I've searched the web and seen completely opposite answers, so I'm hoping to find a definitive answer here. I've switched ISPs and created a new email address and a new account in WLM. For a while, both accounts were active. All good. Now my old email address is no longer functional, and I keep getting error messages from WLM as it tries to access that account's server. My old account has about 60 folders and sub-folders in it, with thousands of emails. Since they were downloaded from a pop server, I'd like to believe they exist permanently on my PC, and that removing the account will not delete the emails and their folders.
However, I have seen the following:
"Caution: if you are deleting a POP3 email account, keep in mind that some of the messages may only exist on your computer (see the "Leave messages on server" setting). If you don't backup these emails, you may lose them forever"
http://windowslivemailtutorial.com/delete-email-accounts-from-windows-live-mail.php
And also:
"With Windows Live Mail, when a mailbox (account) is deleted, it removes all messages associated with that mailbox, similar to Mac OS X Mail.
Before deleting a mailbox in Windows Live Mail, first move the downloaded messages into another folder. That way the messages will still be in your Mail program after you delete the mailbox."
http://support.mediacloud.net.au/knowledgebase/41/How-to-Delete-Email-Account-Settings.html
But also this:
"removiing an account will not delete any messages stored locally in Windows Mail or Outlook Express"
I really would prefer not to have to re-create my whole folder structure in Storage and move all my emails there. But I'd also hate to lose all the existing emails in that account. Whether they exist on the server or not is irrelevant in this case, since I can no longer access that server from my former ISP. Any definitive answers about whether I'd lose them if I remove the account? Or, is there a way to just leave everything as is, and somehow get WLM to stop trying to check my old accout?