12.0.1 - No auto-update, sync bugs still remain.

[Ernie]

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

1. After seeing the 12.0.1 update was available I continually tried to do 'AutoUpdate' from the help menu. No updates found. I eventually downloaded the stand alone installer and ran that.

2. Admittedly, my own error, forgot, did not pay close enough attention, etc, I forgot to turn off Office Notifications before running the update. This left me with Entourage still at version 12.0

To fix it I had to log out, log in with shift key, un-install office 2008, re-install office 2008, run the 2.1.1 updater and then run the 12.0.1 updater. Now Entourage was at the right version. Maybe the next updater that comes out should quit all Office Apps and background apps like the notification engine??

3. Anxious to see if sync duplication for calendar events is fixed, I re-enabled sync in Entourage, stupidly forgetting that I had previously deleted my entourage calendar from iCal. Thus all of my entourage calendar entries were deleted when the sync occurred. What a disaster.

Thankfully I had a backup of an old iCal calendar database so I re-imported that into iCal's Entourage calendar, which then synced back to Office 2008 Entourage, so I got most of my calendar events back. However, after the sync, the timezone for all my events was, once again, set to Casablanca, Monrovia... Ug. Thankfully I had an Applescript provided by a very helpful person from this board that changed Monrovia timezones to Eastern timezones.. I have not seen any sync duplicates yet but it has only been a short time. I guess we'll see what happens on that one..

And now I will vent:
I realize that some of these issues are considered to be 'user error' but just the same I am still very frustrated by this experience. I was chugging along on Office v.X for years with no problems. I wish I had never updated to Office 2008. It has NOT been worth the hassle.

I'm now seriously thinking of just ditching MS Office and using the built in Apple apps because this is not worth the time and irritation.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

1. After seeing the 12.0.1 update was available I continually tried to
do 'AutoUpdate' from the help menu. No updates found. I eventually
downloaded the stand alone installer and ran that.

I believe it is not yet available on AUto-update. Tha's often the case
though. Auto-update comes several days after the standalone version.

Corentin

 

[Kerry]

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

1. After seeing the 12.0.1 update was available I continually tried to do 'AutoUpdate' from the help menu. No updates found. I eventually downloaded the stand alone installer and ran that.

2. Admittedly, my own error, forgot, did not pay close enough attention, etc, I forgot to turn off Office Notifications before running the update. This left me with Entourage still at version 12.0

To fix it I had to log out, log in with shift key, un-install office 2008,re-install office 2008, run the 2.1.1 updater and then run the 12.0.1 updater. Now Entourage was at the right version. Maybe the next updater that comes out should quit all Office Apps and background apps like the notification engine??

3. Anxious to see if sync duplication for calendar events is fixed, I re-enabled sync in Entourage, stupidly forgetting that I had previously deleted my entourage calendar from iCal. Thus all of my entourage calendar entries were deleted when the sync occurred. What a disaster.

Thankfully I had a backup of an old iCal calendar database so I re-imported that into iCal's Entourage calendar, which then synced back to Office 2008Entourage, so I got most of my calendar events back. However, after the sync, the timezone for all my events was, once again, set to Casablanca, Monrovia... Ug. Thankfully I had an Applescript provided by a very helpful person from this board that changed Monrovia timezones to Eastern timezones.. I have not seen any sync duplicates yet but it has only been a short time. I guess we'll see what happens on that one..

And now I will vent:
I realize that some of these issues are considered to be 'user error' but just the same I am still very frustrated by this experience. I was chugging along on Office v.X for years with no problems. I wish I had never updated to Office 2008. It has NOT been worth the hassle.

I'm now seriously thinking of just ditching MS Office and using the built in Apple apps because this is not worth the time and irritation.

The duplication problem still remains. I talked to Microsoft this aft
and they advised me they are aware of the problem but unfortunately
its going to take time to fix. They were aware of this in 2004 and he
said there is a work around to try and for some it works and for
others not. It did not work at all for me. I'll just work with iCal
and Addressbook for the time being.

 

[Ernie]

I have not had the dups yet but it's only been a day.. I'm hoping they wont come back but can you post that workaround anyway? I'd like to give it a shot, if they come back..

Thanks

 

[James88]

I ran the 12.0.1 update - and did quit all apps when prompted. Then I was expecting to finally get my sound notifications back in Entourage. No - nothing. After I checked, the other Office apps were all at 12.0.1 but Entourage still at 12.0.0. And running the update again will not work.

This is a huge frustration - especially after putting up with the various dysfunctions that he product was released with. Not great for continued Microsoft loyalty.

