Whenever Entourage is opened it asks for rebuilding

[Adrian_Chen]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel

Since a couple of days, a customer has been having an issue with Entourage: whenever they open the application the Utility shows up, asking if they want to either Verify, Rebuild or compress their database.

We already tried just verifying, but after the checking is done, it asks if you want to be done or if you want to rebuild, if you press done it just closes and it doesn't open the application. I've been told that it doesn't give any error.

I was reading that maybe deleting com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist might help? Or should I just rebuild it? Would there be risks of losing information? I've read that it makes some sort of backup, I'm not sure if they already tried rebuilding before or what, tho.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I was reading that maybe deleting
com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist might help? Or should I just
rebuild it? Would there be risks of losing information? I've read that
it makes some sort of backup, I'm not sure if they already tried
rebuilding before or what, tho.

it usually helps for what you are describing.


Corentin

 

[Diane Ross]

We already tried just verifying, but after the checking is done, it asks if
you want to be done or if you want to rebuild, if you press done it just
closes and it doesn't open the application. I've been told that it doesn't
give any error.

Even if it verifies, you might need to rebuild. Do this test to see if you
have corruption.

Under File > Export select the default action export all items as Entourage
archive (.rge) file. If this fails to complete with an error message, then
you know you have problems.

A second check is to export all folders as MBOX files. Use this script. It
will fail on the folder with corruption.

Export folders as MBOX files (includes subfolders)
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/downloads/scripts/jolly/Make_MBOX.zip>

If both of these export successfully, your database is good. Delete the
om.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist.

Other options that can cause this error:

Bad RAM.

Being low on disk space. To check your disk space, use the Activity Monitor.
Click on Disk Usage in the bottom menu bar and select the volume where you
have Office installed. You can also use Disk Utility to see detailed
information about a disk or volume. To learn more, open Disk Utility in the
/Applications/Utilities folder and refer to Disk Utility Help.

 

[Adrian_Chen]

Ok, I have further information.

The customer had Office 2004, at some point he started using Office 2008 (he's out of the office so we can't get the specifics). When you try to open Entourage 2008 it's when it asks to verify (you can't go any further).

Yesterday they left the computer rebuilding, they say that the computer was at step 4/5 when they left it and this morning it was still there (like stuck).

Supposedly the computer has over 200 GB of disk space.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Hi Adrian,

Ok, I have further information.

The customer had Office 2004, at some point he started using Office 2008
(he's out of the office so we can't get the specifics). When you try to
open Entourage 2008 it's when it asks to verify (you can't go any
further).

Well if Office 2008 was at least once able to open the identity, it has
been "upgraded" and you should not be getting this warning (unless there
is somethign really wrong with it).

Yesterday they left the computer rebuilding, they say that the computer
was at step 4/5 when they left it and this morning it was still there
(like stuck).

Well that's not a good sign. It could be a really really nasty
corruption. That's a different issue.
Is Office perfectly up to date??

Corentin

 

[Adrian_Chen]

We just tried a couple of things and none worked. I'll put all what we've done so far.

The computer is an iMac with over 200 GB, they were originally using Office 2004 but it seems that a couple of months ago they moved to Office 2008. The main user of the computer is currently out of office, this problem was there before he left.

The issue: when you open Entourage it asks to either (1) verify (2) compact (3) rebuild (4) reset preferences, the application doesn't go any further other than this window.

We already tried verifying, but after the process it's done it asks to either quit or rebuild (it seems it doesn't give any error). We tried rebuilding but it takes a ton of hours and it seems it gets stuck somewhere.

We took out com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist the first time, it didn't clear the issue nor it appeared again in the Preferences folder.

We took out the Microsoft Office 2008 Identities folder from Documents > Microsoft User Data, opened Entourage, asked the application to import from an older version, and selected the previous 2008 Identity that we had in the desktop; after it finished it asked again to either verify, rebuild, etc.

It's very important for the customer to fix this issue, he also has a ton of emails from previous years that cannot be lost.

You guys mentioned exporting, how could I do this? Is there any way if it asks as soon as you open the application to rebuild/verify?

And how does the AppleScript script work? What is the procedure?

