Can't open Address Book

A

Art Shotwell

My wife can't seem to open Address Book in her Entourage 2004 (running on Os
X 10.4). I did a bit of testing... All works fine except Entourage seems to
lock up when clicking on Address Book, requiring a Force Quit and restart to
get it back. Email comes in fine. Calendar is okay. Just Address book. Any
ideas what to look for???
 
B

Barry Wainwright [MVP]

My wife can't seem to open Address Book in her Entourage 2004 (running on Os
X 10.4). I did a bit of testing... All works fine except Entourage seems to
lock up when clicking on Address Book, requiring a Force Quit and restart to
get it back. Email comes in fine. Calendar is okay. Just Address book. Any
ideas what to look for???
Click to expand...
It is possibly an early sign of mild database corruption.

Office vX:
Hold down the option key when starting Entourage and take the first option
('typical rebuild'). If this doesn¹t resolve the problems, then try an
ŒAdvanced Rebuild¹.

Office 2004:
You still call the rebuilder by holding down Option key at launch, but it
now brings up a separate app "Database Utility" (which could be launched by
double-clicking of you wish) that lives in the Office subfolder.

First of all, if you have any Office apps open, a dialog comes up that
offers to quit them.

Then you get a window with a list of your identities to select from, and
four options:

1) It has a new feature "Verify database integrity" option: this should
reduce unnecessary rebuilding. Apparently it's quite sensitive. And see 4)
below.

2) "Compact the database". (Like X's "Typical rebuild").

3) Rebuild the database. (Like X's "Advanced Rebuild")

4) "Set database preferences". Actually there's only one pref: you can turn
on "Verify database in background "which means "run automatically" and let
you know if your database needs rebuilding.
 
A

Art Shotwell

I ran Verify Database (this is Office 2004) and the results indicated the
database is okay. I have not done a database rebuild. Oh, and I cannot seem
to set database preferences. When I click that radio button, the button goes
active, but Quit is the only way out.
 
A

Art Shotwell

Barry,

I've done some playing with her Entourage... After doing a rebuild, here's
what I see:

Open Entourage 2004... Long pause (30 seconds) before comes up
Switch to Address Book, Same long pause before comes up
Switch to Email, switches immediately
Switch to Address Book, switches immediately

New test:

Switch to Address Book, no pause
Do a search, immediate results
Cancel search, long pause (~30 seconds)
Switch to Email, long pause

Sure looks like a problem in the Address Book. She does sync with a Palm.
After the sync, first switch to Address Book was slow. Switch back to Email
was slow. After that, normal time between Email and Address Book.

Anyone got any ideas??? Database utility reports verification normal.
Art
 
B

Barry Wainwright [MVP]

I wouldn't trust the verification even if it does say 'no problem'. I
believe it often gives false 'all clears'. Try a rebuild anyway.
 
A

Art Shotwell

I did a rebuild despite the 'no problem' verfication report. These problems
exist AFTER the rebuild. My poor wife is about to go back to Lotus
Organizer, which we both used for more than ten years (in Windows) even
though opening Windows on her iMac is not very convenient. Never had a
database problem with Organizer, now I'm trying to convince her to stick
with Entourage, but it's getting hard with these very long pauses.
 
D

Diane Ross

Sure looks like a problem in the Address Book. She does sync with a Palm.
After the sync, first switch to Address Book was slow. Switch back to Email
was slow. After that, normal time between Email and Address Book.

Anyone got any ideas??? Database utility reports verification normal.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I don't remember this ever being reported. The only thing that strikes
me as a possible culprit is the sync with Palm causing some type of
corruption.

Testing in a new User will quickly tell you if the problem is system wide or
if it's your User's folder that contains the problem. You will need to move
your Main Identity folder to the Shared folder so you can access it in the
new user. If the Address Book opens in a new user, then you can eliminate
database corruption.

Then: Remove Entourage preferences to test for corruption:

~/Library/Preferences/:

com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist
com.microsoft.DatabaseDaemon.plist
com.microsoft.Entourage.plist
Microsoft/Entourage Preferences

If not, then make backup copies for testing.

Run database rebuild again. If the rebuild does not work, you will be left
with salvaging your data and starting in a new Identity.

Try exporting contacts as an Entourage archive. File --> Export. Select
"Items to an Entourage archive" . Create a new Identity and see if they will
import.

Try exporting contacts as a tab delimited file so you can import into a new
Identity.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
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