Can't import old messages

[Chris Heywood]

I recently formatted my Mac G4 and reinstalled all software (OSX Panther,
Office X). Before I formatted, I backed up my ³Identities² folder.

The problem is that now I can¹t load the old ³Identities² folder into
Entourage. And as the old messages aren¹t currently stored in an email
application, I can¹t do the import from program feature.

I¹ve tried copying the old ³Identity² folder, or more specifically the
³Messages² Microsoft Entourage database file to the new location
(³Documents>Microsoft User Data>Identities>Main Identity²) and replacing the
new one, but it makes no effect on Entourage. Even though the ³Messages²
database is the old one, the old messages aren¹t coming up in Entourage.

This is really annoying, because I have a lot of business emails in there
that I really need to get at.

Any help anyone can give me is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I recently formatted my Mac G4 and reinstalled all software (OSX Panther,
Office X). Before I formatted, I backed up my ³Identities² folder.

The problem is that now I can¹t load the old ³Identities² folder into
Entourage. And as the old messages aren¹t currently stored in an email
application, I can¹t do the import from program feature.

I¹ve tried copying the old ³Identity² folder, or more specifically the
³Messages² Microsoft Entourage database file to the new location
(³Documents>Microsoft User Data>Identities>Main Identity²) and replacing the
new one, but it makes no effect on Entourage. Even though the ³Messages²
database is the old one, the old messages aren¹t coming up in Entourage.

This is really annoying, because I have a lot of business emails in there that
I really need to get at.

Any help anyone can give me is greatly appreciated.

I hope you backed up the entire Microsoft User Data folder in tyour user
Documents folder - otherwise you backed up the wrong subfolder. The
"Identities" folder is for Outlook Express - what you should have backed up
was the "Office X Identities" folder in the MUD folder. And you may even
have been looking in the wrong Microfot User Data folder : the correct one
is at

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data

where ~/ means your OS X username folder in /Users. If you ever ran OS 9 on
your computer, or ran Outlook Express or Entourage 2001 in Classic in OS
10.1, you might still have another MUD folder in the Documents folder on the
root of your hard disk: /Documents/Microsoft User Data. You won't find the
"Office X Identities" folder there.

So if you backed up "Office X Identities" folder put it back to
~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/ . (Or if you since have new emails you
don't want to lose, rename the Main Identity - or named - folder(s) inside
Office X Identities, then move these subfolders to your current
~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office X Identities folder. In your current,
new identity, select and drag out the new messages in your Inbox and Sent
Items folder to make separate .eml files in new Finder folders on your
desktop, plus the whole folders of any other Entourage folders you might
use, to make .mbox foles on your desktop. Then go to Entourage/Switch
Identities.. and switch to your old identity, then drag in the .eml files to
your old Inbox and Sent Items, and the .mbox files to make new Entourage
folders.)

If you didn't back up ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office X Identities,
I'm afraid you lost everything.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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