Corrupt Database? Will not rebuild

[MLBrodie]

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

My 1.98 GB database is below the 1 million items limit yet has problems - 1 min to find a contact,crashes 1/day, will not Synch with iCal no data xferred; but will synch with AddressBook; but otherwise works. Compress works but seemed to lead to crashes. Rebuild hangs in step 5 (spinning ball, "not responding"). I saved a copy (as archive) then deleted 6 years of cal events & e-mail and 1/3 of e-mail folders. Size reduced to 1.46GB (only) and all problems persisted - slow search, crashes, will not rebuild (hangs). Export & import to new identity loses category info & 100 (of 958) cal events.

What alternatives do I have to fix the apparently corrupted database?

 

[Diane Ross]

Export & import to new identity loses category info & 100 (of 958) cal events.

Are these events on your computer or in your Exchange calendar?

What alternatives do I have to fix the apparently corrupted database?

First, let's verify that you are fully updated. Under About Entourage, do
you see 12.1.5? If no, then update.

For Exchange accounts, I would advice creating a new Identity and let
Entourage sync back up. Read "Optimize Entourage to better work with
Exchange" <http://tinyurl.com/56ea7k>

Reset your Sync Services.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/syncservices.html#ss2>

Other options to check:

Bad RAM.
Being low on disk space. To check your disk space, use the Activity Monitor.
Click on Disk Usage in the bottom menu bar and select the volume where you
have Office installed. You can also use Disk Utility to see detailed
information about a disk or volume.

Let me know if this improves your situation.

 

[MLBrodie]

thank you for the prompt suggestions - but no progress yet

All events, contact, mail etc. only on my Mac. I leave nothing on the Exchange server. So re-synching isn't an option.
Entourage version is latest: 12.1.5
Disk space: over 160GB free space; Activity monitor shows 232.57 GB free
RAM: machine 3 weeks old, new 4 GB RAM - same problem on previous Mac. Is there a utility to test RAM?
Sync services: I have done this many times. It used to work and currently does not.

 

[Diane Ross]

Sync services: I have done this many times. It used to work and currently does
not.

Did you try the reset for Sync Services?

I suggest you download the shareware scripts Export-Import by Paul
Berkowitz. It says they don't work with Leopard, but it's just the "unlock
all" script that's broken. You have to individually unlock each script. It
does get categories for everything.

You can move into a new Identity using a combination of export as .rge for
messages and contacts. Use the Export-Import scripts to get the remaining
data. This should be your best bet.

Export-Import Entourage (shareware) I think it's $20. What's nice is these
scripts continue to be useful. They also export your account info for
import.

<http://scriptbuilders.net/files/exportimportentourage1.3.10.html>

I do recovery as a consultant so if you can't move into a new Identity, send
me an email:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/support_options/email.html>

 

[Kerry]

Did you try the reset for Sync Services?

I suggest you download the shareware scripts Export-Import by Paul
Berkowitz. It says they don't work with Leopard, but it's just the "unlock
all" script that's broken. You have to individually unlock each script. It
does get categories for everything.

You can move into a new Identity using a combination of export as .rge for
messages and contacts. Use the Export-Import scripts to get the remaining
data. This should be your best bet.

Export-Import Entourage (shareware) I think it's $20. What's nice is these
scripts continue to be useful. They also export your account info for
import.

<http://scriptbuilders.net/files/exportimportentourage1.3.10.html>

I do recovery as a consultant so if you can't move into a new Identity, send
me an email:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/support_options/email.html>

Hey Diane, I found something real interesting here. You say Paul's
scripts work under Leopard. I didn't know this. I bought both during
my Tiger days and loved them.

Can you confirm the scripts work under Leopard and what should I be on
the look out for in terms of capatibility.

 

[Diane Ross]

Can you confirm the scripts work under Leopard and what should I be on
the look out for in terms of capatibility.

It's just the unlock script. It's possible you still have the unlock status
set in your scripts, but if you did a reinstall along the way, you probably
lost their unlock setting. I stumbled onto this by accident. When you select
each script, you have to enter the code, but once that's done you don't have
to do it again. Scripts work as expected.

For anyone following along on this thread, the export-import scripts are
useful even after the original use of importing your data into Entourage.
Entourage fails to export category for Calendar events, tasks and notes. If
you want to backup those files individually, this is the only way.

I'm hoping Snow Leopard doesn't break scripts like Leopard did. I ready for
some long term stabilization now. Between the changes from Classis to OSX
and PPC to Intel, that's a lot for a relatively short period of time.

 

[Diane Ross]

It's just the unlock script.

I was just looking at the readme, and see "Install Satimage scripting
addition". This is for the scripts that import Outlook. I haven't tested
Satimage for Leopard.

All the scripts that work for export/import within Entourage work OK.

 

[Diane Ross]

I was just looking at the readme, and see "Install Satimage scripting
addition". This is for the scripts that import Outlook. I haven't tested
Satimage for Leopard.

OK, I downloaded the latest version of Satimage.osax. The version that was
included with the scripts was 2.4.3. When I selected the script "Outlook
Contacts to EvX", it brought up a window asking me to locate my .csv file.
So it looks like it works.

The current version of Satimage is 3.1.8.

<http://osaxen.com/files/satimage3.1.8.html>

If anyone wants to send me some text files from Outlook, send me an email
with examples. I'll be happy to test and get back.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/support_options/email.html>

 

[MLBrodie]

Sync services: I have done this many times. It used to work and currently does
not.

Did you try the reset for Sync Services?[/QUOTE]

Yes - I should have said that I reset Sync Services many times. Now that fails for Calendar but not for Address Book.

I suggest you download the shareware scripts Export-Import by Paul
Berkowitz. It says they don't work with Leopard, but it's just the "unlock
all" script that's broken. You have to individually unlock each script. It
does get categories for everything.

You can move into a new Identity using a combination of export as .rge for
messages and contacts. Use the Export-Import scripts to get the remaining
data. This should be your best bet.

Export-Import Entourage (shareware) I think it's $20. What's nice is these
scripts continue to be useful. They also export your account info for
import.

I downloaded but the Registration page says
"Scripts are NOT YET compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" and "If you are using Mac OS X 10.5, your registration info will NOT work."

So I cannot use the scripts.

 

[Diane Ross]

I downloaded but the Registration page says
"Scripts are NOT YET compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" and "If you are
using Mac OS X 10.5, your registration info will NOT work."

So I cannot use the scripts.

But, you can. You just can't use the one unlock all script. I notified Paul,
but he has never followed through with changing it. I suspect the support
load must be tremendous. Most people don't realize the time replying is so
great. The scripts were only $20. Then you take out your support time and
you aren't left with much.