[Fix] KB3093594 Update Causing Email Sync Problems to Windows Live Mail 2012 Users
Recently Microsoft sent an email to all outlook.com, hotmail.com, live.com, msn.com and other Microsoft email account (previously known as Windows Live email account) users about the upcoming changes to the email service which will prevent them from syncing their Microsoft email accounts using Windows Live Mail 2012 program in coming weeks.
Windows Live Mail also known as WLM is a Desktop email client program which is a part of Microsoft’s official and popular Windows Essentials (previously known as Windows Live Essentials) package which consists of Windows Live Mail, Messenger, Writer, OneDrive, Photo Gallery, Family Safety and other useful programs.
Windows Live Mail uses Microsoft’s own DeltaSync protocol to synchronize emails for Outlook, Hotmail, Live, MSN and other Microsoft email accounts. It works similar to IMAP protocol but its faster and more accurate than IMAP.
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Now Microsoft has decided to retire DeltaSync protocol and the company is planning to replace it with Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol which is also used by Microsoft Outlook program. When Microsoft will discontinue DeltaSync protocol, Windows Live Mail program will stop synchronizing emails for all Outlook and other Microsoft accounts. That’s why Microsoft sent the email to all users informing about this upcoming change.
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PROBLEM SYMPTOM:
Although that was a nice initiative by Microsoft to inform the users in advance about the change but it has started giving problems to many Windows Live Mail users.
Actually Microsoft has mentioned in the email that once the Windows Live Mail program stops working for Outlook and other Microsoft email accounts, all users will need to install a new update KB3093594 to fix the issue. This update will allow Windows Live Mail to again synchronize emails without any problem.
Actually this update adds support for Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol to Windows Live Mail program and also updates the existing Outlook, Hotmail, Live, MSN and other Microsoft email accounts settings in Windows Live Mail program so that the program can sync emails using new EAS protocol.
But instead of fixing the issue, this update is causing a big problem to Windows Live Mail users. As soon as a Windows Live Mail 2012 user installs this update, the program stops synchronizing emails for Outlook and other Microsoft accounts. The programs starts giving errors while syncing email accounts.
PROBLEM REASON:
The problem is occurring due to following reasons:
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REASON 1:
First of all this update has been released only for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. Its mentioned in the supported operating system list under “System Requirements” section of the update download page as shown in following screenshot:
But this important fact is nowhere mentioned in the email that Windows 10 users should not install this update. So if you install this update in Windows 10, it’ll obviously break the Windows Live Mail program as the update was not intended for Windows 10. Microsoft should have mentioned it clearly in the email that Windows 10 users should stay away from this update. Also this update should warn users if they try to install it in Windows 10 OS. Currently this update doesn’t show any warning or error messages while installing in Windows 10.
REASON 2:
Even though this update was released for Windows 7/8/8.1 operating system, it still causes the same problem to these operating system users. The reason is very simple! This update adds support for Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol to Windows Live Mail program but Microsoft has not yet fully implemented the functionality at server side. That’s why Windows Live Mail program can’t sync emails for Outlook and other Microsoft email accounts as the functionality is currently broken at server side.
Actually Microsoft has been upgrading all Outlook and other Microsoft email accounts to a new service called Outlook Mail (Preview) since May 2015. Some email accounts have been upgraded to this new service but many Microsoft email accounts are still pending. Microsoft will keep upgrading all remaining email accounts to this new email service in coming weeks or months.
You can check whether your email account has been upgraded to the new Outlook Mail (Preview) service or not by logging into your Outlook email account using any web browser and if you see the new Outlook Mail (Preview) logo at the top-left corner of the webpage that means your account has been successfully upgraded. But if you see only Outlook logo that means your account has not been upgraded yet.
Now the problem is that the email accounts which have been upgraded to Outlook Mail (Preview) service already support EAS protocol sync so those accounts will be able to sync emails in Windows Live Mail 2012 with the KB3093594 patch installed. Other remaining Microsoft email account users who have not been upgraded to this new service yet, can’t sync emails in Windows Live Mail 2012 with KB3093594 update installed as their email accounts don’t have EAS support.
So if your Microsoft email account has been upgraded to new Outlook Mail (Preview) service, you’ll need to install KB3093594 update in Windows Live Mail 2012 program to sync emails using EAS protocol because the new Outlook Mail (Preview) email accounts no longer support older DeltaSync protocol used by Windows Live Mail 2012 program.
