Synchronize Entourage 2008 across 2 hard drives

[Rich_B]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: pop

I'm fairly new to the Mac world and as they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. This is a bit complicated and maybe someone has a better idea, but....

I have an iMac at home and a Mac mini at a summer house used on weekends. Using SuperDuper to clone the iMac HD to an external and then take it with me to the mini location and boot off of that.

I want to synchronize the changes over the weekend in Entourage on the external to the iMac HD without cloning back the external to the iMac as I'm afraid of mucking something up and losing everything that way.

Have found some web references to moving the Microsoft User Data folder from the iMac to the external, which would then become the primary folder for both units and have an alias of it in the Documents folder on the iMac, however, that doesn't seem to work for the 2008 version. Whenever I open Entourage on the iMac, it creates a new MUD folder and wants me to create a new identity.

Any suggestions for accomplishing this or some other strategy?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ed Kimball]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: pop

I'm fairly new to the Mac world and as they say, a little knowledge is a
dangerous thing. This is a bit complicated and maybe someone has a better
idea, but....

I have an iMac at home and a Mac mini at a summer house used on weekends.
Using SuperDuper to clone the iMac HD to an external and then take it with me
to the mini location and boot off of that.

I want to synchronize the changes over the weekend in Entourage on the
external to the iMac HD without cloning back the external to the iMac as I'm
afraid of mucking something up and losing everything that way.

Have found some web references to moving the Microsoft User Data folder from
the iMac to the external, which would then become the primary folder for both
units and have an alias of it in the Documents folder on the iMac, however,
that doesn't seem to work for the 2008 version. Whenever I open Entourage on
the iMac, it creates a new MUD folder and wants me to create a new identity.

Any suggestions for accomplishing this or some other strategy?

Thanks in advance.

If your ISP offers IMAP access in addition to POP, switch to IMAP. It's
designed for exactly this situation.

 

[Jeff Chapman]

Why not use an external hard disk or a USB flash drive
and store your Office 2008 Identities folder there? That way,
you never have to worry about syncing between computers -
you're always working with the same identity and data.
I do it all the time, in order to share the same Entourage identity
between my MacBook and Mac mini. This way, I get
exactly the same folders, contents and screen customizations
between the two computers when I boot up Entourage.
It's worked great for me.

You'll need to first make sure that at least either the iMac or
the Mac mini contains a full set of data (your emails, notes,
calendar and so on) for Entourage 2008.
Copy the Office 2008 Identities folder (use Spotlight to find it if
you're not sure where it is)
onto the external/removable media (shut down Entourage first).
Make sure you've turned off Office Reminders before doing this.
Do a right-click on the copied folder on your removable media in Finder,
and create an alias. Copy the alias to both your iMac and your
Mac mini. Then, delete the original Office 2008 Identities folders
on both the iMac and the Mac mini (be sure to make a backup copy
somewhere else first). What you should now have is just the alias
folder on BOTH of your computers, pointing to the Office 2008
Identity folder on your removable drive. Two computers,
two alias folders named Office 2008 Identities, one set of data.
Remove the word "alias" at the end of the alias folder name
on both computers, just to be certain that Entourage recognizes
this as the "shortcut" pointing to your removable media.

It does work for Entourage 2008 if you've got it set up right.
Be sure that you don't have any other identities in the Office
2008 Identity folder on your removable drive AND on your
iMac/Mac mini, besides the one you want to use.

Let us know if you need any more assistance!

Jeff

 

[Rich_B]

Appreciate the effort you both made in response, however, Jeff's answer hit the nail on the head, as with this method, I can access all changes, not just e-mails from both computers.

That is exactly what I was trying to do. The magic step that I was missing previously was to delete the word "Alias", as Entourage wasn't recognizing the pointer and would create a new MUD folder each time.

I've done the first half, copied the information to the external drive and set the alias (minus the word alias) on the iMac to point to it and its working perfectly. This weekend, I'll set up the Mini for the second part.

Thanks again for the detailed response.

Rich