Folders create in entourage not appearing on exchange server

[slev]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: Exchange

Greetings, I am connecting to an exchange server with entourage and am receiving emails fine, syncing calendars just fine and contacts as well. But i have a very odd problem, when I create a new mail folder under the inbox in entourage it creates it just fine but it is not created on the exchange server. furthermore, if i move messages into that folder on the entourage client, they are left in the inbox in exchange. any ideas?

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Greetings, I am connecting to an exchange server with entourage and
am receiving emails fine, syncing calendars just fine and contacts as
well. But i have a very odd problem, when I create a new mail folder
under the inbox in entourage it creates it just fine but it is not
created on the exchange server. furthermore, if i move messages into
that folder on the entourage client, they are left in the inbox in
exchange. any ideas?

How large is your Inbox? Do you have hundreds or thousands of messages
(including all sub-folders)?

The Inbox is special. It gets synchronized more frequently than other
folders. You should keep it as small as possible.

I suggest you create your folders outside of the Inbox and move your
messages there. For more information have a look at my blog post:

"Optimize Entourage to better work with Exchange"
<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/03/optimize_entourage_to_better_work_with_exchange.html>
or <http://tinyurl.com/56ea7k>.

Hope this helps!

--

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>

 

[slev]

How large is your Inbox? Do you have hundreds or thousands of messages

(including all sub-folders)?

The Inbox is special. It gets synchronized more frequently than other
folders. You should keep it as small as possible.

I suggest you create your folders outside of the Inbox and move your
messages there. For more information have a look at my blog post:

"Optimize Entourage to better work with Exchange"

or .

Hope this helps!

--

bill

Entourage Help Page
Entourage Help Blog
YouTalk
Twitter: follow

Bill,

thanks for the prompt reply. Yes my inbox is huge and there are a couple reasons for that, but this was not an issue with outlook. other than "should" are there any technical limitations that are preventing the creation of new folders ie: reaching file or folder number limitations? or are you saying that because of the number of files/folders entourage is not able to "get to" syncing the newly created folders?

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

thanks for the prompt reply. Yes my inbox is huge and there are a
couple reasons for that, but this was not an issue with outlook.
other than "should" are there any technical limitations that are
preventing the creation of new folders ie: reaching file or folder
number limitations? or are you saying that because of the number of
files/folders entourage is not able to "get to" syncing the newly
created folders?

Keep in mind that Entourage is not a port of Outlook. It's a completely
different application, connects to Exchange is a different way and has
its own limitations. I don't know if those limitations are based on a
theoretical number or if they're simply based on your own setup's unique
circumstances.

I believe you're second assessment is correct. Too much is happening in
your Inbox.

--

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>

 

[slev]

Bill,

thanks for the continued help on this. Definitely a different app than outlook and much better in many ways.

Total folder synchronization seems like a very basic feature though, i am surprised that Entourage is having this sort of problem with it. I cant possibly be the only person that has run into this can i?

do you know of a way to but in a bug request with Microsoft?

thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Diane Ross]

do you know of a way to but in a bug request with Microsoft?

Send feedback to Microsoft.

When working in Office, you can use the ³Send Feedback² option under the
Help menu in all of the Office applications or visit

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/suggestions.mspx>

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

thanks for the continued help on this. Definitely a different app
than outlook and much better in many ways.

Total folder synchronization seems like a very basic feature though,
i am surprised that Entourage is having this sort of problem with it.
I cant possibly be the only person that has run into this can i?

This isn't a bug. It's by design.

Everything comes through your Inbox and so it requires constant
connectivity with the server to make sure it's up-to-date. More messages
simply means more that has to be processed by both Entourage and your
Exchange server. That's a lot of network traffic and work for your
computer to handle.

An Inbox in E-mail is just like an Inbox on your desk. It's not meant
for long-term storage but rather a means of receiving things. You're
responsible for sorting through incoming messages, deleting as necessary
and filing others away.

You don't use your desk's Inbox for filing too, do you? If you were to
do this then you'd literally have a filing cabinet sitting on top of
your desk.

Hope this helps!

--

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>

 

[slev]

Everything comes through your Inbox and so it requires constant connectivity
with the server to make sure it's up-to-date. More messages simply means
more that has to be processed by both Entourage and your Exchange server.
That's a lot of network traffic and work for your computer to handle.





An Inbox in E-mail is just like an Inbox on your desk. It's not meant
for long-term storage but rather a means of receiving things. You're responsible
for sorting through incoming messages, deleting as necessary and filing
others away.





You don't use your desk's Inbox for filing too, do you? If you were to
do this then you'd literally have a filing cabinet sitting on top of your
desk.





Hope this helps!




Bill, not sure the analogy plays well here, we are dealing with computers and hard drives not paper and filing cabinets. What I am understanding you to say plainly is:

Entourage is not capable of handling a very large inbox.

