Timestamp shows date copied not date received

[open]

I've just moved a number of email accounts from an IMAP server on one
host to a new IMAP server on my new host.

To do this I set up duplicte folders on the new mail account and
dragged messages from the old server onto the new one. This was
successful: my new server now has all my messages in equivalent
folders. I used Entourage to do this.

The problem is Entourage reports the received date as the time I copied
the messages from the old to new server not the original date/time the
message was received. For example all my messages in one folder show a
received time of 22:17 today when they were copied, not the range of
dates over the past five years when they were actually received. This
has really screwed up my message lists to an unusable degree. Strangely
this is contrary to the email headers which still report the actual
date/time of the message. There is no new header with the copied time
either. Other email clients (Thunderbird and SquirrelMail) correctly
report the received timestamp and order everything correctly. I have no
idea where Entourage is getting this new timestamp from. I've even
deleted all prefs/db files and started fresh.

I have three questions:

Why doesn't Entourage use the header information?
Where is Entourage getting the new "copied time" timestamp?
How can Entourage be coaxed into using the correct timestamp?

I have done the following:

Deleted all my mail accounts form the Accounts panel in Entourage.

Deleted and emptied the Trash of all Entourage database files under
~User/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities/Main
Identity/ ...

I've rebooted my machine. When Entourage is run it looks like it's
going through its "First run" process. I've then re-setup an account
with the problem.

Still Entourage lists my messages with the copied time, not the Header
time.

I can't fathom why! In fact I'm exasperated. Such strange behaviour.
Especially since other clients show evertything correctly. I don't want
to give up on Entourage either.

Any ideas?

Technical info: I'm running Entourage 2004 on Mac OS X 10.3.9. Even my
old Office X installation of Entourage is behaving in the same way
having deleted its preferences, db and accounts and trieed again.

Thanks in advance.

Mark.

 

[Barry Wainwright]

Try running this script against those messages:

Correct the Date 1.0
<http://scriptbuilders.net/files/correctthedate1.0.html>

 

[open]

Thanks, but that isn't doing the trick.

Here are all the headers with a time-stamp in them from an example
message. Notice all the dates are real and haven't been set to the time
I copied the message across servers.

Entourage is displaying the time as "Today 1:30 am"

As a contrast, trusty old SquirrelMail displays "March 24, 2005"

Interestingly both Entourage and SquirrelMail correctly display "Thu,
March 24, 2005 11:24 pm" when the actual message is displayed.


Received: from ss07...net (Unknown UID 8@localhost)
by re...te.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id j2OMNd...828
for <[email protected]>; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:23:39 -0800

Received: from ss07...net (root@localhost)
by ss07...net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id j2OMNV...698
for <[email protected]>; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:23:31 -0800

Received: from w...int (we...g.co.uk [212.???.???.154] (may be forged))
by ss07...net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id j2OM...00691
for <[email protected]>; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:23:30 -0800

Received: from S49878 [127.0.0.1] by w...int
(SMTPD32-8.13) id AE0...500A6; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 22:24:01 +0000

Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 22:24:01 -0000

Baffled, Mark.

 

[open]

Just as a quick note...

I've binned and reinstalled the Entourage Application.

I've canned the preference plist XML files in ~/Library/Preferences and
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft

I've also set up one of the accounts using a different user on my
machine.

Each time Entourage comes back fresh as if it's doing its "first run".
Each time my message list still shows copied time rather than header
time. I haven't a clue where it's getting the info, let alone why it's
using it.

I'm one step away from Thunderbird or Mail. That'd be a pity because I
find Entourage the best client around.

 

[Barry Wainwright]

Thanks, but that isn't doing the trick.

Here are all the headers with a time-stamp in them from an example
message. Notice all the dates are real and haven't been set to the time
I copied the message across servers.

Entourage is displaying the time as "Today 1:30 am"

As a contrast, trusty old SquirrelMail displays "March 24, 2005"

Are you talking about in the folder listing?

What do you get if you set the listing to 'time sent' instead of 'time
received'?

 

[open]

Good idea. I hadn't tried that.

I am talking about the message listing panel. In the middle, between
the folders and preview pane.

Setting "arrange by sent" I get my relative dates back - Yesterday,
Friday, Thursday and so on - but all the times are still Sat 1:02 am
etc. regardless of whether the relative date says Saturday, Friday or
any other day.

