17. June 2014 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized

I am receiving the following message on several folders... Message cannot be found - The contents of this message cannot be found - Windows Live Mail.

I was organizing my Email file from my COX Internet Account... I have a main folder named "MetLife Insurance Complaint" and below that I had created a sub-folder named "Sorted"... this folder contained nothing... I just put in as a marker, to indicated all folders below it had been organized. There 34 Main folders below the empty "Sorted" folder that contain sub-folders. Each of the 34 Main folders have sub-folders containing Emails. The first Main folder named "MetLife" has 18 sub-folders that have several files with the proper headers, but when I click on the Email I get the message; Message cannot be found - The contents of this message cannot be found. When I try to open the Email, I get a Error Box; "A problem occurred while trying to open the message. A problem has occurred. Please try again.", which when I click on the OK button and try to open the Email, I get the same message. The second Main folder named "Michigan" has 3 sub-folders that have several files with the proper headers... with the same problem... as the first Main folder. The third Main folder named "Minnesota" has 7 sub-folders that have several files with the proper headers... with the same problem... as the first Main folder... Except the 7th sub-folders is okay... with the with the proper headers and I can click on each Email and see the contents... no problem with the  7th sub-folder. The remaining 31 Main folders and sub-folders containing Emails are okay. I am sure I caused the problem... Once I was finished organizing the Email folders, I decided I wanted to get rid of the Empty sub-folder named "Sorted"... since this folder contained nothing... I right clicked on the "Sorted" folder and selected Delete... I noticed it was taking a long time to delete the folder... so I cancelled the process... This is when the problems started... Since the folder was Empty, I saw no problem deleting the folder. It looks like that  Windows Live Mail would have gave me a warning that it was going to delete all the Email contents in the folders below the Empty folder, but it did not. I have tried several suggestions that have been posted...

First Suggestion:

1. Restart the computer (this is to ensure that Live Mail is fully shut down, and that none of it's components are in use when the computer starts)

2. Click Start, type CMD but do not press enter

3. You will see cmd.exe in the search results, right click on it and select Run as Administrator - type your admin password if asked, and if UAC pops up asking premission, allow it

4. You should now see the command prompt, with the following displayed:


Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]

Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>


5. Copy the following (Ctrl+C)


esentutl.exe -d "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"


Note: the "" are necessary

6. Right click in the command prompt Window, and select Paste, so you now see the following:


Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]

Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>esentutl.exe -d "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"


7. Press enter. esentutl will now defragment the Live Mail database file

8. Once done, you can close the command prompt, and restart the PC again

Second Suggestion:

Click Start then go to Control Panel.

Under Programs, click Uninstall a Program and select Windows Live Essentials 2011 then click Uninstall/Change located at the top.

On the next dialog, select Repair all Windows Live programs.

Third Suggestion:

In order to resolve the issue, you need to rebuild the Windows Live Mail message store. Once you have rebuild the message store then, infected or corrupted messages will be removed. In order to rebuild the message store, you need to click on tools and go to option in Windows Live Mail. Then you have to click on Advanced tab and then select maintenance button. Then you can select store folder button and rebuild the message store.

Fourth Suggestion:

To re-index the message database,

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