Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Importing 'Storage Folders' from WLM to Thunderbird's 'Local Folders' shows 'wrong' folder names

more options

I imported folders from Windows Live Mail to Thunderbird as per these instructions: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-thunderbird#w_importing-windows-mail-contacts After importing all mails seem to be present which I'm very pleased about. In WLM the folders have a 'real' name in Windows Explorer and a 'friendly' name in the 'virtual' folders of WLM. However the Local folders in Thunderbird are now labelled according to the 'real' names from Windows Explorer. That of course makes sense as it's those names that I imported to Thunderbird but is there any way to download the folders with their 'friendly' name? I have around 150 folders affected by this and would have to manually rename them. Also, the folder structure has suffered as it's sorted along the 'real' names.

Secondly, I can see that mails which originally had an attachment now show the paperclip icon for an attachment in the message list but the attachment is missing.

Some background info. Previous laptop: Win 7 with WLM, new laptop: Win 10 with Thunderbird. WLM folder transfer via external harddrive to new laptop.

And I read some info about the nature of WLM folders here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/livemail-program/export-messages-from-wlm-major-errors-found/c4b4de35-baea-46ee-ba41-6264ae10e642?page=1 Any assistance would be appreciated. Regards Blackredgold1964

I imported folders from Windows Live Mail to Thunderbird as per these instructions: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-thunderbird#w_importing-windows-mail-contacts After importing all mails seem to be present which I'm very pleased about. In WLM the folders have a 'real' name in Windows Explorer and a 'friendly' name in the 'virtual' folders of WLM. However the Local folders in Thunderbird are now labelled according to the 'real' names from Windows Explorer. That of course makes sense as it's those names that I imported to Thunderbird but is there any way to download the folders with their 'friendly' name? I have around 150 folders affected by this and would have to manually rename them. Also, the folder structure has suffered as it's sorted along the 'real' names. Secondly, I can see that mails which originally had an attachment now show the paperclip icon for an attachment in the message list but the attachment is missing. Some background info. Previous laptop: Win 7 with WLM, new laptop: Win 10 with Thunderbird. WLM folder transfer via external harddrive to new laptop. And I read some info about the nature of WLM folders here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/livemail-program/export-messages-from-wlm-major-errors-found/c4b4de35-baea-46ee-ba41-6264ae10e642?page=1 Any assistance would be appreciated. Regards Blackredgold1964

Modified by Matt

Chosen solution

I think you have what you will get. There is no way to translate the WLM virtual names that I have ever heard of. As for sort order, as you change the names they will reorder alphabetically.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

I think you have what you will get. There is no way to translate the WLM virtual names that I have ever heard of. As for sort order, as you change the names they will reorder alphabetically.

more options

Thanks, Matt, for the reply - I have to give some thought now how to rearrange my chaotic folder structure and how to prepare all those folders for the next switch in a couple of years time.

And for my second problem - the missing attachments - it helps to look at the bottom of the message I noticed.