How to defragment/compact or repair Windows Live Mail data

Contents

• How to defragment/compact or repair Windows Live Mail data

Windows Live Mail 2012 works in Windows 7 and later.
Windows Live Mail 2011 works in Windows Vista and later.
Windows Live Mail 2009 works in Windows XP and later.

How to compact/defragment and repair Windows Live Mail data

This procedure works in Windows Vista and later.

1. If Windows Live Mail is open, close it.
2. Open an Administrative Command Prompt:
   • Windows 10, 8.1:
     1. Press +X on the keyboard (or right-click the Start button in Desktop mode) to display the Quick Link menu, then click Command Prompt (Admin).
   • Windows 7, Vista:
     1. Click the Start button or press the Windows logo key on the keyboard to bring up the Start Menu.
     2. Without clicking anywhere, type cmd but do not hit Enter on the keyboard.
     3. RIGHT-click on cmd.exe (or cmd) beneath Programs (1) and select Run as administrator.
        If the User Account Control window appears, asking Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?, click Yes.
   This will open an Administrator: Command Prompt window displaying the version of Windows and the following prompt:
   C:\Windows\system32>
3. Without clicking anywhere:
   • To defragment / compact Windows Live Mail data, type (or copy/paste) the the following (including the quotes):
     esentutl.exe -d "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"
   • To repair Windows Live Mail data, type the the following (including the quotes):
     esentutl.exe -p "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"
4. If you receive any error messages about files being locked, it indicates a Windows Live Mail process may still be running in the background preventing any maintenance from being performed on its data. If this happens, restart your computer and follow the above procedures again. Do NOT open Windows Live Mail until after these procedures have completed.
5. If you receive the following error message, you may need to fix the file permissions for the Windows Live Mail message store file:
   
   Windows Live Mail could not be started. The application was unable to open the Windows Live Mail message store. Your Windows Live Mail mailbox data is currently being used by another program, such as a virus scanner. Close the program or wait for it to complete its operation, then open Windows Live Mail again.
   (0x800C0155, 997)
   1. Determine who you are currently logged into Windows as:
      From within the Administrative Command Prompt window (see step 2 above), type:
      whoami
      Make note of the username displayed on the next line, for example:
      MyMachinename\My Windows Username
   2. Take ownership of the Windows Live Mail message store file:
      Type (or copy/paste) the the following (including the quotes):
      takeown /f "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"
      The following message should now be displayed:
      SUCCESS: The file (or folder): "C:\Users\My Windows Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore" now owned by user "MyMachinename\My Windows Username".
   3. Give yourself full control permissions to the Windows Live Mail message store file:
      Type (or copy/paste) the the following (including the quotes), replacing the example username with the one you noted after entering the whoami command above:
      icacls "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore" /grant "MyMachinename\My Windows Username":f
      The following should now be displayed:
      processed file: C:\Users\My Windows Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore
      Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files
      You should now be able to open Windows Live Mail.