Entourage won't launch without quitting; can't rebuild database; now what

[TJ]

Using Entourage X, System 10.2.x. Everytime I try to launch, I get
splash screen and "unexpectedly quit" message. Tried troubleshooting
font issues, per Mactopia--no luck. Tried to rebuild database, but
launching with option key depressed doesn't bring up rebuild database
window. Entourage still unexpectedly quits [though I pretty much have
come to expect it by now ;-) ]
Also, have a complete backup boot disk of my entire hard drive on a
separate external drive, which I wasn't connected to at time this
started happening. Entourage won't launch from that, either (though I
did not use it as a boot disk, just tried opening up THAT copy of
Entourage program, and it still quits).
Any advice on what to do from here?

 

[matt neuburg]

Using Entourage X, System 10.2.x. Everytime I try to launch, I get
splash screen and "unexpectedly quit" message. Tried troubleshooting
font issues, per Mactopia--no luck. Tried to rebuild database, but
launching with option key depressed doesn't bring up rebuild database
window. Entourage still unexpectedly quits [though I pretty much have
come to expect it by now ;-) ]
Also, have a complete backup boot disk of my entire hard drive on a
separate external drive, which I wasn't connected to at time this
started happening. Entourage won't launch from that, either (though I
did not use it as a boot disk, just tried opening up THAT copy of
Entourage program, and it still quits).
Any advice on what to do from here?

Make a new User at system level, log in as that user, and see if
Entourage can start up. If it can, we know that something has gone sour
in the old user (and we have a path forward). m.

 

[matt neuburg]

Using Entourage X, System 10.2.x. Everytime I try to launch, I get
splash screen and "unexpectedly quit" message. Tried troubleshooting
font issues, per Mactopia--no luck. Tried to rebuild database, but
launching with option key depressed doesn't bring up rebuild database
window. Entourage still unexpectedly quits [though I pretty much have
come to expect it by now ;-) ]
Also, have a complete backup boot disk of my entire hard drive on a
separate external drive, which I wasn't connected to at time this
started happening. Entourage won't launch from that, either (though I
did not use it as a boot disk, just tried opening up THAT copy of
Entourage program, and it still quits).
Any advice on what to do from here?

Make a new User at system level, log in as that user, and see if
Entourage can start up. If it can, we know that something has gone sour
in the old user (and we have a path forward). m.

Just to follow up (because the rest of this exchange happened offline):
that worked, and the simple path forward (migrating into the new User,
bringing along the existing identity) worked too. As I told the OP, we
*could* try to figure out what was wrong with the old User, but this is
almost never worth the time and trouble. So, to sum up, the problem was
not the database but something about the User (probably a font conflict
or a bad preference file, but as I say, it's not worth trying to pin it
down). m.