Entourage database problems.   

Dear members:


Last night a message appeared on screen stating that my Entourage database
was damaged and asking if I wished to have it repaired. The same message had
appears approximately 1 week ago but I chose not to rebuild the database at
the time.

Last night after reading the message for the second time I decided to act on
it. I first backed the entire MUD folder to another disk and then proceeded
to repair the database. The process was quite time consuming (I had it done
using my 3-year old Powerbook G4) but at the end a message was displayed
stating that the repair procedure was successful.

After the database was rebuilt I launched Entourage and noticed that it
didn't not return to the same state it was in prior to the rebuilding
process. Many e-mails that had already been read were marked as not read,
the settings for my newsgroups had been lost and (worst of all) many e-mails
had been moved to different folders. Also some of the e-mails that had
already been downloaded were downloaded a second time from my mail server.

I thought the problem had been addressed but the same message that appeared
before just now appeared again stating that there is a problem with my
database. After running the database utility it failed to acknowledge any
problems and stated that the database is functioning properly.

What generated the initial message ? Is it possible that it may have been
wrong just as it is now ? In case this is what happened I would like to go
back to my backed-up database as the new one (the one after the rebuild
process) has been altered and some information has been lost.

Any ideas ?

Thank you in advance,

Joseph Chamberlain

date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 11:44:40 -0700   author:   Joseph Chamberlain, D.D.S.

Re: Entourage database problems.   

Joseph Chamberlain, D.D.S. wrote:

> After the database was rebuilt I launched Entourage and noticed that it
> didn't not return to the same state it was in prior to the rebuilding
> process. Many e-mails that had already been read were marked as not read,
> the settings for my newsgroups had been lost and (worst of all) many e-mails
> had been moved to different folders. Also some of the e-mails that had
> already been downloaded were downloaded a second time from my mail server.

The developers of Entourage have designed the repair utility to err on 
the side of caution and preserve data rather than delete data. Yes, this 
can be very frustrating but it can be more frustrating to lose messages 
you want to keep. Unfortunately, I can't explain why messages were moved 
to different folders but that does indicate that you had some damage.

The newsgroup cache is deleted during a repair and this will force you 
to set up your newsgroups and download messages again.

> I thought the problem had been addressed but the same message that appeared
> before just now appeared again stating that there is a problem with my
> database. After running the database utility it failed to acknowledge any
> problems and stated that the database is functioning properly.

You might try an advanced repair and even a compact of your database. 
I've had one instance myself where the database utility reports "no 
problems" but a compact seems to correct my problems.

> What generated the initial message ? Is it possible that it may have been
> wrong just as it is now ? In case this is what happened I would like to go
> back to my backed-up database as the new one (the one after the rebuild
> process) has been altered and some information has been lost.

Database corruption can be caused by a malformed mail message, disk 
fragmentation, a disk problem (you should also run the Disk Utility 
found in /Applications/Utilities or something like Alsoft DiskWarrior) 
or some other influence outside of Entourage.

Also, while you're wise to back up your Entourage database before 
starting, keep in mind that the database utility also does this. You'll 
have a new identity folder listed as a "backup" along with your current 
identity.

FYI, this newsgroup has been deprecated and replaced with 
microsoft.office.mac.office.entourage. Be sure to post any further 
questions in that group rather than this one. You'll have a lot more 
eyes seeing your messages there.

Hope this helps!

-- 

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:43:26 -0500   author:   William Smith