Address book cannot open / rebuilding hangs

[lgphoto]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel

I cannot access the address book, however saved contact searches work intermittently. When i go to the full address book i get the error "Entourage cannot open the item due to an error". When i try to rebuild the database it hangs on validating and copying and the Finder shows the utility is "not responding". Also i cannot compact the database and verifying tells me there is corruption.

I read on another thread that the rebuild can take hours. But before i try that can someone tell me if the Finder is correct, that it is not responding, or is it still doing something helpful?

Thanks.

 

[Diane Ross]

I cannot access the address book, however saved contact searches work
intermittently. When i go to the full address book i get the error "Entourage
cannot open the item due to an error". When i try to rebuild the database it
hangs on validating and copying and the Finder shows the utility is "not
responding". Also i cannot compact the database and verifying tells me there
is corruption.

What type of account? (POP, IMAP, Exchange)

Rebuilding takes a huge amount of space to be successful. How much free
space on your drive?

What size if your database?

Can you open your database? If yes, them manually export your data.

How to manually move your data. (when import fails and/or you need to move
to a new Identity same version or revert to an older version)

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/install/manual_install.html>

Create a new Identity with the exported data. I do this all the time for
clients. It's not a simple procedure, but the steps are outlined in the
above link. A lot depends on the type of corruption, your knowledge and your
physical equipment.

A simple step you can take if the corruption is only in your Address Book is
to export as Entourage archive (.rge) file and select to delete from
computer after exporting. Then you can import that file back into your
database. Work off a copy when trying this.

This article applies to all versions of Entourage even if it is written
specifically for Entourage X.

Rebuilding a damaged database that exceeded size limit

<http://tinyurl.com/4s6qv3>

Good luck.

 

[lgphoto]

I believe the corruption is only in my address book. However i just realized that the database is 2.98GB. The last identity back up/compact i did was just a week ago and that one is less than 1GB. So something must have happened.

Creating a new identity is not an option.

I would like to try the "simple step" you mention exporting to an archive but your explanation is not clear. Can you please go into more detail? Select what to delete from computer after exporting? Import what file back?

 

[lgphoto]

Actually i just realized that the identity was so big because i had tried multiple times to rebuild and it had left these attempts in that folder and had never gotten to the archiving step. Now that these partial rebuilds are not in the identity folder my main identity is only 582MB.

So i think the problem is in the address book somewhere...

 

[Diane Ross]

I believe the corruption is only in my address book. However i just realized
that the database is 2.98GB. The last identity back up/compact i did was just
a week ago and that one is less than 1GB. So something must have happened.

Did you check the size of the database file in the Main Identity folder or
did you check the size of the Main Identity folder?

Creating a new identity is not an option.
Why?

I would like to try the "simple step" you mention exporting to an archive but
your explanation is not clear. Can you please go into more detail? Select what
to delete from computer after exporting? Import what file back?

File --> Export
Select as Entourage archive (.rge) file
Only check Local Contacts

Save the file. It defaults to the name main.rge. This is the file you will
import after you export and delete.

 

[lgphoto]

Creating a new identity is not an option.

Why?

Why? Because everything MS engineers has large gaps for real world users of their apps. Why would i spend years working in Entourage and then sacrifice all the projects and links i've created and that i need because the engineers decided it was too complicated to figure out how to fix a database and leave ALL the data intact? Even doing what you've suggested to archive the local contacts gave me a warning that Groups cannot be archived? Why? Does no one need groups that they made????

Save the file. It defaults to the name main.rge. This is the file you will
import after you export and delete.

Well i tried what you suggested but got an error: "The export could not be completed" with the suggestion to verify and rebuild the database...

Further suggestions appreciated.

 

[Diane Ross]

Further suggestions appreciated.

You can try rebuilding if you have enough free space.

Make a duplicate in the Finder first as additional backup. A rebuild does
make a duplicate, but sometimes in the process the original and backup get
merged resulting in total disaster. It's rare but it happens.

How to rebuild:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/rebuild.html>

I can't tell you how long this will take. However to fix your problem is
going to be time consuming.

As to groups, if you add each group person to the Address Book then you can
assign them a category Group: name of group and export. When you import, you
sort by that category and easily recreate your groups.

Even if your database rebuilds you can still be left with an unstable
database. I highly suggest you export/import your data into a new Identity.

 

[Kerry]

You can try rebuilding if you have enough free space.

Make a duplicate in the Finder first as additional backup. A rebuild does
make a duplicate, but sometimes in the process the original and backup get
merged resulting in total disaster. It's rare but it happens.

How to rebuild:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/rebuild.html>

I can't tell you how long this will take. However to fix your problem is
going to be time consuming.

As to groups, if you add each group person to the Address Book then you can
assign them a category Group: name of group and export. When you import, you
sort by that category and easily recreate your groups.

Even if your database rebuilds you can still be left with an unstable
database. I highly suggest you export/import your data into a new Identity.