Live Mail to Outlook Transfer – User’s Manual
Content of this instruction:
Method 1: Importing using Live Mail to Outlook Transfer tool
Extra Tips
Method 2: Export Using Windows Live Mail Client
Method 3: Export Windows Live Mail via IMAP
Method 1: Importing using Live Mail to Outlook Transfer software
Live Mail doesn’t come with Windows 10, it contains the Microsoft Store Mail application (Mail App) pre-installed. If you use Windows 10 to import Windows Live Mail into Outlook, the following instruction applies only if you installed Live Mail manually or you have saved email files and folders from the previously installed f. The following semi-automatic method makes the migration task extremely easy.
Key moments of the Windows Live Mail to PST conversion
Exit the Windows Live Mail application prior to launching the Live Mail emails conversion. It will release all source data files and allow you to convert Live Mail emails smoothly.
With the Windows Live Mail email conversion tool, we did our best to automate as many operations as possible, and we’ve got 99% of the process covered by the tool. All you need to do is make a couple of simple choices and confirm your selections. You have two options: direct transfer to Outlook or saving messages to a new PST data file. The first scenario is fairly self-explanatory, while the second one allows you to copy the resulting file to any type of drive or cloud storage or transfer it to another system. Imagine that you have Windows Live Mail and Outlook 2019, 2016, or an earlier version installed on the same system.
Convert emails from Windows Live Mail to a standalone PST file on your hard drive
Live Mail to Outlook Transfer can export emails to Outlook and also save them to a PST data file on your HDD. The EML to PST conversion mode is active by default and we recommend using this mode because it is the most stable and independent of other settings that can affect the result. In addition, creating a separate file of the PST file format avoids mixing existing messages with newly imported ones. This method requires a standalone version of MS Outlook to be installed on the computer where you run the conversion.
If Live Mail is not installed on your system, you can still use Live Mail Transfer utility. Just copy the Windows Live Mail data folder from any other system and convert its contents into a Outlook Data File file. Copy the PST data file to the destination system and load it in Outlook to access the converted emails. To convert Live Mail eml files to .pst format follow these simple steps:
Step 1: Download and Install Live Mail Converter
Download and install the latest version of Live Mail converter software on your PC. Installation is fast and easy, and does not require any additional tools to be downloaded. Both 32-bit and 64-bit programs will be installed at once.
Step 2: Run Live Mail to Outlook converter utility.
Use appropriate shortcut to run the tool that supports the similar bitness that Outlook have. If your Outlook version is 32-bit you have to run 32-bit version of the Live Mail to Outlook Transfer tool. For 64-bit Outlook you have to run 64-bit version of the Live Mail Transfer utility. Both shortcuts are created during Setup.
Step 3: Specify location of Source Live Mail folder
The program should automatically detect the location of the source directory containing eml files and subfolders. If it doesn’t happen for some reason, click on “…” (Browse) and navigate to the necessary folder on the hard drive (see “Source folder selection” for details). You can also use the File > Open command to do it.
Step 4: Scan the Subfolders for EML files
Click the “Scan folder” button to find all Live Mail messages (.eml files) located in the specified source folder and its subfolders.
The program will show a list of available folders and files of eml format in the “Email Containers” panel.
Step 5: Enable “Save to PST” mode
Ensure that “Save to PST file” mode is active in the program menu “Mode”. Saving to PST file is active by default. If another mode is active but you want to save data to a PST file on your hard drive, use the Mode > Save to PST file command to switch modes.
Step 6: Start the conversion
Click the “Save PST” button. The program will prompt to select the directory to save a new PST file and specify the PST file name. Default File Name will be offered.
Chose a folder on your computer to save PST file and click “Save” button. You may select the existing PST file here to append existing PST file.
Step 7: Open PST file
By default the program trying to load resulting PST file to MS Outlook immediately after conversion. This requires the program option “Open PST file in Outlook (when finished)” to be enabled. Alternatively you may open the PST file manually, for that click menu File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File:
In Outlook find the title (default title is “Live Mail to Outlook Transfer”) of your .pst file in the list of Outlook folders and expand the folders tree by clicking the rectangle symbol at the left of the folder name.
