disconnect & reconnect (carry home and back to work again). Thinking about it, I'd tried putting the store folder on Dropbox and that hit the same issues. At times WLM would give a message it was recovering the db and appear ok once "recovered". Going from memory on what I'd read a good while back, the registry and local db files on each pc end up creating these "issues".

Hmm...wonder if it's time for a mailbox "spring cleaning" (even though it's summer time, heh)?!

 

Thanks. Now I understand the setup and can well believe you might get Inbox corruption working that way - it isn't the fault of WLM. The first thought I have is that you need to use an online server rather than a local message store. How about forwarding all messages from the server to Gmail or Outlook.com and accessing them that way? Would that not be possible?

 

I hadn't thought about that...but it's a simple solution! Only issue I can think of is the time it'll take to forward all my emails.

I'll give that some serious consideration and try a test case. Thanks for sticking in there with the suggestions and help!

 

Good! Hope it works for you

 

Just a further thought - with my ISP the server can be set to forward mail automatically. Wouldn't be a practical suggestion otherwise.