Entourage repeatedly quits

[Rick O'Shey]

Of late, Entourage (v. 12.2.3, on OS 10.5.8) has been unexpectedly quitting
on me, throwing up an apologetic dialog requesting that I allow it to send a
report to Microsoft and offering me the option to restart Entourage. Each
time I follow through (send the report, restart Entourage). It's been
happening at least twice daily for the past week or so.

Why might this be happening? Should I run the database utility to check
and/or repair the database?

(FWIW, I have been keeping all of my emails for the past few years in
separate folders within Entourage -- I have not "archived" them to my HD --
so the database is pretty large: about 6 GB.)

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Why might this be happening? Should I run the database utility to check
and/or repair the database?

Yes, indeed. I would definitively start there,

          Corentin

 

[Rick O'Shey]

Yes, indeed. I would definitively start there,

          Corentin

OK...I'll start with a "verify." (I always get concerned about an actual
"rebuild," because any time I've done that in the past, I've ended up with
scores of multiple copies of messages, which I then need to spend _hours_
culling through to remove the resulting duplication.)

 

[jimthom]

What is the Database utility and where is it found?

 

[Rick O'Shey]

What is the Database utility and where is it found?

It's an app ("Microsoft Database Utility.app") that's located in your Office
folder. It allows you to "verify" the "health" of your database, and, if
necessary/desired, to "rebuild" it.

 

[Diane Ross]

OK...I'll start with a "verify."

I prefer to use the File > Export as Entourage archive (.rge) file. If this
completes without an error not only do you have verification that the
database is OK, but you have a backup file of your data.

See the options here to solve "quits".

<http://tinyurl.com/yk5o8sb>

Start with these:

<http://tinyurl.com/6ro9qz>

<http://tinyurl.com/ygjqkpm>
--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>

 

[Rick O'Shey]

I prefer to use the File > Export as Entourage archive (.rge) file. If this
completes without an error not only do you have verification that the
database is OK, but you have a backup file of your data.

See the options here to solve "quits".

<http://tinyurl.com/yk5o8sb>

Start with these:

<http://tinyurl.com/6ro9qz>

<http://tinyurl.com/ygjqkpm>

Thanks for the suggestion, Diane. Next time (if there is a "next time" ),
I'll consider exporting as an archive. (Of course, I first need to better
understand how archives are created and, if need be, later accessed.)

I ran the verify yesterday (before seeing your post), and it indicated that
there was a problem. So I then ran a rebuild. It took forever. Towards the
end of "forever," it reported that I was running out of available disk
space; it then reported an error trying to complete the rebuild. Since there
was plenty of disk space available, I attributed those errors to possible
"confusion," as at the time they occurred, my system was running a
SuperDuper! backup, a Time Machine backup, and an Entourage backup (via my
workflow, which saves to a folder on my HD) -- all coincidentally happening
simultaneously.

I re-ran the rebuild this morning, and it finished "successfully" a short
while ago. I am a bit puzzled, however: Is it "normal" for the rebuilt
database to be noticeably smaller than the original? The original was 6.11
GB; the rebuilt version is more than 10% smaller: 5.42 GB.

 

[Diane Ross]

I re-ran the rebuild this morning, and it finished "successfully" a short
while ago. I am a bit puzzled, however: Is it "normal" for the rebuilt
database to be noticeably smaller than the original? The original was 6.11
GB; the rebuilt version is more than 10% smaller: 5.42 GB.

This sounds perfectly normal.

The database will be left with 'wasted' space in it every time you delete
something. However, this is not all bad, since the wasted space is used up
with new data as it is added. This way, over a period of time (assuming that
you are deleting stuff as you go) the database will probably reach an
optimum size, after which the stuff you delete is roughly equal to the stuff
you add, and no further growth takes place.

Rebuilding removes the wasted space. IMO, 10% is perfectly reasonable.

Think about your data being in one contiguous space rather than in bits
around your computer. Once your database has reached it's size as
established when you installed Entourage, the Finder will start writing your
data in bits around your drive. If you establish a large Entourage database
using large message files when you first set up your computer, you can then
delete excess messages and Entourage will reuse that space with new
messages. Think of this as creating a partition for Entourage.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>