Entourage 2004 -> 08 identity transfer fails

[Steve3]

Hi all,

I'm upgrading a user to Office 2008, and in the Office Setup Assistant Identity transfer step, I'm stuck on groundhog day. I click "Transfer Identity", I can watch a file get made in the ~/Documents/Microsoft/Office 2008 Identities, and somewhere before 4 gigs, it just *poof*- disappears, the "Transfer Identity" button returns, and the Console log says:

Assertion failure in -[IdentityImportPane migrateIdentities], /Volumes/bm01-builds/sd/main/setupasst/project/../sections/userinfo/IdentityImportPane.m:825

and another that lists the same, and ends in m:840 .

I ran the '04 database check tool, it says all is well. I've pressed the Transfer Identity button 4 times with the same 4 results..... what can I do differently?

 

[Diane Ross]

I'm upgrading a user to Office 2008, and in the Office Setup Assistant
Identity transfer step, I'm stuck on groundhog day. I click "Transfer
Identity", I can watch a file get made in the ~/Documents/Microsoft/Office
2008 Identities, and somewhere before 4 gigs, it just *poof*- disappears, the
"Transfer Identity" button returns, and the Console log says:

Assertion failure in -[IdentityImportPane migrateIdentities],
/Volumes/bm01-builds/sd/main/setupasst/project/../sections/userinfo/IdentityIm
portPane.m:825

and another that lists the same, and ends in m:840 .

I ran the '04 database check tool, it says all is well. I've pressed the
Transfer Identity button 4 times with the same 4 results..... what can I do
differently?

If the Identity is small enough the developers would love to get their hands
on it. If they are willing to share and it's around 1GB, contact me off list
for instructions. Fix this address --> diane AT entourage dot mvps dot org

Currently, several users are having this problem and the only way to fix it
is to manually move over the data. The end result is a very stable database.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/install/manual_install.html>

 

[Steve3]

I'm in the midst of a database compact via 2004 (I've nothing to lose by trying it), but before the compact, it's 7 gigs.

Is there any rhyme or reason when this is error is being seen?

 

[Diane Ross]

I'm in the midst of a database compact via 2004 (I've nothing to lose by
trying it), but before the compact, it's 7 gigs.

A good bit of that is probably data waiting to be overwritten. If you export
as Entourage archive, you will see the true size of your files.

Is there any rhyme or reason when this is error is being seen?

The only guess I have is there is some corruption that 2004 handles, but is
causing the importer to fail. Much like IE web browser for Mac would show a
site badly coded. Leopard is also more sensitive to problems than Tiger.
Small problems are just not overlooked in Office 2008 and Leopard. Once you
do get set up you should experience any problems.

 

[Steve3]

This is starting to look more like a disk issue- I can't even copy the file via the Finder to another disk.

So the next issue is that Word also thinks the 04 -> 08 migration is incomplete..... how do I keep my problem to only Entourage? Any double-click on a .doc file starts Word '08, which then kicks in the migration assistant.

 

[Diane Ross]

This is starting to look more like a disk issue- I can't even copy the file
via the Finder to another disk.

Have you run Repair Permissions or Disk Warrior? It sounds like serious disk
problems. Get a FireWire drive and install the OS there. Boot from it until
you can access your data. I'm afraid that you might end up losing everything
if you continue to use the drive.

So the next issue is that Word also thinks the 04 -> 08 migration is
incomplete..... how do I keep my problem to only Entourage? Any double-click
on a .doc file starts Word '08, which then kicks in the migration assistant.

Get Info. Select 04 version of Word, Change All. This should work, but under
the circumstances you've described all bets are off.

 

[Steve3]

DiskWarrior & Disk utility have both been run recently. They're good for directory issues, but if a sector has unrecoverable errors, they won't know.

I'd expect Entourage to be very, very grumpy if the database file had errors- I'm surprised there are no other symptoms beside the import failure.

 

[Diane Ross]

I'd expect Entourage to be very, very grumpy if the database file had errors-
I'm surprised there are no other symptoms beside the import failure.

Here is a way I have found to test. Use script Export folders.

Run this script on your messages: Export folders (this gets subfolders too).
The script will fail on a folder with corruption.

<http://scriptbuilders.net/files/exportfolders1.1.html>

You could also try export as Entourage archive. It should fail too if I
remember correctly.

 

[Steve3]

Yes, that script does fail. I see this user had many gigs of data in his Trash. I've emptied the trash and am trying to compact the database as I update this....

 

[Steve3]

For the record, emptying the trash and compacting fixed the database and made a source that '08 could import properly.

 

[Diane Ross]

For the record, emptying the trash and compacting fixed the database and made
a source that '08 could import properly.

Thanks for the feedback. It's user feedback that gives us info to help other
users.