Do I have to uninstall Office 2008 completely and start over and hope for the best?

 

[Diane Ross]

I ran the 12.0.1 update - and did quit all apps when prompted. Then I was
expecting to finally get my sound notifications back in Entourage. No -
nothing. After I checked, the other Office apps were all at 12.0.1 but
Entourage still at 12.0.0. And running the update again will not work.

Read and follow the directions here:

Color me confused over updates (The Entourage Help Blog)
<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/03/entourage_still_states_1200.html>

 

[Art Shotwell]

Only Microsoft would make you go through all those hoops just to get
software updated. I've used other suites and never had to do that, even in
Windows. I assume this will all be fixed in the NEXT update, right? So, I
don't need to get my Entourage to 12.0.1.

 

[Ernie]

James88:

Here's what I did:
Log out
Log in while holding down the shift key
Un-install office 2008 using the Office uninstall program
Re-install office from scratch using the DVD
Run the 2.1.1 Autoupdate updater
Run the 12.0.1 Office updater.
Now Entourage was at the right version.
I then restarted and ran the disk utility to verify permissions. Not sure if that step is necessary but, seems like everyone says to do it.

 

[Jesse David Hollington]

Well, in my case I don't even have that option, as I'm travelling right now
and my original Office 2008 CD is about 400 miles away...

Reasoning that there *must* be a way to get the Entourage components into
place by themselves, however, I decided to do a bit of digging into the
installer package itself -- basically just right-click on the main updater
(within the DMG file) and choose "Show Package Contents" and you'll be able
to browse within it.

Under the "Contents/Packages" folder are all of the individual update
packages for each of the various applications and components. There are
four there for Entourage -- one for the main application and three for help
files (guessing by their names).

Running these seems to work fine, although they will try to install to
/private/tmp/com.microsoft.autoupdate/office_location by default, so you
need to use the "Change Location" button to point to your "Applications"
folder (you do *not* need to point to "Microsoft Office 2008" within -- just
the main "Applications" folder -- the installer takes care of the sub-folder
itself).

These are *incremental* updates (as the names make clear), so they only
include the files that have *changed* within each App package -- you'll
therefore still need the original Office 2008 installed, of course.

However, on shutting down Entourage, all notification tools and the Database
Daemon and then applying these four "Entourage" update files, my version of
Entourage is now happily at 12.0.1. OS X definitely recognized it as an
updated application as well, as I had to reauthorize it for my OS X keychain
to get my account passwords out, but otherwise everything seems to be
working just fine.

I don't *think* any of the other packages should be necessary, but I'm also
not completely certain that Entourage was the only component that *didn't*
update, so a full reinstall might be a more reliable solution, but thus far
for me I haven't had any issues, and all apps are reporting 12.0.1.

 

[Kerry]

I ran the 12.0.1 update - and did quit all apps when prompted. Then I was expecting to finally get my sound notifications back in Entourage. No - nothing. After I checked, the other Office apps were all at 12.0.1 but Entouragestill at 12.0.0. And running the update again will not work.

This is a huge frustration - especially after putting up with the various dysfunctions that he product was released with. Not great for continued Microsoft loyalty.

Do I have to uninstall Office 2008 completely and start over and hope for the best?

I've unfortunately had to stop using Entourage due to the sync
problems. I used Outlook from 1997 to 2003 and Entourage from 2003
till now without incident till 08. I've been syncing with a Palm since
97 and an iPaq for a period using Activesync and it was all fine. Now
its a mess and it sounds like a fix is a long way off. Using iCal and
Addressbook just doesn't have the power of Entourage but I can't deal
with the constant sync issues. The following is feedback from
Microsoft tech in which they felt we users really have to band
together to get the message to Microsoft:

Hello Kerry,

It was my pleasure to work with you on your Microsoft Entourage 2008
for Mac issue. Based on our last conversation, I will archive your
case at this time. If you find that your issue has not been fully
resolved, please notify me as soon as possible and I will reactivate
the case.

Here is a summary of the key points of the case for your records.

You called to let us know that the suggested work-a-round that James
had supplied you did not correct the problem. You discussed your needs
and methods of how you want your devices and Entourage to interact. In
the end we agreed that the issue does exist between Entourage and the
Sync Service and that we look forward to the engineers to resolve the
issue. I have closed the case at this time.

 

[Art Shotwell]

Seems to me this is a pretty stupid way to update software.

 

[James88]

Thanks Art for the advice on the process to get Entourage updated and lined up with the other Office versions.
Seems like a task to do when I have plenty of downtime to spare!!
Regards, James