entourage database inaccessible

[kismet]

Thanks Bill. Yes, Entourage will remain open when opened with the shift key down and selecting 'work offline' but will not open any messages or mailboxes due to a 'not enough memory' error.

I have successfully exported my contacts but have not been as fortunate with messages after several tries using different strategies as indicated, including those suggested for the 'not enough memory' issue.

One thing Diane wrote previously was, 'as long as you can open the identity you can save the data'. I'm hoping that's true as the messages are really what I'm most concerned about as a record of a number of years worth of business correspondence.

BTW, I've also tried virtually every fix recommended or linked in this thread including reinstalling the OS and reinstalling Office (several times now). Obviously this is all terribly time consuming and I'd just as soon not do it again!

Thank you VERY much for any help you might offer.

 

[kismet]

addenda:

When messing about with Entourage in it's offline state I am able to open some folders in some mailboxes, mostly (but not exclusively) those which do not contain any messages, read or unread.

There is only on POP account in the identity, but it doesn't seem to behave any differently than the online accounts.

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Thanks Bill. Yes, Entourage will remain open when opened with the
shift key down and selecting 'work offline' but will not open any
messages or mailboxes due to a 'not enough memory' error.

I have successfully exported my contacts but have not been as
fortunate with messages after several tries using different
strategies as indicated, including those suggested for the 'not
enough memory' issue.

Great! Any progress is good progress.

Next thing to try: turn off the Preview pane using View menu --> Preview
Pane --> None. I suspect the "not enough memory" error may be due to
trying to preview messages.

Does this allow you to select any of your mail folders and drag it to
your Desktop? This is one way of exporting mail.

I'm assuming one of the methods you used is File --> Export --> Items to
an Entourage archive?

One thing Diane wrote previously was, 'as long as you can open the
identity you can save the data'. I'm hoping that's true as the
messages are really what I'm most concerned about as a record of a
number of years worth of business correspondence.

I think so. You've got more changes to save mail if you can open the
identity than when you can't open your identity. When you can't open the
identity then salvage is nearly impossible or would at least be very
tedious and time-consuming.

BTW, I've also tried virtually every fix recommended or linked in
this thread including reinstalling the OS and reinstalling Office
(several times now). Obviously this is all terribly time consuming
and I'd just as soon not do it again!

Troubleshooting is never fun, especially when you're not sure what to do
and you have a lot to lose such as your mail history. Finding the
problem or finding what works around the problem is also never fun.

Diane's already had you do the heavy lifting. At this point we still
have no idea what's wrong and we probably never will. We can only try
different things that may work to get you safely into a new identity.

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[Diane Ross]

On my 100gb HD I have 15+gb of free space.

You are reaching the point of what's considered a full drive.As described
below this is one of the reasons for constant reminders that the database
needs rebuilding. Do you have a way to check to see how fragmented your hd
is? Between being low on disk space and severe fragmentation, this could be
the cause of your problems.

Constant reminder that "Your Office database is damaged. You need to
rebuild"

The "Verify database" has been known to give false reports. One option that
can cause these false reports is a corrupted preference. Try deleting this
preference file in your User's --> Library Preferences:

com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist

Other options to check:

Bad RAM.

Being low on disk space. To check your disk space, use the Activity Monitor.
Click on Disk Usage in the bottom menu bar and select the volume where you
have Office installed. You can also use Disk Utility to see detailed
information about a disk or volume. To learn more, open Disk Utility in the
/Applications/Utilities folder and refer to Disk Utility Help.

If low disk space is the problem, you can try archiving data and/or getting
a larger drive. See this page for help finding large files to move and free
up space.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/performance2.html>

Just the other day on a mailing list, we finally discovered the user's
problem resulted from the fact they had 1GB of RAM. This is hardly enough to
run Leopard much less other applications. The system was using the hd for
virtual memory and resulting in all the "free space" being eaten up with
swap files.

 

[kismet]

Great! Any progress is good progress.

Next thing to try: turn off the Preview pane using View menu --> Preview
Pane --> None. I suspect the "not enough memory" error may be due to
trying to preview messages.

The 'none' option is greyed out and unavailable.....

Does this allow you to select any of your mail folders and drag it to
your Desktop? This is one way of exporting mail.

It will allow me to drag the empty or lightly used folders, but not the ones that display the memory error when I try to open them.

Just clicking on the folder generates the error so I am unable to drag them to the desktop.

I'm assuming one of the methods you used is File --> Export --> Items to
an Entourage archive?

Yes, and it worked fine except for the messages.

I think so. You've got more changes to save mail if you can open the
identity than when you can't open your identity. When you can't open the
identity then salvage is nearly impossible or would at least be very
tedious and time-consuming.


Troubleshooting is never fun, especially when you're not sure what to do
and you have a lot to lose such as your mail history. Finding the
problem or finding what works around the problem is also never fun.

