Live Mail Woes Continue…

On May 6th I was doing a re-install of the OS on my laptop and I installed Live Mail – which had previously been working fine.  That was up until the "unable to synchronize folders" issue reared its ugly head.  This time, when I was setting up my Live Mail account under Windows Live Mail, it wasn’t able to synchronize the Inbox, Junk, Drafts, Sent and Deleted folders.  No error pop-ups as to what happened, just the ever-present "Download" button at the top of the screen – which, when clicked, does absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Eager to get things fixed, I emailed Live Mail support.  As expected, they needed log files, screen shots, uninstalls, reinstalls, delete sections from the registry, etc.  The usual cadre of troubleshooting steps that we’ve all come to know and love.  I was even running into intermittent "unable to sync" issues with my Mobile 6.1 device, so it was pretty obvious that the issue wasn’t with the client – it was with the server.  Their response to that last piece of info?  I’d need to take that one up with the Mobile guys as a separate trouble ticket ;?)

Finally, after a couple of weeks of this, I was told that the problem had been escalated and that they were very sorry for the hassles I was encountering.  That means that my problems are over…escalation means I’m getting the top-of-the-line support guys…the ones that can get things fixed, right?  Wrong!  A couple of more weeks passed and still no word.  I replied to the support email again and asked for a status update…pleading for them to check the folder structure on the mail server…better yet…move my account over to a different server…at least do SOMETHING.  Again, the "we’re sorry for your problems and we’re looking into it" response from yet another tech.  And oh, by the way, we won’t be moving your account to another server and that "this is being dealt with utmost priority and that the product group is working diligently to have this problem fixed as soon as possible". 

Okay, now we’re going on week 6 and still no joy.  The screen shot above is from yet another system that I have Vista on…and I get the same results on an XP box as well.  Come on guys – you can do it – just get’r fixed.  Or at least give me my money back for the Live account ;?)

Doug White