Every time I launch Entourage I must rebuild my database

[John]

Every time I launch Entourage (latest version) I must rebuild my
database, as Entourage cannot access my data. Reinstalling a time
machine backup does not work. I have a MacPro; the entourage DB is
21GB. I have repeatedly reduced its size by deleting old emails, but
upon a rebuild, they are reimported. I then must use a dupe deleter to
eliminate duplicates and do manual deletion of emails older than 6
months. Even after drastically reducing my Entourage DB, upon a
restart I must rebuild all over again.

I have two other Macbook Pros. These often, but not always require a
rebuild upon restart. Since reimporting messages takes several days,
I have become a slave to Entourage spending dozens of hours each week
trying to maintain this.

Does anyone know of a solution? I have started with clean identities,
per Diane's posting, but these, too, get corrupted within a day or two
of completing mail import.

This has been going on for weeks and I am out of options. Were it not
for my company's use of Outlook/Exchange, I would ditch this time
waster in a microsecond.

My iphone Entourage client works just fine--but all other Mac
interfaces keep failing.

I loathe a system restart (almost as much as I loathe Entourage)
because I know that Entourage will be inoperable for days as it
rebuilds and reimports from scratch--and that my database is only as
good as long as I don't close the application. My firm does not
support Entourage so I can get no support there.

 

[Diane Ross]

Every time I launch Entourage (latest version) I must rebuild my
database, as Entourage cannot access my data. Reinstalling a time
machine backup does not work.

It's advised by the developers not to let Time Machine backup your Entourage
database. If the database is copied while being used, the backup could be
corrupt. You can set the Time Machine to exclude the Microsoft User Data
folder and create an iCal event to copy it over at night while not in use so
you get one backup daily in Time Machine.

<http://tinyurl.com/aba7tl>

The size of your database is way too big. I don't see how you have stood the
hourly backup with Time Machine making a copy every hour. I suspect this
might have something to do with your problems. Starting with a new Identity
and letting Entourage sync back up to the messages on the server should fix
the problem, but it sounds like your server copy is also on the fritz so you
are round tripping the problems. The bad problems and duplicates seem to be
synced back to your server and possibly this is the cause of the ballooning
size of our database.

Exchange is not my area of expertise, but I would ask your IT if there is a
backup that can be used to replace your current Identity on the server.
Unless you go back far enough, you might just be copying back a bad
database. Even if they don't support Entourage, they should be able to help
get your database rebuilt.

I loathe a system restart (almost as much as I loathe Entourage)
because I know that Entourage will be inoperable for days as it
rebuilds and reimports from scratch--and that my database is only as
good as long as I don't close the application. My firm does not
support Entourage so I can get no support there.

Restarting your computer is good medicine and it should not cause Entourage
to rebuild.

Thinking a bit out loud here. If you copied over your Exchange messages to
folders "On My Computer" you should be able to remove all dupes and clean up
your messages. Erase all messages from server then copy back the messages.
Always have backups when doing something like this.

So do we do this using copy to folders on your current Identity or export as
Entourage archive (.rge) file THEN import into a new Identity? I suspect it
would be more likely to be successful in a new Identity since your current
Identity has problems. If you can't export your Exchange account as .rge
file, then copy to folders "On My Computer" then export those as .rge files
and rebuild that in a new Identity.

I don't have an Exchange account to test this, but can you export as
Entourage archive (.rge) file messages from your Exchange account? There is
an option to delete after exporting. You could then create a new Identity in
Entourage and import the .rge file. Clear it up and do the erase server copy
then copy them back from folders "On My Computer" to the server.

Remember that you need lots of free space on your computer. I'm thinking at
least 200GB for something like this. The more you have the more successful
you will be in rebuilding. I have 500 GB free to rebuild databases for
clients and it always works.

Let me know if this helps.

 

[Kerry]

Every time I launch Entourage (latest version) I must rebuild my
database, as Entourage cannot access my data. .

What you're going through sounds extreme and very painful. If you
search this forum or others you will see there are a lot of issues
with Entourage 08 and a lot to do with the database. Your database is
awfully large so if something goes wrong there has to be quite a bit
there to loose. Secondly, if you can't get Entourage to open, you'll
need a working backup to open, export your information as an rge file
and import that into a new identity. This is the best approach to
getting back a stable identity. But, this sounds problematic as I'm
getting the impression that isn't working suggesting there is a
corrupt record.

You say you're working in a Exchange environment. Have you thought
about running Outlook as your client under a virtual environment. I
have both Parallels and VMWare Fusion but prefer Fusion as its faster
and just more compatibile. I know many people in Exchange envir have
gone to Outlook on their Mac. Outlook is a solid client and it is
definitely the best for Exchange. Just a thought. Hope you get your
current data back but you should think about your going forward
strategy. I do find Outlook runs faster on my Macbook Pro under Fusion
than Entourage and it has a nice archiving tool.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Every time I launch Entourage (latest version) I must rebuild my
database,

In addition to what DIane posted, you might consider trashing the
proeferences of the database daemon and rebooting. THey sometime get
corrupted and you get this message (even though the database is just
fine),

Corentin