Corrupted Rules

[Sue Donum]

Not every problem has an "Easy button" to quote the Staples folks.

Simple solutions can often be destructive while the more complicated
solutions are safer. Different solutions have different levels of
complexity and you'll have to decide your own comfort level.

I think Diane's idea of removing the Rules file and recreating your
rules is a good one. It's simple but then again you will have to
recreate all your rules.

My two cents.

It's not the recreation effort that seems complicated. It's the Chinese Menu
involving Categories, Views, MLM, execution order, etc., etc. I don't doubt
for a moment Diane's advice, and I realize there is a lot of functionality
that is enabled by all of this, but all I ever wanted to do was to be able
to assign emails to different folders depending on the email address of the
sender and/or the email's subject. Apparently, the way I've been doing it
not only isn't the "best" way as far as gaining all of the advantages
possible, but it also is most likely to get me in trouble. I find it very
annoying (things used to be so much simpler, it seems) but it's the way the
software is designed, so I need to learn how to do it if I want to use
Entourage.

 

[Diane Ross]

I find it very
annoying (things used to be so much simpler, it seems) but it's the way the
software is designed, so I need to learn how to do it if I want to use
Entourage.

Everything we are familiar with seems more simple. You've made the first
important step...the willingness to learn. If you would like to conference
offline to help with the transition, you can contact me off list.

dianeross at mvps dot org <-- fix before replying.

Prefix your subject with: newsgroup response

I'll end with a little story. I used Claris Emailer. It was an excellent
application. Loved it! I was asked to beta test for Outlook Express so I
along with other Emailer lovers beta tested. We moaned and complained about
"but we could do xx with Emailer." I was looking to the end of the beta so I
could go back to my beloved Emailer, but when I did I found the new features
that I had learned to enjoy in OE were not available. I lasted only a few
days back in Emailer when I moved on and never looked back.

Hope this helps!

 

[Sue Donum]

Everything we are familiar with seems more simple. You've made the first
important step...the willingness to learn. If you would like to conference
offline to help with the transition, you can contact me off list.

dianeross at mvps dot org <-- fix before replying.

Prefix your subject with: newsgroup response

I'll end with a little story. I used Claris Emailer. It was an excellent
application. Loved it! I was asked to beta test for Outlook Express so I
along with other Emailer lovers beta tested. We moaned and complained about
"but we could do xx with Emailer." I was looking to the end of the beta so I
could go back to my beloved Emailer, but when I did I found the new features
that I had learned to enjoy in OE were not available. I lasted only a few
days back in Emailer when I moved on and never looked back.

Hope this helps!

At this point, it might be premature for me to contact you off list. Before
I "invade" your time, I think I should first do my best to figure out
whatever I can via <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/lesson.html>. To
contact you before overcoming the "glazing over of my eyes" I don't think
would be productive...nor fair to you.

 

[Sue Donum]

Well, I began to read <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/lesson.html>, and
my eyes began to glaze over. It just seems that what used to be
straightforward and relatively easy has become a complicated chore...sort of
reminds me of trying to do on a windows PC what on the Mac is a simple task.

Oh well. <sigh>

I still have yet to attempt to "re-write the rules" (I need a chunk of time
to sit down and read through what's involved, so I don't make mistakes
requiring me to do it over again later). However, I just started to
experience a NEW problem, which I am wondering if it's related to the "rules
problem."

Every time I receive an email message that contains graphics, the graphics
are not shown. Instead, there's a notation in the header "To protect your
privacy, some pictures in this message were not downloaded," along with a
hotlink to "Download pictures."

I've only seen this before when the email was from a sender not in my
address book. The remedy was then simply to add that email's info to the
address book (by clicking on the appropriate link). However, this is now
happening with every message I receive that contains graphics, including
messages from folks already in my address book. And clicking to re-enter
those folk's info into the address book doesn't help (I just get a message
that the person already is in the book, and then asking me if I wish to open
that person's address entry).

