missing messages - Entourage 2008

[Mark Pavlick]

List members:

Today in an attempt at archiving I downloaded several hundred
important messages from my web mail into Entourage 2008. After closing
and reopening Entourage the messages were gone. How could this
happen?
I'm running OS 10.5.6 on a MacPro.
Thank you in advance for any thoughts.

- Mark Pavlick

 

[Diane Ross]

Today in an attempt at archiving I downloaded several hundred
important messages from my web mail into Entourage 2008. After closing
and reopening Entourage the messages were gone. How could this
happen?

You have View "Unread only" or "Flagged" only selected???

Have you searched for these messages? Do you know what folder they were
moved to?

--
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>

 

[Mark Pavlick]

Ms. Ross,

Sadly the messages are simply gone and don't appear on a search.
"Unread Only" or "Flagged" aren't checked. Thank you for any thoughts.

- Mark Pavlick

 

[ctan]

I've seen this happen on my end also. I've lost a few important emails because of this also.

As far as I can figure, the issue is a lack of progress bar in Entourage. Even for simple tasks it doesn't show a progress bar.

Take for example moving a folder from Entourage to your desktop. You don't see a progress bar, but it is working in the background to do it. So I bet that if you tried to do something while a process was going on in the background you would get lost data, like you had.

 

[Diane Ross]

Is it possible you have a schedule to delete old mail? Are the message still
on the server?

Try this....

Create a new Identity in Entourage
Add the account info and set under the Options tab to "leave on server."
Download those messages.

Since they are the only messages and there should be no schedules set, you
should be able to get those emails. We can discuss how to store or archive
them after you get them downloaded.

 

[Mark Pavlick]

Ms. Ross,

I appreciate your help.

The messages with attached documents in question - related to a
publishing project - are not only not in my Entourage database, but
nowhere else on my computer either.

Thinking that they were safely downloaded into Entourage - I'd
seen the messages in Entourage before I closed it - I deleted them
from the server.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts about backup.

- Mark Pavlick

 

[Diane Ross]

Thinking that they were safely downloaded into Entourage - I'd
seen the messages in Entourage before I closed it - I deleted them
from the server.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts about backup.

Have you looked in the trash? Entourage doesn't just delete messages unless
scheduled to delete.

 

[Mark Pavlick]

The messages didn't show up in the Trash on a search, nor are
they there when I look.

 

[Diane Ross]

The messages didn't show up in the Trash on a search, nor are
they there when I look.

Then it had to be a schedule that deleted the messages when you quit. Check
your schedules for delete older than.

Sorry, but it seems they are gone.

 

[Mark Pavlick]

Then it had to be a schedule that deleted the messages when you quit. Check
your schedules for delete older than.

Sorry, but it seems they are gone.

There were no schedules for deleting messages,
Entourage 2008 is not a reliable database for storing
messages.

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

There were no schedules for deleting messages,
Entourage 2008 is not a reliable database for storing
messages.

I'll agree that a Database is not a great method for storing messages
but it has been very reliable for the majority of folks. Your problem is
unique.

Some questions that haven't been asked and answered yet.

1. How did you connect Entourage to your account (POP, IMAP or
Exchange)? Check under Tools --> Accounts... You'll see the connection
in the name of your account.

2. When you say "downloaded several hundred messages", how did you do
this? What did you see during this process?

3. Was anything else missing from Entourage or just these messages? Was
this a new identity or an existing identity that you had been using for
a while?

4. Did you do any housecleaning lately? Specifically, Entourage looks
for messages in the Microsoft User Data Folder within your Documents
folder. Did you move or delete anything from this area?

5. How did you "delete the messages from the server" -- through
Entourage or did you log in using webmail or a different E-mail client?

Is it possible you connected from Entourage to your server using IMAP
and then deleted the messages using something other than Entourage? If
so, then this would be the problem. IMAP synchronizes.

--

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>

 

[Mark Pavlick]

I'll agree that a Database is not a great method for storing messages
but it has been very reliable for the majority of folks. Your problem is
unique.

Some questions that haven't been asked and answered yet.

1. How did you connect Entourage to your account (POP, IMAP or
Exchange)? Check under Tools --> Accounts... You'll see the connection
in the name of your account.

2. When you say "downloaded several hundred messages", how did you do
this? What did you see during this process?

3. Was anything else missing from Entourage or just these messages? Was
this a new identity or an existing identity that you had been using for
a while?

4. Did you do any housecleaning lately? Specifically, Entourage looks
for messages in the Microsoft User Data Folder within your Documents
folder. Did you move or delete anything from this area?

5. How did you "delete the messages from the server" -- through
Entourage or did you log in using webmail or a different E-mail client?

Is it possible you connected from Entourage to your server using IMAP
and then deleted the messages using something other than Entourage? If
so, then this would be the problem. IMAP synchronizes.

--

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>

Mr. Smith,

Thanks for writing.
1) I connected Entourage via a POP account.
2) I downloaded the messages by connecting Entourage to the ISP
server, as usual. I later saw all the messages in my Entourage "IN"
box.
3) Only these (important) messages were missing later. This was
an old Identity. I don't construct new Identities for no reason.
4) I didn't do any housecleaning of Entourage.
5) I manually deleted the group of messages from the ISP server
via web mail.. I thought the messages were secure in Entourage.
6) As far as I know I've never used IMAP. I have only one
standard POP account.

I'm now looking into storing messages in FileMaker Pro. I can't
afford to lose important messages relating to work.

Thank you and Diane for any thoughts, I appreciate your expert
help. I hope that the next version of Entourage is more stable.

- Mark

 

[Diane Ross]

Thank you and Diane for any thoughts, I appreciate your expert
help. I hope that the next version of Entourage is more stable.

Sorry, but this is not an Entourage function. Something else happened.

Schedules can delete mail older than.
Views can be set to Flagged only

Entourage does not delete mail unless you have set it to delete.

 

[Mark Pavlick]

   Mr. Smith,

       Thanks for writing.
       1) I connected Entourage via a POP account.
       2) I downloaded the messages by connecting Entourage to the ISP
server, as usual. I later saw all the messages in my Entourage "IN"
box.
       3) Only these (important) messages weremissinglater. This was
an old Identity. I don't construct new Identities for no reason.
       4) I didn't do any housecleaning of Entourage.
       5) I manually deleted the group of messages from the ISP server
via web mail.. I thought the messages were secure in Entourage.
       6) As far as I know I've never used IMAP. I have only one
standard POP account.

       I'm now looking into storing messages in FileMaker Pro. I can't
afford to lose important messages relating to work.

      Thank you and Diane for any thoughts, I appreciate your expert
help. I hope that the next version of Entourage is more stable.

    - Mark

For list members looking for a more dependable way to preserve and
archive their e-mail than is possible with many contemporary e-mail
programs I recommend
Mail Steward: http://www.mailsteward.com/

- Mark Pavlick