And if your email account has not been upgraded to new Outlook Mail (Preview) service, DO NOT install KB3093594 update.
PROBLEM SOLUTION:
First of all if you have not installed the KB3093594 update yet and your email account is working fine in Windows Live Mail 2012, DO NOT install the update at the moment. Stay away from this update. Microsoft has already updated and re-released the update twice. First the previous version of this update (released on December 11th) caused crashing problems in Windows Live Mail program when the user tried to update the Calendar. Then Microsoft released a new version of this update on December 17th which started this syncing problem. Microsoft has already acknowledged the issue and they are investigating it. Once the issue is resolved, they’ll release another version of the update to fix the problem.
But if you have installed the update and are facing email syncing problem, you can try following solutions:
SOLUTION 1:
The best solution would be first uninstall and then reinstall Windows Live Mail program. Doing this will automatically remove the new update from your computer. Don’t worry! When you uninstall the program, it’ll not delete your email account settings and emails from your computer. It’ll keep them safe in AppData folder. When you’ll reinstall the program, it’ll automatically detect the settings and existing email accounts and will start working as usual.
PS: If you are still worried about losing email account settings and email messages, you can take a backup of the email accounts and messages using built-in export option. Click on File -> Export email -> Email messages and Account options. Now you can export your desired accounts and emails. After reinstalling Windows Live Mail, you can import email accounts using File -> Options -> Email accounts -> Import option and import messages using File -> Import messages option.
To uninstall the program do as following:
1. Open Control Panel and click on “Programs and Features” icon.
2. You’ll see Windows Essentials 2012 present in the installed programs list. Click on it and then click on “Uninstall/Change” button present in the toolbar.
3. It’ll open the setup wizard which will ask you to remove or repair the program. Click on “Remove one or more Windows Essentials programs” option.
Now select Mail program from the list. Uncheck other programs if you want to keep them on your computer. Click on Uninstall button and it’ll uninstall Windows Live Mail 2012 within a few minutes.
4. Now run Windows Essentials setup installer again (if you don’t have, you can download it from here) and click on “Choose the programs you want to install” option.
Now select Mail program and click on Install button. It’ll install Windows Live Mail again on your computer.
Launch the program and since the KB3093594 update was automatically removed when you uninstalled Windows Live Mail program, now your Outlook and other Microsoft email accounts will sync properly in Windows Live Mail 2012 program.
SOLUTION 2:
If you don’t want to uninstall and reinstall the program, you can take help of IMAP protocol to sync your email accounts. You can remove existing Outlook or other Microsoft email account and then re-add the same account using simple steps given in following tutorial:
[Fix] Windows Live Mail Stopped Syncing Hotmail, Outlook and Other Microsoft Accounts
Now your Outlook or other Microsoft email account will sync perfectly using IMAP protocol in Windows Live Mail 2012.
SOLUTION 3:
If you are not satisfied with Windows Live Mail program, you can try the built-in Mail app present in Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 to sync your email accounts. You can also try other free desktop email clients as given in following article:
Best Free Desktop Email Clients and Alternatives to Microsoft Outlook
Basically what you’re saying is: if my ‘Windows Live Mail 2012’ stops working (while using Windows-7 Pro 64) that all I have to do is uninstall it, and then re-install it, and everything should be fine ? Wondering why Microsoft (with all of it’s resources) cannot just simply release the required updates AS NEEDED, and everything will update & fix itself automatically AS IT ALWAYS HAS ? Were the notifications I rec’d in my Hotmail and live dot com accounts (a few weeks ago) and your article meant simply as a ‘heads up’ that there are changes coming…or are we actually EXPECTING to have problems, sometime either soon, or in the future ? If this is simply Microsoft’s way of PUSHING people into upgrading to Windows-10….then I have to say, in all honesty…this is total B.S. and I am sick and tired of the constant ‘air/sea’ changes, every 5 or so yrs. It’s getting incredibly tedious. Aside from that, I enjoy your articles, and highly respect your tech-saavy in all things ‘Windows’ related, which affect our daily-lives, all over the world.
^^ The thing is, if you are using Windows Live Mail 2012 and your email accounts are working fine, then do not install KB3093594 Update. Once the email service is changed and your email accounts stop syncing in Windows Live Mail, then install this update.