 

[Adrian_Chen]

If you open Word, the database utility also shows up, saying that the database is damaged.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

The issue: when you open Entourage it asks to either (1) verify (2)
compact (3) rebuild (4) reset preferences, the application doesn't go
any further other than this window.

That looks liek a sign of bad corruption.

We already tried verifying, but after the process it's done it asks to
either quit or rebuild (it seems it doesn't give any error). We tried
rebuilding but it takes a ton of hours and it seems it gets stuck
somewhere.

THat's why i asked if Office was up to date. The newest version might be
more capable of fixing issues than the early builds.
Entourage shoudl be updated to 12.2.1.

We took out com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist the first time, it
didn't clear the issue nor it appeared again in the Preferences folder.

I'm not surprised. This is a different issue. Trashing the pref is
useful if the daemon tells you continuously you need to fix the database
AND there is no problem with the database.

We took out the Microsoft Office 2008 Identities folder from Documents >
Microsoft User Data, opened Entourage, asked the application to import
from an older version, and selected the previous 2008 Identity that we
had in the desktop; after it finished it asked again to either verify,
rebuild, etc.

So for these, it *can* finish the repair process.

It's very important for the customer to fix this issue, he also has a
ton of emails from previous years that cannot be lost.

The old ones should be in the other databases you tried to work with.
The issue is to get back tthe e-mails etc, that are in the new database
and not the old ones.

You guys mentioned exporting, how could I do this? Is there any way if
it asks as soon as you open the application to rebuild/verify?

Open Entourage, let it load the identity and use the Export command to
expotr to an Entourage archive.
Of course, that only works if Entourage manages to open your identity,

And how does the AppleScript script work? What is the procedure?

What AppleScript?? AppleScript is a scripting language that can be used
to automate actions in Entourage. It doesn't really apply to anything
here.

Corentin

 

[Adrian_Chen]

I meant this one

A second check is to export all folders as MBOX files. Use this script. It
will fail on the folder with corruption.

Export folders as MBOX files (includes subfolders)
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/downloads/scripts/jolly/Make_MBOX.zip>

Diane

And yeah, I asked the customer to fully update (it wasn't) so lets see if it helps out.

The next question would be, if the rebuilding process got stuck, is there any chance the database got damaged because of the process? Or are there still chances?

Thanks so far for all the help!

 

[Diane Ross]

The next question would be, if the rebuilding process got stuck, is there any
chance the database got damaged because of the process? Or are there still
chances?

With more free space you might be able to rebuild. I've been able to rebuild
client's database that were stuck on step â…˜ because I have a 500GB free
drive.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

The next question would be, if the rebuilding process got stuck, is
there any chance the database got damaged because of the process? Or are
there still chances?

Not a chance. The repair analyses the database, then writes a corrected
database in a new file, simply renaming the old one and keeping it aside
in case you need to get back to it.
The database utility doesn't write to the database you are trying to
fix.

Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

If you open Word, the database utility also shows up, saying that the
database is damaged.

Well of course.
Word triggers the same database daemon which will get to the same
conclusion if it is indeed damaged and cannot be fixed.

Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

With more free space you might be able to rebuild. I've been able to rebuild
client's database that were stuck on step ? because I have a 500GB free
drive.

200GB free is more than enough. I suspect you need to have a couple of
times the size of the database itself (to write a temp file, then to
write the fixed database). I doubt the Entourage database you are trying
to fix is more than 100GB.

Did you also make sure the drive was in good health?? (system updates,
permissions, disk structure...)


Corentin

 

[Diane Ross]

200GB free is more than enough. I suspect you need to have a couple of
times the size of the database itself (to write a temp file, then to
write the fixed database). I doubt the Entourage database you are trying
to fix is more than 100GB.

Should be enough, but experience has shown that with a larger drive it
completes. I've had users that were able to do this themselves on a larger
drive. It's not just my experience that proves this works.

 

[Adrian_Chen]

The customer fully updated Office and it kept giving the error. Also another co-worker has another customer with the same problem, we also tried the same steps without luck.

 

[Diane Ross]

The customer fully updated Office and it kept giving the error. Also another
co-worker has another customer with the same problem, we also tried the same
steps without luck.

What happened when you did the verify using the export as .rge and .mbox?