Entourage 2004/Exchange issue

[Alan Baker]

I've recently been hired to help the Vancouver Board of Trade integrate
their Managing Director's PowerBook with their Exchange server.

After beginning the process, it seemed like everything was going
swimmingly, until I read this:

"And lastly, Entourage 2004 has a super fun bug where a user loses
every single email they have in every single folder, and the emails are
gone even if he/she logs in on a PC or through Outlook 2001. This
happened to two of our test users, which resulted in a combined 18
years worth of email. And since Exchange servers are so clunky to back
up and only entire servers can be restored at a time, it costs around
$3000 to restore these emails."

<URL:http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20040804103359201>

Is this for real? Can you tell me if this is an actual problem that
anyone else has seen? This guy has been bitten once by a problem using
Entourage (perhaps even the same one when running Entourage v.X, but I'm
doubtful of that) and I don't want to cause him another problem. It
would be very bad for my new client to start out by having him lose his
(huge) mailbox, or any part thereof.

I've been checking, and it seems possible that this is limit to mail in
sub-folders of Inbox, but naturally, things aren't as clear as I'd like.

Any clarity anyone can shed, would be very much appreciated.

Alan

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

"And lastly, Entourage 2004 has a super fun bug where a user loses
every single email they have in every single folder, and the emails are
gone even if he/she logs in on a PC or through Outlook 2001. This
happened to two of our test users, which resulted in a combined 18
years worth of email. And since Exchange servers are so clunky to back
up and only entire servers can be restored at a time, it costs around
$3000 to restore these emails."

<URL:http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20040804103359201>

Is this for real? Can you tell me if this is an actual problem that
anyone else has seen?

As far as I know, there has ben a bug in Entourage 12.2.0 in very
specific circumstances (moving folders around in Exchange I believe).
This issue should be fixed in the latest release (12.2.1).
The release note mentioned:

This update fixes a synchronization issue in versions of Microsoft
Entourage that have been updated with Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac
Service Pack 2 (11.2.0). The issue might cause data loss when Entourage
attempts to synchronize with an Exchange mailbox that was moved to a
different server running Microsoft Exchange Server. This update also
resolves issues with setting Exchange server permissions and printing
calendars. We strongly recommend that all Entourage users who have
installed Office 2004 Service Pack 2 (11.2.0) install this update.

Corentin

 

[Mickey Stevens]

As far as I know, there has ben a bug in Entourage 12.2.0 in very
specific circumstances (moving folders around in Exchange I believe).
This issue should be fixed in the latest release (12.2.1).

Corentin means 11.2.0 and 11.2.1.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Corentin means 11.2.0 and 11.2.1.

Right!

Corentin

 

[BJ]

Oh boy, is it EVER real. We got nailed to the tune of about a dozen
users three or four weeks ago. The 11.2.1 update is, as mentioned,
supposed to fix it, though.

 

[rliebsch]

"And since Exchange servers are so clunky to back
up and only entire servers can be restored at a time, it costs around
$3000 to restore these emails."

Incorrect. Very simple to back up. I back up the entire server and eac
and every single item in every users folder daily. If you don't know ho
to back up Exchange properly and efficiently, pay someone who does
Though in the long run, 3000$ is cheaper than a SysAdmin's salary for
year.

But the bug is there, but you can beat the bug. Let Entourage full
synchronize the users mail and this shouldn't happen. The eight time
that this happened, the common factor was either the user, or thei
delegate disconnected from the network in the middle of th
synchronization