Diane's already had you do the heavy lifting. At this point we still
have no idea what's wrong and we probably never will. We can only try
different things that may work to get you safely into a new identity.

--

bill

Entourage Help Page
Entourage Help Blog
YouTalk
Twitter: follow

Thanks again!

 

[Diane Ross]

Just clicking on the folder generates the error so I am unable to drag them to
the desktop.

It's possible one of the export as MBOX file scripts will work. However if
the folder is corrupted the script will fail.

Export folders as MBOX files using a script
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/export_mbox.html>

 

[kismet]

You are reaching the point of what's considered a full drive.As described
below this is one of the reasons for constant reminders that the database
needs rebuilding. Do you have a way to check to see how fragmented your hd
is? Between being low on disk space and severe fragmentation, this could be
the cause of your problems.

I've been diligently working to free up drive space. As you know this is easier said than done, but I'm continuing the effort.

Constant reminder that "Your Office database is damaged. You need to
rebuild"

I've not seen this message at all.

 

[kismet]

I've managed to increase my free space on the drive to just over 33gb.

Haven't had time to defrag yet (but will), but entourage still gives me the database daemon error when trying to modify (ie bring in new mail) the non-working folders.

Export folders script will not export the troublesome folders. ArchiveMessageFolders will not expand from the zip file at the above link due to a 'format error'.

I have 2gb of RAM

 

[Diane Ross]

Haven't had time to defrag yet (but will), but entourage still gives me the
database daemon error when trying to modify (ie bring in new mail) the
non-working folders.

Can you explain this. I'm don't understand the non working folders.

Export folders script will not export the troublesome folders.
ArchiveMessageFolders will not expand from the zip file at the above link due
to a 'format error'.

Just tested and had no problems with the link for the ArchiveMessageFolders
script.

If the scripts fail, that's an indication of corruption in that folder. It's
unclear at this point if rebuild will even work. I would concentrate on
getting your data out manually and into a new Identity.

Once you identify the corrupt folder, you can try dragging out individual
messages.

Do you have an external drive to make a clone of your hd? I suspect you
might have more troubles than just Entourage database issues.

 

[kismet]

Can you explain this. I'm don't understand the non working folders.

This is my non pro term for corrupt. These folders will not open in entourage, and when I try to open them they generate an error as described in previous notes. They are generally folders that have a relatively large number of folders in them such as deleted items, or inbox of POP accounts. Some IMAP inboxes won't open either, but some will.

Just tested and had no problems with the link for the ArchiveMessageFolders
script.

Still won't work for me for some reason. I get " an error occurred while attempting to expand "ArchiveMessageFolders.zip. Format error. Error #17540" is there a mirror for the download somewhere else?

If the scripts fail, that's an indication of corruption in that folder. It's
unclear at this point if rebuild will even work. I would concentrate on
getting your data out manually and into a new Identity.

I've tried everything that's been suggested here so far.

Once you identify the corrupt folder, you can try dragging out individual
messages.

There are several corrupt folders, but I can't open them to manually drag out individual messages. The corrupt/non working folders will not open.

Do you have an external drive to make a clone of your hd?>

I don't have room on my external for a full clone, but have current backups of documents etc.

I suspect you might have more troubles than just Entourage database issues.

I have had a number of tests run recently on my drive including at the mac store and there don't seem to be signs of problems. As stated above I've reinstalled the OS, reinstalled office.

Ideas? Thanks.

 

[Diane Ross]

Ideas? Thanks.

What size is your database?

Still won't work for me for some reason. I get " an error occurred while
attempting to expand "ArchiveMessageFolders.zip. Format error. Error #17540"
is there a mirror for the download somewhere else?

No, if you contact me off list, I can email it to you.

To contact me off list, use this address:

<[email protected]>

Prefix your subject with: newsgroup response

Because you are having trouble download, this is a sign that something is
not quite right.

 

[kismet]

no address in your message. If there were I'd be in your mailbox!

I've run almost the full everything in TechTool Pro. No drive, volume, file or hardware issues reported. I knwo that isn't everything but.....

 

[Diane Ross]

no address in your message.

Then use Entourage's newsreader to see it. Looks like Mactopia strips it
out.

If you use a newsreader rather than the Mactopia interface to this newsgroup
you can download old messages and search for answers. If you are not
familiar with a newsreader, Entourage's basic newsreader already has the
Microsoft News server included. All you do is subscribe to the newsgroups
you want. See this page for help:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/support_options/subnews.html>

These are the active newsgroups:

microsoft.public.mac.office
microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
microsoft.public.mac.office.word
microsoft.public.mac.office.excel
microsoft.public.mac.office.powerpoint

 

[kismet]

found the address in the email.....sorry!

Not showing up here for some reason.