Entourage won't open transferred identity

[Sam Bays]

I'm running Entourage v11.3.6 satisfactorily on my iMac 2.4GHs Intel Core 2
Duo. My laptop is a PowerBook G4 15" running the same version of Entourage.
Both Macs have OS X10.5.1 installed.

I work mostly on the iMac, so when I travel I copy my Main Identity to the
laptop under Target Disk Mode. Then, I disconnect the computers, reboot the
laptop, drag the old identity to trash, and drag the current Main Identity
into the Office 2004 Identities folder, then reboot once again and Open
Entourage. This procedure has worked fine for many, many trips.

Today the transferred, "current" Main Identity folder came over with a red
minus sign on it. Entourage won't open, and throws up a flag to run the
Database Utility. Database Utility quits before it has begun.

How do I correct the permissions of the folder with the red minus sign so
that Entourage can access it?

 

[Sam Bays]

Received Jolly Roger's message while on a business trip where I could
Receive email but not Send successfully. Nevertheless, I succeeded in
persuading Entourage to use the transferred Main Identity after I followed
Jolly Roger's excellent advice. First I trashed an owner named "Unknown,"
then Unlocked the Lock, clicked the +sign, grabbed my account, gave myself
the desired access, and clicked "Apply to enclosed items."

Upon my return from travels, I didn't have to repeat the drill; however,
neither could I simply drag the Main Identity version (transferred back to
the G5 iMac from the laptop G4) into Office 2004 Identities without first
dragging to Trash the copy that was sitting in Office 2004 Identities. In
other words, my attempt to overwrite the existing copy was denied. But
trashing the resident version of Main Identity, enabled me to move in the
desired up-to-date version.

This process was considerably easier before OS X 10.5.1.

Thank you, Jolly Roger, for your good instructions.