Note: Windows Live Mail stores the long folders names truncated to 8-11 characters followed by a space and three random alphanumeric characters. The correct representation of the folder names is stored in the encoded database which can not be accessed due to security reasons. Due to the fact that our software takes the folders structure from the file system, the long folder names may appear truncated and you may need to rename some folders in Outlook manually to restore their initial names. However, it is the minimum manual work that may be required for importing emails from Windows Live Mail into Outlook.
As you can see, moving your live mail email messages from eml files and attachments from one application to another is a breeze with Outlook Transfer software. It works for MS Outlook of versions 2019, 2016, 2010 and earlier releases. Should you, however, have any problems converting your emails using this product, please do not hesitate to contact our support with a description of your problem, and we will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible.
Direct transfer of emails and attachments from Live Mail to MS Outlook
This method requires you to have standalone Outlook installed on your system. Outlook User Profile should be configured, for that you have to run the MS Outlook after setup and follow the configuration wizard. Here is what you need to do to convert Windows Live Mail messages to Outlook:
Step 1: Download Live Mail converter software
Download and install the latest version of Live Mail to Outlook Transfer on your PC. Installation is fast and easy, and does not require any additional tools to be downloaded.
Step 2: Run Live Mail Transfer software
Since Live Mail Transfer tool works in couple with Microsoft Outlook the architecture of both should match. You have to use the 32-bit shortcut if your Outlook version is 32-bit and 64-bit shortcut if your Outlook version is 64-bit.
Step 3: Specify source folder containing Live Mail messages
The program should automatically detect the location of the source directory where Live Mail stores eml files. If it doesn’t happen for some reason, click on “…” (Browse) and navigate to the necessary folder on the hard drive (see “Source folder selection” for details). You can also use the File > Open menu.
Once you have selected a folder and its name has appeared in the Source Folder field.
Step 4: Scan the source folder for Subfolders
Click on “Scan Folder” button or use the File > Scan Folder menu to start searching for subfolders and *.eml files in the specified folder.
The names of available Live Mail eml files will be shown in the large pane occupying the central part of the program window.
Step 5: Select the proper Mode
Use menu “Mode” to enable the option which imports emails into Outlook.
Step 6: Click Import button
Click “Import” button to start importing of your eml files. A new dialog will pop up and prompt you for the destination Outlook folder that your imported messages will be saved to. Choose topmost folder called “Live Mail to Outlook Transfer” if you want to import emails according to their folders structure.
For those who are not familiar with Outlook we recommend to select Inbox as a target. After conversion you will be able to organize your folders in Outlook.
Click “Done” to start the conversion. Full details about processed items are shown in the log window.
Once the process is over, you can launch Outlook to access your messages.
Method 2: Export Using Windows Live Mail Client
Here is the most obvious way to migrate from Windows Live Mail to MS Outlook – you simply use Windows Live Mail for that. Even though Live Mail is now discontinued and is not supplied with the Windows operating system since 2012, you still can use it to move your emails to Outlook.
The method is based on the built-in capability of the WLM client to export mail data to Microsoft Exchange. Consequentially, Exchange can be used to further import data to Microsoft Outlook. Here is how it works.
Step 1: Initiate export to MS Exchange
Run Live Mail. Then, click “File > Export email > Email messages” as shown below:
This will open the exporting dialog:
Select “Microsoft Exchange” here as a destination format, then click “Next”. Confirm the operation.
Step 2: Select Windows Live Mail folders you want to export
Now, select the folders in your mailbox account that you want to move from Windows Live Mail to Outlook.
Click “Next” button to confirm the selection. You can also export all folders.
Step 3: Select the Outlook account to import data to
Choose the Outlook profile you want your Windows Live Mail data to import to. Click OK. This will transfer Windows Live Mail to Outlook. Note that the process can take some time. And of course, the PC you run this exporting method at must have MS Exchange services installed.
Conclusion on this method to migrate from Windows Live Mail to Outlook
The above method’s advantage is simplicity. If you have been using Windows Live Mail anyway, it seems wise to use its capabilities to export Windows Live Mail to Outlook. However, since Windows Live Mail support is discontinued now, there might be problems exporting data from it to Outlook.