Is this a "more of the same" (i.e., related to my "broken rules") kind of
problem, or something entirely new?

 

[Diane Ross]

Is this a "more of the same" (i.e., related to my "broken rules") kind of
problem, or something entirely new?

Are any of the problem messages still on your server? If yes, let's do a
quick test to eliminate database corruption. Create a new Identity and add
the account that's receiving the problem messages. Set the account to leave
on server. Does the new Identity experience the same problem with the
attachments. If no, then it's your database.

Before we end this test, move your Rules file (option drag to copy) to the
new test Identity. Do your rules work in the new Identity. If no, then the
rules are a problem. If yes, then either rebuilding or creating a new
Identity will fix your problems.

How to rebuild:

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

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Every time I receive an email message that contains graphics, the graphics
are not shown. Instead, there's a notation in the header "To protect your
privacy, some pictures in this message were not downloaded," along with a
hotlink to "Download pictures."

Hi Sue!

I doubt this problem is related to your Rules problem. This is actually
a security feature in Entourage.

To disable the security you can go to Entourage menu --> Preferences...
--> General Preferences --> Security and select Download Pictures In all
messages. You may currently have "Never" selected.

Hope this helps!

--

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>

 

[Sue Donum]

Are any of the problem messages still on your server? If yes, let's do a
quick test to eliminate database corruption. Create a new Identity and add
the account that's receiving the problem messages. Set the account to leave
on server. Does the new Identity experience the same problem with the
attachments. If no, then it's your database.

The "rules" and "pictures in this message were not downloaded" problems seem
to occur with all of my accounts; the "duplicates emails" occur with my
Gmail accounts.

Do I create a new Identity by the first set of instructions at
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/how_to/new_identity.html>?:

"1. On the Entourage menu, click Switch Identity. If a confirmation message
appears, click Switch.

2. Click New, and then in the Identity name box, type a name for the new
identity. After you create an identity, the Entourage Setup Assistant
appears and helps you set up your account."

And once I do that, do I need to import my "old" 2008 identity stuff...or am
I just going to create new (i.e., replica of my existing) email accounts and
send myself test messages to see what happens?

 

[Sue Donum]

Hi Sue!

I doubt this problem is related to your Rules problem. This is actually
a security feature in Entourage.

To disable the security you can go to Entourage menu --> Preferences...
--> General Preferences --> Security and select Download Pictures In all
messages. You may currently have "Never" selected.

Hope this helps!

Wow! For some reason, the "Never" was indeed selected! I'm not sure how that
happened...and I assume it must have been recent, because up until a couple
of days ago, I wasn't having problems.

Well, I just reset the prefs, and selected "In all messages." I assume that
it was previously set for "In messages sent from Address Book contacts," as
that's the way things were working in Entourage 2004, and I _think_ they
were working that way when I upgraded to 2008 last week (i.e., there were no
problems getting pictures in emails from my Address Book contacts; not sure
if I got any junk mail with photos, which is what used to trigger the
"warning" in 2004).

Hopefully, that'll fix it (for sure, it wasn't helping! ).


I'll let you know.

 

[Sue Donum]

Wow! For some reason, the "Never" was indeed selected! I'm not sure how that
happened...and I assume it must have been recent, because up until a couple
of days ago, I wasn't having problems.

Well, I just reset the prefs, and selected "In all messages." I assume that
it was previously set for "In messages sent from Address Book contacts," as
that's the way things were working in Entourage 2004, and I _think_ they
were working that way when I upgraded to 2008 last week (i.e., there were no
problems getting pictures in emails from my Address Book contacts; not sure
if I got any junk mail with photos, which is what used to trigger the
"warning" in 2004).

Hopefully, that'll fix it (for sure, it wasn't helping! ).


I'll let you know.

It worked!

Thanks, William.


(Now...back to my original problem! )