Unfortunately, the decision by Microsoft to move these accounts to an Exchange server will result in another problem for me. Since Outlook 2013, I have been unable to move emails from my Verizon POP3 accounts to folders in my MSN account. The explanation that I received it that Microsoft moved the MSN accounts to an Exchange server for this program, and this renders it impossible to move emails between the two accounts.
My wife has been using WIM 2012 for quite a while. Her main accounts are Verizon.net POP3 accounts, but i had set up WLM to allow her to move her Verizon emails to her MSN account for storage. This seemed like a prudent thing to do, given the fact that a cloud based account would seem to provide more safety then a local account, which could be wiped out by a HDD crash or other disaster.
In order to keep her ability to store the emails in the program, it would seem that I will have to create folders in the Verizon account, and move all (and there are many) of her emails from the MSN account to the Verizon account before they implement the change to the Exchange server (right now, she can still move emails to the MSN folders, which would seem to indicate that they are still IMAP accounts). Any comments regarding this will be appreciated.
Neil, what you’re talking about is indeed a feature of the old mail syncing protocol, called DeltaSync, and is not supported under Exchange Active Sync. I occasionally move messages from a Google EDU hosted email account to my Hotmail account using WLM 2012 and find it works great for that. Until Microsoft turns off DeltaSync on the server side completely, you should be able to move messages between accounts using WLM. It’s Outlook 2013 that doesn’t support DeltaSync rather than whatever server @msn.com accounts are hosted on. Also, it’s not POP3 or IMAP that’s relevant here but the method WLM is using to communicate with the server (DeltaSync before KB3093594 update, EAS after). In any case in the future I think the best solution for continuing to backup the Verizon POP3 account is to see if you can configure it to forward a copy of all messages to the MSN account.
I just received a notice of an update for WLM to (Build 16.4.3528.0331) after unistall/and install with new version, all is back to normal.
I’m having minor (compared to others) with WLM 2012 on a Win 7 desktop since the infamous KB3093594 slipped in with a number of recommended upgrades. (Like the guy said in Animal House: “You [screwed] up, you trusted us.”)
Since then, I’ve been doing a lot of research on how a non-techie user can solve this problem.
This post is the best I’ve found — several potential solutions. along with the clearest explanations of how they work, safeguards and pitfalls, etc.
Thank you!
Please can you give me advice. All my contact categories have disapeared in Windows Live Mail and I don’t know how to get them back. I have uninstalled and re-installed Essentials but they are still not there. They were all fine until about two weeks ago. Thank you very much.
^^ Windows Live Mail syncs contacts from your actual Live account at Microsoft servers. It seems the contacts have been deleted from the server side thats why your Desktop program is unable to retrieve them.
Try to log into your email account using browser and double-check the contacts list.
I cannot sync emails on my laptop where I am using Mail. I have checked the logo and am still on Outlook. Is Microsoft continuing to change users over to the Preview one or do I have to let them know. I do not know if my computer automatically downloaded the patch but I assume so. I am not very tech savy so will find it difficult to fix this.
I have been reading reviews/solutions/questions ALL day on the Internet. I have Windows 7 – 64, Windows Live Mail 2012. In December, I lost the ability to enter any NEW events (faded-out) to my Calendar. I used that program every day when I checked my e-mails. Still no simple fix??
My computer is Running on Windows XP Pro & has Windows Live Mail 2009 installed …everything worked fine until last week when Live Mail started showing messages saying”Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes for this include server problem, network problem, or a long period of inactivity”…….Windows live mail was a fast and steady programn….Now I have to go online to outlook.com……sign in to each mail account 1at a time to check my mail………I never liked using the online version of outlook to check my mail……..its slow, dont like the interface, and I have to check one mail account at a time…Im 65 yrs old and been a microsoft user since forever!!!!!!!! But im not upgrading past XP Pro……..Its still a great system!!!!!!!!! and everything after that was so so…….give me something so I can continue to use Live Mail 2009 to check my Mail accounts…….PLEASE………..!!!!!!
^^ Try to add your email account using IMAP settings in Windows Live Mail:
https://www.askvg.com/fix-windows-live-mail-stopped-syncing-hotmail-outlook-and-other-microsoft-email-accounts/