Cannot use Entourage identities from iMac on iBook

[LoungeFly]

Ever since I have been using Microsoft Entourage for OS X, I have
always checked my personal email at home via my iMac. The only time I
want to check my personal (.Mac) email from my school-owned iBook is
when I fly back to the States for vacations. At that point, I used to
just copy my "Office 2004 identities" folder from my Documents folder
on to my iPod, and then from there on to the appropriate place on my
iBook Documents folder. Just like that, I could access my address book
and check my email on the road and keep all my mailboxes up-to-date.
When I returned home, I would just reverse the process, replacing the
original "Office 2004 identities" on my iMac, since I had updated my
mailboxes while I was away using my iBook.

This has worked until this year. Now, suddenly, I can't access my
mailboxes on my iBook.

Once I drag the identities to the iBook's Documents folder and try to
open Entourage, I get the following message: " This identitiy cannot
be opened with this version of Entourage" and then Entourage
automatically quits. Removing the identities allows me to start up
Entourage, so I know that the application is installed properly.

I then tried using Entouage's import feature, but when I try to
import one of my identities, I get the following error message:

"Entourage could not import all of your information. Import from
Microsoft Entouage X could not be completed because an error (-61)
occurred. Import from Microsoft Entourage X could not be completed
because an error (2) occurred."

Any ideas as to what is happening? I am running identical versions of
Microsoft's Office 2004 on my iMac and iBook (the license allows for
installation on two machines), so how could I be getting a message
about an identity not being able to be opened by this version of
Entourage? I'm running the same version on both machines! Both
machines have the most up-to-date OS software updates installed and I
have checked that both versions of Office have been updated fully.

 

[Michel Bintener]

<snip>
Once I drag the identities to the iBook's Documents folder and try to
open Entourage, I get the following message: " This identitiy cannot
be opened with this version of Entourage" and then Entourage
automatically quits. Removing the identities allows me to start up
Entourage, so I know that the application is installed properly.

You usually get that error message when an older version of Entourage tries
to open an identity that ahs been created and modified by a newer version of
Entourage. In other words, I suspect that you are not running the same
version of Entourage on both Macs; could it be that you've updated your
iMac's copy of Office to SP2 but you haven't done so with the copy on your
iBook? Launch the Microsoft AutoUpdate application in the Applications
folder on both machines and see if you have alll the updates available. In
the 'About Entourage' window, it should read "Version 11.2.1".

I then tried using Entouage's import feature, but when I try to
import one of my identities, I get the following error message:

"Entourage could not import all of your information. Import from
Microsoft Entouage X could not be completed because an error (-61)
occurred. Import from Microsoft Entourage X could not be completed
because an error (2) occurred."

That's normal. You can only import from Entourage versions earlier than
2004. A database modified by Entourage 2004 has a different file structure
from a v.X database, adn you are telling Entourage to import an old v.X
database file structure which it obviously can't find, as there is none. If
you try what I've just suggested, you should be able to use your identity on
both machines without having to import anything. If that doesn't happen,
post back.

Michel

 

[LoungeFly]

Yup. It's confirmed. I'm an idiot.

Not sure why I thought that I had the most up-to-date version of Office
on this laptop. I think it's because the laptop belongs to my school
and I was given a new one in November. My old laptop was updated and I
must have had a brain-freeze and forgotten that I needed to update the
new one.

Thanks for the advice. I can access all identities properly now.

Cheers.