Retrieving messages from Exchange

[Dan_Ehrmann]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel We run a product support operation with approx 800 customers. Each customer has a folder in Exchange and all messages and replies are stored in the folder for that customer. For long-time customers, some of these folders have more than 3000 messages stored in them.

Using Entourage 2008, when I navigate to one of these folders, it starts synchronizing the folder, effectively retrieving the message headers to display on the screen. Usually (almost always), I'm interested in a RECENT message. So I don't care about the ones that are more than a few months old.

HOWEVER, and this is the problem, Entourage retrieves the oldest messages first!!! So in order to view a more recent message, I need to sit there for minutes and minutes (at least 5 minutes per thousand messages) until the more recent ones are displayed.

Is there a way to configure things so that Entourage synchronizes with the newest messages first instead of the oldest???

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Is there a way to configure things so that Entourage synchronizes with the
newest messages first instead of the oldest???

Unfortunately not :-\

Corentin

 

[Dan_Ehrmann]

Is there a way to configure things so that Entourage synchronizes with the newest messages first instead of the oldest???

>
>
> Unfortunately not :-\
> Corentin

Does anyone from the Microsoft development team read these forums? This sounds like a ripe opportunity for a quick inline enhancement to the system.

Dan

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Does anyone from the Microsoft development team
read these forums? This sounds like a ripe opportunity for a quick
inline enhancement to the system. <br><br>Dan

I believe so and I know they are well aware of these limitations.
You can always use the Help>Send feedback command to make sure they know
about it,

Corentin

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Using Entourage 2008, when I navigate to one of these folders, it starts
synchronizing the folder, effectively retrieving the message headers to
display on the screen. Usually (almost always), I'm interested in a
RECENT message. So I don't care about the ones that are more than a few
months old.

HOWEVER, and this is the problem, Entourage retrieves the oldest
messages first!!! So in order to view a more recent message, I need to
sit there for minutes and minutes (at least 5 minutes per thousand
messages) until the more recent ones are displayed.

Messages are displayed at the behest of the Exchange Server. Entourage
is not saying "give me your oldest messages first", but rather Exchange
is saying "here is the message list" and it simply starts with the older
messages.

3000 messages is a lot to retrieve from the server at one time. I
suggest you create sub-folders within your client folders and move the
*very* old messages in those. Get your list down to just a couple
hundred messages and you should see better performance.

You might also be interested in this blog post of mine:

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

By any chance, are you referring to your messages stored in public
folders? If so, you can drag folders into your Subscribed Folders and
they will stay synchronized rather than synchronizing each time.

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>

 

[Dan_Ehrmann]

Bill, these are the public folders, but there are hundreds and hundreds of them (with more being added every day.) There's no reasonable way for me to subscribe to all of them, or even the hundred or so that have more than 1000 messages in them. And they have multiple users so I can't start moving them around without affecting everyone.

My understanding is the Exchange data file is actually a SQL Server database. So the request to retrieve message headers certainly has an ORDER BY clause in it and they could as easily be retrieved with the newest messages first as with the oldest messages first.

I recently switched from the PC to a Mac; previously I used Outlook across multiple versions and it retrieves the messages in whatever order we ask. For example, you can click a column heading to change the order. But this is NOT the case with Entourage. I have the list view configured to display messages in descending order by Received Date but it doesn't retrieve them from the server in this order. Instead, it always retrieves them oldest first.

It's simply wrong.

Dan

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Bill, these are the public folders, but there are hundreds and hundreds
of them (with more being added every day.) There's no reasonable way for
me to subscribe to all of them, or even the hundred or so that have more
than 1000 messages in them. And they have multiple users so I can't
start moving them around without affecting everyone.

I was afraid of that. Unfortunately, this is the only way to keep the
messages cached. Otherwise, Entourage will refresh the list every time.

My understanding is the Exchange data file is actually a SQL Server
database. So the request to retrieve message headers certainly has an
ORDER BY clause in it and they could as easily be retrieved with the
newest messages first as with the oldest messages first.

I'm not familiar with the structure of the data store on the Exchange
servers. You might want to post your question in the
microsoft.public.exchange.admin newsgroup.

I recently switched from the PC to a Mac; previously I used Outlook
across multiple versions and it retrieves the messages in whatever order
we ask. For example, you can click a column heading to change the order.
But this is NOT the case with Entourage. I have the list view configured
to display messages in descending order by Received Date but it doesn't
retrieve them from the server in this order. Instead, it always
retrieves them oldest first.

It's simply wrong.

Entourage is not Outlook nor is it a port of Outlook. Nothing dictates
that Entourage should work like Outlook except customer demand.

Please be sure to let Microsoft know you'd like to see this feature in
future versions by using the Help --> Send Feedback mechanism in any
Office application.

--

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>