It's still picking up the strange timestamp and displaying that.

 

[Barry Wainwright]

Good idea. I hadn't tried that.

I am talking about the message listing panel. In the middle, between
the folders and preview pane.

Setting "arrange by sent" I get my relative dates back - Yesterday,
Friday, Thursday and so on - but all the times are still Sat 1:02 am
etc. regardless of whether the relative date says Saturday, Friday or
any other day.

It's still picking up the strange timestamp and displaying that.

Entourage stores two timestamps for each message - the time the message was
sent, which it picks up from the message headers; and the time the message
was received. In your case (an IMAP Import, IIRC?) the received time is the
same for all messages - this IS when entourage received the message.

In the three-column view, the date displayed is the time received, and
unfortunately you can't change that.

However, try this script:

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
set theMessages to current messages
repeat with aMessage in theMessages
tell aMessage to set time sent to time received
end repeat
end tell

That may just set the two to be the same and correct your problem.

 

[open]

No, that's not sorting it out either. Massages move into "Today" but
display the same time.

If entourage stores the time received and this is (must be) seperately
stored from the actual message (as the header doesn't contain this
info), where is it stored?

I've tried to delete every Entourage prefs/db file in order to make it
forget. Is there a hidden file? Is the other timestamp stored on my
remote server?

Thanks for your time helping out Barry.

 

[Barry Wainwright]

No, that's not sorting it out either. Massages move into "Today" but
display the same time.

Strange. I would have thought that would do it.

If entourage stores the time received and this is (must be) seperately
stored from the actual message (as the header doesn't contain this
info), where is it stored?

It is part of the additional data stored in the database file.

I've tried to delete every Entourage prefs/db file in order to make it
forget. Is there a hidden file? Is the other timestamp stored on my
remote server?

No good. None of those places. Entourage stores all the data associated with
messages in the database file.

Thanks for your time helping out Barry.

You're welcome. Sorry I couldn't solve the problem

 

[open]

Well, further investigation suggests it's not wholly an Entourage error
as Apple's horrible Mail.app has the same problem. That's not to say
Entourage is behaving though as I think it isn't.

Also, Entourage's two panel views (Preview pane right and below) differ
in what they display. With the sort on Sent rather than received the
dispaly is correct now only in the 'preview pane below' view. It looks
like there might be a bug in the vertical message list in the 'preview
pane right' view.

It's a shame. I can go on using Entourage, but only with the old view
which was partly the reson I upgraded to Office 2004.

* * *

What is still a mystery however is where this received date comes from.
If both Entourage and Mail.app have the problem it must be somewhere on
the IMAP server. I might contact my host to see if they can shed any
light on this.

I am still baffled why the app wouldn't use the message header to
display the list. All my messages have intact headers with the correct
dates so it's a wonder why this is an issue at all.

Mark.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

However, try this script:

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
set theMessages to current messages
repeat with aMessage in theMessages
tell aMessage to set time sent to time received
end repeat
end tell

That may just set the two to be the same and correct your problem.

You're sure you don't mean:

tell aMessage to set time received to time sent

? The way you have it all sent times will now be the same, namely the time
imported into Entourage. Isn't the basically the problem "open" (???)
started with?

Try it with this line fixed, open, and see if that helps. But it also
requires that you first _select_ all the messages you want to apply it to
(i.e. all the messages in the folder you're looking at) if you want it to
effect already-received messages. If you then make a Rule to run this
script, and enable the rule to run automatically, it will "fix" each new
message as it comes in and so should "just work".

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Barry Wainwright]

You're sure you don't mean:

tell aMessage to set time received to time sent

Doh! Yes. A silly mistake. That's what I was intending.

Sorry!

 

[open]

Woohoo!

That workes. And I was downloading Eudora, shaking my head, going back
to Mail, closing it quickly.

Perfect. Thanks.

 

[scott boettcher]

The problem with this is that it's not a fix.
I can run the same account on the same Mac using Outlook 2001 and th
problem doesn't exist.
Also - Outlook 2001 users as well as PC users get these emails wit
screwy time stamps.

It surely seems that Microsoft has the onus to look into this and fi
it - whether it's on the Entourage or Exchange-server side.

S