The reasons i prefer to keep everything in subfolders on the exchange server are:

1. So that I can file messages on my iphone and have that reflected on the exchange server so that I don't have to file them on my iphone then file them again in entourage.

2. So that if i am on another computer i can access all my email and folders via Outlook web access.

3. So that if there is a catastrophic failure on my hard drive there is a backup copy on the exchange server

4. since entourage cannot import .pst files this enables me to sync anywhere.

That said, and assuming there is a limitation on entourage's ability to sync a large number of folders and emails with exchange, is there a physical limitation that you are aware of?

any detailed technical explanations would be welcome.

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Bill, not sure the analogy plays well here, we are dealing with
computers and hard drives not paper and filing cabinets. What I am
understanding you to say plainly is:

Everything has stress limits whether it's a computer or a physical
object. Hard drives can only spin so fast. Network wiring can only
transmit so quickly. Servers will respond to fewer requests better than
great numbers of requests.

I can tell you that Entourage has no governing limit that makes it
optimized for use below XX size but when you put the entire
infrastructure together then a simple act of keeping everything in one
place can cause problems.

Entourage is not capable of handling a very large inbox.

It's not *designed* to handle a very large inbox.

The reasons i prefer to keep everything in subfolders on the exchange
server are:

1. So that I can file messages on my iphone and have that reflected
on the exchange server so that I don't have to file them on my iphone
then file them again in entourage.

I'm not quite sure I understand. With Entourage connected as an Exchange
client and an iPhone connect as an Exchange/ActiveSync client you
shouldn't have to do any double-filing. Changes in one location will be
reflected in the other.

2. So that if i am on another computer i can access all my email and
folders via Outlook web access.

You can access all mail folders, not just the Inbox, via OWA.

3. So that if there is a catastrophic failure on my hard drive there
is a backup copy on the exchange server

I'm not quite sure I understand your thinking here either. All messages
in your Exchange account will be on the server regardless of their
location within sub-folders in your Exchange account.

4. since entourage cannot import .pst files this enables me to sync
anywhere.

All folders in your Exchange account will sync. Keeping them in
sub-folders within your Inbox does nothing to enable you to sync elsewhere.

That said, and assuming there is a limitation on entourage's ability
to sync a large number of folders and emails with exchange, is there
a physical limitation that you are aware of?

I doubt anything has ever been stress-tested like that since Entourage
wasn't designed to work the way you're using it with Exchange. And
syncing throughput will really depend on your network connection, the
server's load, it's make and model, etc.

Based on your reasons above I'm coming to believe you may be confused
about how your Exchange account should be working. All folders are
available everywhere (iPhone, OWA, Outlook or another Mac with
Entourage). And keeping everything in your Inbox does nothing to improve
security. So long as you keep your mail folders within your Exchange
account and file your messages there then you have access to them from
anywhere.

Hope this helps!

--

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>

 

[slev]

bill

ok so i went and dramatically reduced the size of my inbox last night. however the problem still exists.

saw another post where someone stated that messages they deleted remain on the exchange server. it seems to me that someting is really afoot here.

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

ok so i went and dramatically reduced the size of my inbox last
night. however the problem still exists.

saw another post where someone stated that messages they deleted
remain on the exchange server. it seems to me that someting is really
afoot here.

Use Switch Identity... command found under the Entourage menu to create
a new identity and set up your Exchange account again. Everything should
come back down from the server.

Allow time for everything to sync. If you find that it stops syncing
after a while but not everything is downloaded then you most likely have
a corrupt message that Entourage can handle. Entourage is much less
tolerant of corrupt messages than Outlook.

Finding these messages can be like looking for a needle in a haystack
but often they stick out like sore thumbs. They may have attachments, be
spam messages, have Asian characters in the Subject line, etc.

Hope this helps!

--

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>

 

[slev]

e.

Use Switch Identity... command found under the Entourage menu to create
a new identity and set up your Exchange account again. Everything should
come back down from the server.

Allow time for everything to sync. If you find that it stops syncing
after a while but not everything is downloaded then you most likely have
a corrupt message that Entourage can handle. Entourage is much less
tolerant of corrupt messages than Outlook.

Finding these messages can be like looking for a needle in a haystack
but often they stick out like sore thumbs. They may have attachments, be
spam messages, have Asian characters in the Subject line, etc.

Hope this helps!

bill ok so what do i do with the files and folders that are in entourage but have not been synced to the server?
will they all be lost?
is there a way to back them up?

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

bill ok so what do i do with the files and folders that are in
entourage but have not been synced to the server? will they all be
lost? is there a way to back them up?

If you're using Exchange then they're already on the server.

Just because you *move* messages between folders in your Exchange
account doesn't mean you've deleted them from the server. The *moves*
still need to sync to the server but the messages are still on the server.

Hope this helps!

--

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>