Some typical problems during the export process of WLM to Outlook include error messages like “Something went wrong with the error code NNNN”. Or the exporting process can just stuck in the middle. Sometimes splitting your emails to several chunks and exporting them one by one helps, but this is a tedious manual process. And manual exporting is what you were trying to avoid in the first place, right?
Method 3: Export Windows Live Mail to Outlook using IMAP
One option to import mail from Windows Live Mail to Outlook is to use the IMAP protocol. The idea behind this method is to export mail from your Windows Mail account to an IMAP mailbox, and then import these data to Outlook.
Here is how to export Windows Live Mail to Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 using IMAP.
Note: you will need a Gmail mailbox to use this exporting method.
Step 1: Enable IMAP access in Gmail
This method involves fetching data from Live Mail by Gmail mailbox, and then exporting them forward to Outlook. Before we start exporting, enable IMAP in Gmail if it is not yet enabled.
Open Gmail Settings, switch to Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab and enable IMAP as shown below:
Step 2: Add Gmail mailbox to Windows Live Mail
You will need to add a new account to Windows Live Mail.
- Run Windows Live Mail.
- Open the Accounts menu.
- Click the “Email” button on the toolbar to configure a new email account.
- Specify your Gmail IMAP account settings: email, password and the server address.
- Select the “IMAP” option in the server type dropdown.
- Finish the new account Wizard.
This will add a new account to your Windows Live Mail application, and this IMAP account is now linked to Gmail mailbox.
Step 3: Move Live Mail messages to your new IMAP account
Now you need to copy messages and/or folders from your existing Windows Mail account to the newly created IMAP account.
Select all emails in the account by pressing Ctrl+A, or select multiple messages using Shift and Ctrl keys. Then, drag-n-drop emails to the new IMAP account.
After that your Gmail account should automatically fetch new emails via IMAP, so you will be able to see the imported messages there.
Step 4: Login to Outlook with your IMAP settings
After you start Microsoft Outlook as normal, login to your IMAP account using the same settings that you used before. This will connect your Gmail IMAP account containing emails imported from Windows Live Mail.
Outlook will automatically synchronize the IMAP account and will download messages.
Step 5: Finish Live Mail to Outlook transfer
As soon as Outlook finishes synchronization, your messages from WLM are ready to be moved elsewhere. So, you can copy them to another Outlook account or export Windows Live Mail to PST. After you copy the imported WLM emails to another account, you can remove the intermediate IMAP account you used to transfer the data.
Conclusion on exporting Live Mail using IMAP
As you see, this method involves using a third-party IMAP server. In this example we used Gmail, but in fact you can use any other IMAP server too. While this method typically works ok, it still involves a lot of manual operations. It is also not ideal in terms of the final result. Some users report missing emails after conversion finishes. Sometimes email format gets damaged too.
Overall, if you need to migrate from Live Mail to Outlook on another or the same computer, this is a viable option to try.
Extra Tip 1: Import Contacts from Windows Live Mail to Microsoft Outlook
To move this data into the new system, you need to export it from Live Mail in the CSV format. This is a piece of cake thanks to the direct export feature. To move CSV contacts into Outlook in a manual way, do the following:
- Click on Contacts at the bottom of the interface.
- Click on the Export button at the top.
- Choose CSV to export the contacts into a single file.
- Use the wizard for importing and exporting data. It is summoned differently depending on the version:
- 2007 and older — go to the File menu
- 2010 and 2013 — from File, go to Open
- 2016 and 2019 — from File, go to Open & Export
- Choose Import from another program or file and click Next.
- Choose the CSV format and click Next.
- Browse to where the previously exported *.csv file is stored and click Next.
- Specify that the Contacts folder is the destination and proceed further.
- Click Finish.
Read detailed Live Mail contacts conversion instruction.
Extra Tip 2: Export Calendar Windows Live Mail to Migrate to Outlook
Unfortunately, the old system cannot sync its calendar data with Outlook. There are no export options, either. All you can do is save the items by forwarding them to the new email address. Import within the Calendar folder is impossible.
