Slow sort in Address Book

[Danamr]

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

I have a issue with Address Book that is making it almost unusable. It is not a huge list, about 1900 names. When I do a search, either in the "quick" filter or the normal search it is taking on the order of 2 min to find something.
I have rebuilt the data-base multiple times with no effect.
Any ideas?

 

[Diane Ross]

I have a issue with Address Book that is making it almost unusable. It is not
a huge list, about 1900 names. When I do a search, either in the "quick"
filter or the normal search it is taking on the order of 2 min to find
something.
I have rebuilt the data-base multiple times with no effect.

Sometimes linking can cause slowdowns. For example in the Address Book: Once
it opens, click on the name column to re-sort your contacts. That should
cause Entourage to re-sort the list and speed things up.

If you have a lot of flags which are considered to-dos, this can slow things
down as well. I find that many users tend to leave things flagged forever.

If you want to test this theory, you can export your data under File -->
Export as Entourage archive (.rge) file. Import that file into a new
Identity. Remove all flags using a custom view to find them first. Now do
you see the problem go away.

You'll have to turn off Spotlight search in your current Identity so that
you can index the new Identity for testing.

When you finish, you should delete the test Identity in the switch Identity
window so the Spotlight cache files are remove with the Identity.

 

[Danamr]

Sometimes linking can cause slowdowns. For example in the Address Book: Once
it opens, click on the name column to re-sort >your contacts. That should
cause Entourage to re-sort the list and speed >things up.

Thanks.
Linking does seem to be the issue. When I exported the address book to a test identity, I can search normally.
Now how do I deal with this? If I try to delete any of the address book entries that have a link showing, (even one) the database Microsoft au daemon starts maxing out the processor, and becomes unresponsive.
Is the only solution creating a new identity and importing everything?

 

[Diane Ross]

Linking does seem to be the issue. When I exported the address book to a test
identity, I can search normally.
Now how do I deal with this? If I try to delete any of the address book
entries that have a link showing, (even one) the database Microsoft au daemon
starts maxing out the processor, and becomes unresponsive.
Is the only solution creating a new identity and importing everything?

In your Main Identity I want you to export contacts again but this time
select to delete after exporting. Then import them back in. See if this
clears the issue.

 

[Danamr]

No. As soon as the export was started the database daemon (sorry it was not the au daemon before, it was also the database daemon) runs the cpu usage up into the 90s% and then becomes unresponsive. After 10 min on the export the progress bar had moved 1mm. At that point I killed the process and restarted.

 

[Danamr]

Thanks.

Another question. Where is the settings for linking? The issue with my address book was caused buy roughly 135 entries out of almost 1900.
Those entries had anywhere from a single message to over 80 in one case linked to them. Why would linking a message to a address book entry cause so much trouble?
Any ideas of what's going on here?

 

[Diane Ross]

the database daemon) runs the cpu usage up into the 90s% and then becomes
unresponsive.

This indicates corruption.

 

[Diane Ross]

Another question. Where is the settings for linking?

Entourage Preferences --> Address Book

FWIW, I have them all checked and do not have the problem.

The issue with my address
book was caused buy roughly 135 entries out of almost 1900.
Those entries had anywhere from a single message to over 80 in one case linked
to them. Why would linking a message to a address book entry cause so much
trouble?
Any ideas of what's going on here?

It sounds more like a corruption issue than simply a link issue. I had one
client that ended up with 17,000 tasks. When I did the export using a script
to see his tasks in a text file, it was full of corruption. Strange things
can happen in a database.

Was this a recovered Time Machine backup?

How much free space on your drive? This could affect the rebuild.

 

[Danamr]

There are nearly 200gb free on the drive, so I don't think that is it.
When I upgraded the drive I did a clean install and update of Office 08, I did copy the original Office 2008 Identities folder to a external drive then replaced the new Identities folder when I was finished.
Suggestions on what to do now?
Create a new identity and import?
I have deleted all entries from the address book except those showing links, and have been deleting those. Very slowly. A delete of a group of 24 entries has been running over two hours at this point with the database daemon running 90%+ processor.
If I spend the time to complete all these entries, run the database repair program and then import them back in, is it likely to deal with the corruption issue? Or am I just chasing my tail here?
I do BTW have a copy of the database on another drive that has not been messed with.

 

[Diane Ross]

There are nearly 200gb free on the drive, so I don't think that is it.

I keep a drive with 500GB free for recovery.

When I upgraded the drive I did a clean install and update of Office 08, I did
copy the original Office 2008 Identities folder to a external drive then
replaced the new Identities folder when I was finished.
Suggestions on what to do now?
Create a new identity and import?
I have deleted all entries from the address book except those showing links,
and have been deleting those. Very slowly. A delete of a group of 24 entries
has been running over two hours at this point with the database daemon running
90%+ processor.

What happens if you use Export as tab delimited file? This won't get
categories, but does it work?

If I spend the time to complete all these entries, run the database repair
program and then import them back in, is it likely to deal with the corruption
issue? Or am I just chasing my tail here?

The best option is to create a new Identity, but most people are so hesitant
to do this, I try to give the easiest options first. If you can export and
delete all then import, I would run the Identity through what I call my
stress test. I do this with all database recoveries that I do.

1. Use the Entourage Database Utility to verify
2. On a copy, I run rebuild on the Identity to verify
3. Test by exporting all items as Entourage archive (.rge) file and import
that file into a new Identity.
4. Use the MBOX script to export all folders.

If a database passes all these tests I know it's good.

I do BTW have a copy of the database on another drive that has not been messed
with.

Excellent. So many users only have a database that has been "worked" on.
Each time you try something on a database the problems can get worse.

If you want to try a totally different approach if the above does not work
for you, export everything but your contacts and select to delete. This
leaves you with a database with nothing but contacts. Next use the database
utility to compress the Identity. Now try rebuilding.

If you want me to see if it's possible to recover the contacts, I will check
it for you at no cost. The file will be small enough to use DropBox to
share. Contact me off list.