Maintenance

[Marc Harmon]

As a matter of avoiding troubles - or what sometimes is referred to as
maintenance:

Should I rebuild my database periodically? I seem to recall this was
advised with earlier incarnations of these email apps.

I did one time get an error message that Entourage could not open and I was
advised to rebuild. In days prior, I had odd subjects or other indication
an available message belonged on that line, but would not open. I option
started the app. But choose to cancel. On the next start of the app. All
was fine. Those messages did not recur. Weeks later, no recurrence.

ALSO:

Newsgroup messages are downloaded to disk on reading. How long are they
held? Are they temporary files or stored. I rarely shut down the app or
the computer so I am not sure. But I am concerned about Entourage getting
sluggish the result of a too large database, not to mention long term loss
of disk space.

Maintenance tips requested as asked above and any others?

Marc

 

[Mickey Stevens]

As a matter of avoiding troubles - or what sometimes is referred to as
maintenance:

Should I rebuild my database periodically? I seem to recall this was
advised with earlier incarnations of these email apps.

It's been recommended that regular rebuilds be avoided unless your database
has increased to an unmanageable size and needs to be reduced or if you
experience symptoms of database corruption.

I did one time get an error message that Entourage could not open and I was
advised to rebuild. In days prior, I had odd subjects or other indication
an available message belonged on that line, but would not open.

Those are signs of database corruption. In that case it would be advisable
to rebuild.

I option
started the app. But choose to cancel. On the next start of the app. All
was fine. Those messages did not recur. Weeks later, no recurrence.
Strange.

Newsgroup messages are downloaded to disk on reading. How long are they
held?

As long as your news server retains them.

Are they temporary files or stored.

They're stored in the Database for your identity, just like e-mail messages.

I rarely shut down the app or
the computer so I am not sure. But I am concerned about Entourage getting
sluggish the result of a too large database, not to mention long term loss
of disk space.

To remove messages from the database, you need to empty the news server's
cache. Instructions for doing so are here:
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/faqs.html#Anchor-59>

Remember that the database functions like a hard drive - things that you
delete from Entourage aren't actually removed from the database so it
shrinks, but instead the space is marked to be overwritten. However, if you
delete a news server cache with thousands of messages, you may have areas
marked for overwrite that will never be overwritten. In that case, the only
way to regain the disk space is to do a Typical Rebuild of the database.