Restoring mbox files from Entourage Archive

[GeoEng51]

Here's a tip that I've learned the hard way - by experimenting! Hope it save someone else some time:

1. When you export to an Entourage archive, it creates a *.rge file.

2. Use Finder, and locate that *.rge file (probably in your Documents folder somewhere). You can select the *.rge file, right click on it, and then select the option "Show Package Contents".

3. That will open another window that lists the contents of the archive file, and if you drill down through the following subdirectories:

\Mail\Folders On My Computer\Saved Messages\Local Folders

you will get to the list of folders you have set up in Entourage for your own use.

4. Drill down further to the bottom of one of your folders / sub-folders, and you will eventually get to a *.mbox file. You can select that file, and then drag it to the left-most pane in Entourage, and drop it on one of the folders that is evident there, and within a few seconds a new folder will appear with all the previous e-mail in it.

5. I usually drop it on the "Local Folders" item, which makes it easy to find the folder you just "restored".

Hope that is helpful.

 

[Diane Ross]

If you were frustrated by creating the MBOX files by using Export, the
correct method is to just drag the folder to the desktop.

Your steps will work as well, but not necessary just to create an MBOX file.
--
Diane, Microsoft Mac MVP (MVPs are not Microsoft Employees)
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>




From: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:56:12 -0800
Subject: Restoring mbox files from Entourage Archive

Here's a tip that I've learned the hard way - by experimenting! Hope it save
someone else some time:

1. When you export to an Entourage archive, it creates a *.rge file.

2. Use Finder, and locate that *.rge file (probably in your Documents folder
somewhere). You can select the *.rge file, right click on it, and then
select the option "Show Package Contents".

3. That will open another window that lists the contents of the archive
file, and if you drill down through the following subdirectories:

\Mail\Folders On My Computer\Saved Messages\Local Folders

you will get to the list of folders you have set up in Entourage for your
own use.

4. Drill down further to the bottom of one of your folders / sub-folders,
and you will eventually get to a *.mbox file. You can select that file, and
then drag it to the left-most pane in Entourage, and drop it on one of the
folders that is evident there, and within a few seconds a new folder will
appear with all the previous e-mail in it.

5. I usually drop it on the "Local Folders" item, which makes it easy to
find the folder you just "restored".

Hope that is helpful.

 

[GeoEng51]

Yes - I started off archiving everything using the Export function, and then later discovered that if you drag a folder to the desktop, it will create an mbox file, and if you drag individual e-mail messages to the desktop, it will create eml files. I also noticed (today) one of your earlier posts explaining that if you drag a folder to the desktop, the mbox file so created will only contain the contents of that folder but not any subfolders.

So, both approaches to creating an mbox file are useful. Every few months I use the Export method to create an rge file with all my e-mail messages in in, then go through all my folders and clean out old messages. To restore old messages from a particular folder or sub-folder later, I use the method I described earlier.

I did see someone's note on the e-mail archiving program eMessage Archiver, which I'm just checking out now.

Thanks for all your excellent posts, by the way! Many have been very helpful.

 

[Diane Ross]

I also noticed (today) one of your earlier posts explaining that if you drag a
folder to the desktop, the mbox file so created will only contain the contents
of that folder but not any subfolders.

There is a script that will get subfolders. The only problem with this
script is the folders are all loose. If you have subfolders with the same
name, it gets really confusing. I've renamed all of mine with distinctive
names.

For MBOX files: Run this script on your messages: Export folders (this gets
subfolders too). The script will fail on a folder with corruption.

So, both approaches to creating an mbox file are useful. Every few months I
use the Export method to create an rge file with all my e-mail messages in in,
then go through all my folders and clean out old messages. To restore old
messages from a particular folder or sub-folder later, I use the method I
described earlier.

You can make a custom mail view to get all of your emails and drag the
custom view to the desktop as one big MBOX file.

I did see someone's note on the e-mail archiving program eMessage Archiver,
which I'm just checking out now.

The interface isn't "pretty" but it's a solid product. John made this for
his own needs and then released it to the public. It's been around for a
loooong time.

Thanks for all your excellent posts, by the way! Many have been very helpful.

Thanks!

 

[GeoEng51]

Diane - thanks for the tip on the Export Folders script - I will try that out.

I must admit I was being lazy about figuring out how the "custom mail view" worked, so I took your suggestion as incentive to do so. Of course, its pretty straight forward and powerful. I think I'll be experimenting with that a lot.

One other question for you - back in my "Windows" days, I used to use Thunderbird, and there was a program called ABC Amber Thunderbird Converter, that I used quite a bit. It would allow you to select a set of e-mail messages within Thunderbird (also worked on a random selection of *.eml file), and then "convert" them to a wide variety of text, spreadsheet, and database formats, or to html or pdf files. I used the pdf file approach frequently - the "converter" program would place the text from the selected e-mails into one pdf file, ordered however you wished, and with a bookmark to each one. It would also highlight the name of any attachment in the pdf file, hyperlinked to a separate sub-directory in which all the attachments from all the e-mails were located. It was quite useful for backing up all e-mail from a specific work project, which could then be placed on a file server with the rest of the project files, or archived. I liked the longevity and universality of using a pdf file.

I know this is similar to what the eMessage Archiver program is supposed to do, at least to a Filemaker database file. Just wondering if you've ever run into any other Mac program that will place e-mails into a pdf file, as described above?

 

[Diane Ross]

Diane - thanks for the tip on the Export Folders script - I will try that out.

I must admit I was being lazy about figuring out how the "custom mail view"
worked, so I took your suggestion as incentive to do so. Of course, its pretty
straight forward and powerful. I think I'll be experimenting with that a lot.

One other question for you - back in my "Windows" days, I used to use
Thunderbird, and there was a program called ABC Amber Thunderbird Converter,
that I used quite a bit. It would allow you to select a set of e-mail messages
within Thunderbird (also worked on a random selection of *.eml file), and then
"convert" them to a wide variety of text, spreadsheet, and database formats,
or to html or pdf files. I used the pdf file approach frequently - the
"converter" program would place the text from the selected e-mails into one
pdf file, ordered however you wished, and with a bookmark to each one. It
would also highlight the name of any attachment in the pdf file, hyperlinked
to a separate sub-directory in which all the attachments from all the e-mails
were located. It was quite useful for backing up all e-mail from a specific
work project, which could then be placed on a file server with the rest of the
project files, or archived. I liked the longevity and universality of using a
pdf file.

I think saving as individual emails so Spotlight could search them would be
your best bet.

I know this is similar to what the eMessage Archiver program is supposed to
do, at least to a Filemaker database file. Just wondering if you've ever run
into any other Mac program that will place e-mails into a pdf file, as
described above?

Not to pdf but to text. Entourage Many to Word By: Allen Watson

This script will take one or more selected messages (or a single message if
open) and will write them all to a single Microsoft Word document.

ScriptBuilders: Entourage Many to Word 1.4
<http://scriptbuilders.net/files/entouragemanytoword1.4.html>

 

[GeoEng51]

Thanks again!