database size

J

joya

i have been using entourage since november and my database is now over
450MB. since i sync with my laptop every day it's taking too long. i
weeded out my filed and sent mail, got rid of about 1/3 of my
messages, emptied deleted items folder, did everything i could and the
database size has remained the same. did i leave something out?
doesn't make sense that after getting rid of 1/3 of the contents that
the database shouldn't shrink at least a LITTLE bit. do i have any
other options rather than setting up an entirely new identity??

thanks for your help.
joya
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

i have been using entourage since november and my database is now over
450MB. since i sync with my laptop every day it's taking too long. i
weeded out my filed and sent mail, got rid of about 1/3 of my
messages, emptied deleted items folder, did everything i could and the
database size has remained the same. did i leave something out?
doesn't make sense that after getting rid of 1/3 of the contents that
the database shouldn't shrink at least a LITTLE bit. do i have any
other options rather than setting up an entirely new identity??
Click to expand...

Much of the file (about 1/3rd) is now empty and will not be taking any toime
to copy. It should be copying 1/3rd faster now even though the file size is
the same. The recommended method is to just let it fill up again, but if you
haven't rebuilt in a while and you have some other reason (shrinking disk
space - really? nowadays the 150 MB youi'll save will be a drop in the
bucket) you could do a Typical Rebuild which compacts the database. Hold
down Option key at launch and choose Yupical. When done, don't forget to
trash the Old Database and Old Database Cache files in ~/Documents/Microsoft
User Database/Office X Identities/[Main Identity], or you won't be saving
any space - to the contrary. It's not likely to help speed more tha about
1/3rd, although you might get some benegits from the defrag process of a
Typical Rebuild. You cna get the same benefit by simplay copying your
Database file or Identity folder and using that, mind you.

For moew dramatic results, archive a lot more of your mail by dragging older
mai folders to the desktop as MBOX files and deleting them from your current
identity. You can drag them into an "archive identity" for visiting when you
need to find old mail.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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PLEASE always state which version of Entourage you are using - 2001 or X.
It's often impossible to answer your questions otherwise.
 
J

joya

i went ahead and did a typical rebuild of the database, which saved me
about 40MB out of the original 465MB, so a little less than 10%. my
concern isn't of disk space, because i have plenty of that as you
suggest. it's that i have to copy this entire database over from
laptop to desktop and back again when hardly anything in the database
has changed. so, copying that huge of a file seems to be such a waste
of time, even though i'm on a 54Mbps wireless network. since i refer
to old messages quite often i would prefer not to archive, but i think
it might be my only option if i want to save time. anyway, thanks for
the help!
 
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