Sync Services bug after you move 2008Identities off the boot drive

[budsimrin]

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

Since I know many of us have moved the Identities to a different volume, I thought I would mention a bug that I discovered on my system. I sent the Bug Report, below, to Apple as a Mactopia Product Suggestion. [Is there a more appropriate place to do this?]

BUG REPORT. I moved Office 2008 Identities off of the boot volume. When I did this, Entourage worked just fine but it became impossible to maintain the check boxes in the Sync Services preferences. About every 5 minutes, the boxes would become unchecked and synching would cease.

For the record, I followed Apple's advice on how to move the Identities.
1. I closed all Microsoft Office apps in order to kill the Microsoft Database Daemon. I confirmed using the Activity Monitor.
2. I copied the Identities folder to another volume and deleted it.
3. I replaced the Identities folder by an alias to the folder in the other volume

When I restarted Entourage, everything worked as expected except that I discovered this bug about a week later. As soon as I undid the move, the problem disappeared!

 

[Diane Ross]

Why did you move the Identity folder? Exactly what instructions from Apple
did you follow? Did you alias the folder back to the Microsoft User Data
folder --> Office 2008 Identities folder?

 

[budsimrin]

Why did you move the Identity folder?
1. Because it was taking up too much space on my boot drive, so I moved it to a dedicated data drive. 2. Because every time even a single email gets changed, the file is marked as changed and so Time Machine has umpteen million copies of this behemoth. I configure Time Machine NOT to back up my data volume.

Exactly what instructions from Apple
did you follow?

I don't recall exactly which support page I found this on. I took the best from several, actually. That's why I summarized the steps I used. Third party sites have extensive discussions where a lot of people have done this or inquired how to.

 

[Diane Ross]

1. Because it was taking up too much space on my boot drive, so I moved it to
a dedicated data drive. 2. Because every time even a single email gets
changed, the file is marked as changed and so Time Machine has umpteen million
copies of this behemoth. I configure Time Machine NOT to back up my data
volume.

What size is your database? If you export your data as Entourage archive
(.rge) file what is the difference between the size of the .rge file and
your database file?

It's a good thing that you excluded your Identity from Time Machine because
any backup when Entourage is running can be corrupt. See below.

I don't recall exactly which support page I found this on. I took the best
from several, actually. That's why I summarized the steps I used. Third party
sites have extensive discussions where a lot of people have done this or
inquired how to.

Yes.

Did you move the Microsoft User Data folder or the Main Identity folder?
It's best to move the Microsoft User Data folder.

Is your Microsoft User Data folder on an external drive or on a server?
Drives are OK, but servers is not recommended. Some users use a pocket drive
so they can take it with them on different computers.

Yours is the first report of Sync Services not working when the Microsoft
User Data folder has been moved. I'm asking all these questions trying to
see what might be different.

Lastly, have you considered moving another large folder like music, movies
or photos rather than your Microsoft User Data folder? Most likely they are
larger files.

OmniDiskSweeper (freeware) is a utility for quickly finding big files.

<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/>


-----Using Time Machine to backup Entourage basics------

It's advised by the developers not to let Time Machine backup your Entourage
database. If the database is copied while being used, the backup could be
corrupt. You can set the Time Machine to exclude the Microsoft User Data
folder and create an iCal event to copy it over at night while not in use so
you get one backup daily in Time Machine.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/alternative_method_to_use_entourage_
and_time_machine.html>

We have a poll running now "how big is your database?" Be sure to check
results to see the latest results and how you fit into the 'norm.'

<http://tinyurl.com/kko5t8>