I am attempting to tidy up the storage of emails in WLM 2012 as the storage folder has 798 folders and 4403 files after deleting all unwanted emails and moving others to separate folders. Many of the folders in the storage folder are empty and some are obslete for accounts long gone and Hotmail which no longer works in WLM.

WLM has 4 active email accounts and 15 folders for storing saved emails.

Just looking at the tree structure makes the mind boggle with many folders for each account.

I came across this post and tried it.

¡Firedog replied on August 19, 2012

MVP

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To re-index the message database,

1. On the Home tab, click Work offline.
2. On the View tab, select Reading pane > Off.
3. Press Ctrl-Shift-O to open program Options. Select the Advanced tab and click Maintenance.
4. Set Compact the database on shutdown every... to 1 and make sure the check box is ticked.
5. Click Close, Apply and OK.
6. Disconnect from the Internet and close down all running programs including your security software.
7. Close WLMail. A progress window headed Making a backup... should appear, followed by another headed Recovering unused disk space.
8. Wait a few minutes, then reboot the computer and check that your security software is running again.
9. Re-connect to the Internet, launch WLMail and test.

If this is successful, you can reset the compact counter.

Noel Burgess | Certified Pedant | Claims to know a bit about Windows Live Mail

The first problem I came across was that “WORK Offline” had a red cross on it and had no effect, I therefore forced this by turning off my router. “Making a back up” did not appear but recovering disk space did. However the storage folder was still just as bad.

Does anyone have any practical solution to cleaning up WLM 2012?

I have investigated other email clients and not yet found one which suits me ( WLM was imported from Outlook Express) I found the W10 mail app particularly  unsuitable. This problem has cropped up due to a crash when updating to version 1709 of W 10 which caused the loss of many emails when I had to reset my PC as it became unusable nad back ups would not work.