Upgrade to 2008 deleted Categories associated with contacts

[artminds]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC
Email Client: Exchange

When I upgraded my Entourage data from 2004 to 2008, I lost all the categories associated with contacts, and the color coding that had been associated with them. I have over 3,000 contacts in my Address book, and do not intend to manually reassociate them with a category. I made a backup of my data prior to upgrading. My data is stored on an Exchange server. I need to restore my system to the functionality it had with 2004 version.

MICROSOFT, your help files are seriously deficient!

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

When I upgraded my Entourage data from 2004 to 2008, I lost all the
categories associated with contacts, and the color coding that had been
associated with them.

Was everything stored in a Exchange account??
If yes, I'm not surprised unfortrunately.
ENtourage doesn't sync categories with the Exchange servers (that's
coming with Entourage EWS) and I suspect that the upgrade process purges
the local cache, and re-downloads the data from the server, losing the
categories in the process.

I have over 3,000 contacts in my Address book, and
do not intend to manually reassociate them with a category. I made a
backup of my data prior to upgrading. My data is stored on an Exchange
server. I need to restore my system to the functionality it had with
2004 version.

You could use a script to write the categories to the notes (and that
will sync to the server providing you give it enough time) and another
one to restore them.

http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/?p=113

Corentin

 

[artminds]

Thank you, but I do not want to associate categories with "notes" (whatever that is). I want my old Entourage 2004 behavior returned. Do I need to uninstall 2008 and return to using 2004? Fortunately, I made a back up of my files from 2004 before I installed the new version, and before i converted to 2008, and Exchange 2007 from 2003.

 

[Diane Ross]

Thank you, but I do not want to associate categories with "notes" (whatever
that is).

In the contact, there are custom fields and under the Other tab there is a
place for notes. Not sure if Corentin is referring to the custom field or
the notes under Other.

I want my old Entourage 2004 behavior returned. Do I need to
uninstall 2008 and return to using 2004? Fortunately, I made a back up of my
files from 2004 before I installed the new version, and before i converted to
2008, and Exchange 2007 from 2003.

It's just the transfer process that's a problem. Entourage 2008 has better
Exchange functionality.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

When I upgraded my Entourage data from 2004 to 2008, I lost all the
categories associated with contacts, and the color coding that had
been associated with them. I have over 3,000 contacts in my Address
book, and do not intend to manually reassociate them with a category.
I made a backup of my data prior to upgrading. My data is stored on
an Exchange server. I need to restore my system to the functionality
it had with 2004 version.

How did you upgrade? If you upgraded your existing Entourage identity
then I believe your categories should still be intact. However, if you
upgraded to Entourage 2008 and then set up your Exchange account as a
new account the categories will be lost.

MICROSOFT, your help files are seriously deficient!

You're not speaking to Microsoft here. Everyone here is an Entourage
user just like you. Use the Help --> Send Feedback mechanism in any
Office application to send Microsoft feedback about their products.

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>

 

[artminds]

Bill,

Thank you. I already use my "Notes" field for other information, and do not want to pollute that field. My question related specifically to restoring the exact functionality as existed in Entourage 2004.

I upgraded by creating a new identity for my hosted Exchange 2007 service, and then copied all folders from my previous identity into the new identity, along with historical messages in the inbox. The old identity still exists and shows in the side bar, but is not being updated because we pulled the plug on our internal Exchange 2003 server.

I was advised by the company providing the hosted Exchange service to create a new identity, instead of changing the settings on the old identity to now access the new hosted Exchange server. I did that against my better judgment. I suppose I could still delete all the folders copied over to the new identity, and delete all messages that arrived after the switch over, allow time for the Exchange Server to synchronize those deletions, and then merely switch the old identiy settings to access the new hosted Exchange Server, and just let the new messages re-synchronize to Entourage. Do you see any problem with that approach?

I also exported all of the contents of Entourage prior to adding the new identify, so I actually have a backup that I could restore as a new starting point.

Regards,
Art Minds

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

I upgraded by creating a new identity for my hosted Exchange 2007
service, and then copied all folders from my previous identity into
the new identity, along with historical messages in the inbox. The
old identity still exists and shows in the side bar, but is not being
updated because we pulled the plug on our internal Exchange 2003
server.

I was advised by the company providing the hosted Exchange service to
create a new identity, instead of changing the settings on the old
identity to now access the new hosted Exchange server. I did that
against my better judgment. I suppose I could still delete all the
folders copied over to the new identity, and delete all messages that
arrived after the switch over, allow time for the Exchange Server to
synchronize those deletions, and then merely switch the old identiy
settings to access the new hosted Exchange Server, and just let the
new messages re-synchronize to Entourage. Do you see any problem with
that approach?

You can still use your old identity, however, if you edit your existing
Exchange account to change its address then all your data will be
deleted and replicated from the server. This doesn't help your problem.

You Have a couple of choices:

1. You can return to your old 2004 identity and upgrade it. Then you can
leave your existing Exchange account and set up your new Exchange
account as well. Entourage, unlike Outlook, can handle multiple Exchange
accounts.

2. You can return to your old 2004 identity and upgrade it. Then I can
provide you a script snippet to change your existing Exchange account's
information to your new server information. This will not delete your
existing messages.

--

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>