Extra Tip 3: Finding where Windows Live Mail stores messages
Source folder selection
All our products automatically detect the location of source folders. Live Mail to Outlook Transfer utility is no exception – immediately after start, it checks the necessary system records to find out where Live Mail messages and attachments are stored. This method works for Outlook 2019, 2016, and prior versions.
In the majority of cases, the path will be as follows:
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\
The program will automatically paste it into the data Source Folder field.
If the program does not detect the path to the source folder automatically, this may indicate a conflict of profiles, identities, a registry error or any other non-critical problem. In this case, click the “…” (Browse) button to open the standard Windows folder selection dialog and select the source folder manually. Please note that the path specified above may be hidden and not available for selection right away.
How to find Windows Live Mail 2012 source data location
Default location of the Live Mail 2012 storage is:
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Storage Folders\
You may check where Live Mail Essentials 2012 stores the source files per this sequence:
- Click the File tab, click Options item, click Mail…
- Click Advanced tab, then click Maintenance… button
- Click Store Folder… button
The program will show you the full path to the source folder. The emails are located in the subfolder called Storage Folders. Use them to import Windows Live Mail data to Outlook.
To make it visible in Win 7, do the following:
- Open Windows File Explorer, click on “Organize” and select the “Folder and Search Options” command from the menu.
- Switch to the “View” tab
- In “Advanced settings”, find the “Hidden files and folders” node and expand it
- Enable the “Show hidden files and folders” radio button
- Uncheck the “Hide protected operating system files” option
- Click OK.
To make hidden files visible in Windows 10, do the following:
Ensure that you have Live Mail installed at the system, not the Mail App which goes pre-installed.
- Open File Explorer window
- Select View > Options > Change folder and search options.
- Select the View tab
- In Advanced settings, select Show hidden files, folders, and drives
- Click OK.
Doing this will unhide the previously hidden folders and allow you to select the one containing Live Mail source files in the manual mode.
IMPORTANT: Please note that our products are capable of extracting and converting data from damaged mailbox files of all supported formats.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I import Windows Live Mail into Outlook?
Yes, of course. In this article above, we explained three working methods to export from Windows Live Mail to Outlook. Some methods require many manual operations, while others are mostly automatic. We recommend trying our Live Mail to Outlook Transfer software, because this tool offer the best balance between cost of conversion and time spend on it.
How do I transfer emails from Windows Live to Outlook 2010?
Even though different versions of MS Outlook may not be equally compatible with Windows Live Mail software, you still can easily transfer emails from Live Mail to Outlook, including Outlook 2019 using our migration tool for WLM. Use the above tutorial to import your emails to Outlook.
How do I transfer contacts from Windows Live Mail to Outlook 2019?
Moving contacts from WLM to MS Outlook 2019 is also possible. Here is a step-by-step instruction on how to import your contacts from Windows Live Mail to Outlook.
How to export Windows Live Mail to Outlook on another computer?
Often, you need to upgrade from your old computer with WLM to your new computer with Outlook. In this case, you probably cannot use direct transfer of email data via MS Exchange. Also, direct Windows Live Mail export to Outlook may also not work.
In this case we recommend either export emails from WLM to a third-party IMAP server (i.e. Gmail), and then connect to that IMAP server from your new computer with MS Outlook. Another option is to export mails from Live Mail to a PST file (see below), and then transfer this file to your new computer and load it to Outlook.
How to convert Windows Live Mail to Outlook PST?
Live Mail to Outlook Transfer offers you a simple way to save your emails as a standalone Outlook Data File too. Please see the instruction above to learn how to convert Windows Live Mail to PST with our Windows Live Mail to Outlook converter.
You may also want to know:
- How to export Live Mail contacts to Outlook
- How to open PST file and check the result
- How to transfer emails from Thunderbird to Outlook?
Other Tutorials
This is the best tool that I ever used. User friendly GUI, no need to be an expert to convert emails. I just spend a time to find where my Live Mail emails were saved, as I do not have WLM at my PC any more. However this instruction helped me to do so also. Several minutes and all my old emails migrated into Outlook. No any error, everything correct and accurate, even dates and read/unread states. I was surprised to see that this tool also converted WLM folders, and I do not need to create them manually. Thank you for this tool and detailed instruction!