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Backing Up Windows Live Mail Contacts
- This article is for Windows only
Windows Live Mail (for Windows Vista) keeps your email data within a hidden folder located on your computer. Carbonite adds this location to your backup set by default. To ensure the files are backed up, navigate to the location where they are stored to see if they are selected.
Windows Live Mail data files are stored in the following location:
- C:\Users\[User Name]Your [User Name] will vary depending on how you set up your computer. If you do not see your own name, your files are most likely in something generic, such as Owner or User.\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\.
The sections below are collapsed. Please click the section title to open / close a particular section.
Like mail data, Windows Live Mail contacts files are a stored in a hidden system folder on your computer and are selected by default.
Windows Live Mail contact data can be found in the following location:
- C:/Users/{USERNAME}/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows Live/Contacts/
From here, open the Default, DBStore, or the email address folder (depending on the Windows Live Mail version).
Once the folders are displayed, ensure that the following files are selected for backup:
- contacts.edb
- contacts.pat
- edb.chk
If they are not, you will need to right-click each of these files and select Carbonite; Back this up.
For best results, you may export the contacts from within Windows Live Mail and manually select them for backup
Exporting your contacts to a .CSV file is best for people who have several contacts that they would like to maintain in one file in case they ever need to re-import them. After they have been exported, you will be able to select them for backup. However, if you add any new contacts, you would need to export and back up your contacts again to keep your backed up .CSV file current.
First, open the Windows Live Mail program on your computer and click Contacts within Windows Live Mail.
Within the Contacts tab of Windows Live Mail, click Export; Comma separated values (.CSV) to begin the process of exporting your contacts.
You will see the CSV Export window displayed. Click the Browse button to continue.
In the Save As window, select a location and a name for your contacts file. Once you have the name and location selected, click Save.
You will be returned to the CSV Export window with the file path and name listed in the Save exported file as: field. Click Next to continue.
In the final step of exporting your contacts to a .CSV file, you can select which fields you wish to export from each contact. Once you have selected the fields to export, click Finish to export your contacts to a .CSV file.
After the export has completed, you can then select the file for backup. To do this navigate to where you saved the .CSV file on your computer. Once located, right-click the file and select Carbonite; Back this up.
Exporting your contacts to business card files places each contact you have in its own individual file. This means that if you have 350 contacts, you will make 350 business card (.VCF) files when you export them.
First, open the Windows Live Mail program on your computer and click Contacts within Windows Live Mail.
Within the Contacts tab of Windows Live Mail, click Export; Business card (.VCF) to begin the process of exporting your contacts.
You will see the Browse For Folder window displayed. Select a location to export your contacts and click OK. Your contacts will begin to export into business card files.
Note: It is best to create a separate folder for your exported business cards to make them easier to find if you should need to import them again.
After the export has completed, you can then select the files for backup. To do this, navigate to where you saved the business card files on your computer. Once located, right-click the files or folder and select Carbonite; Back this up.
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