Entourage 2004 bloated database

A

Asger Højland

Hi

I am an external Mac supporter for a design company that is experiencing
some problems with bloated database files.

Out of 13 users 3 of them have database files of app. 35, 46, 17 GB!!!

When I delete the database an resync with exchange 2003 the database is
typically a few GBs, but after a few weeks it expands to an insane size...

The funny thing is that it is the same 3 users who are having the problems.


A Jensen
 
C

Corentin Cras-Méneur

Asger Højland said:
Hi

I am an external Mac supporter for a design company that is experiencing
some problems with bloated database files.

Out of 13 users 3 of them have database files of app. 35, 46, 17 GB!!!

When I delete the database an resync with exchange 2003 the database is
typically a few GBs, but after a few weeks it expands to an insane size...
Click to expand...

Did you try rebuilding the database (Launch ENtourage pressing the alt
key down to get to the database utility)??

Once done, you should check all rules and mailing list manager to reset
the destination folders properly (and categories will be lost in the
process).

Corentin
 
D

Diane Ross

Out of 13 users 3 of them have database files of app. 35, 46, 17 GB!!!

When I delete the database an resync with exchange 2003 the database is
typically a few GBs, but after a few weeks it expands to an insane size...

The funny thing is that it is the same 3 users who are having the problems.
Click to expand...

Those are HUGE databases. My suggestion is to reduce them.

1. Duplicate the database in the Finder. Rename one to Archive.
2. Open the Main database and do a custom view for all mail older than 6
months.
3. Delete the old mail.

Now you have all of the archived mail available using Switch Identity, and a
current database with the last six months available. Be sure to Rebuild your
database to compress the size.

If the size of the database is that big because of attachments you might
look at some scripts that remove attachments and leave a note in the message
showing where it was moved. This will help in the future to stop bloat.

**Remove Attachments Script** By Jolly Roger- This script removes all
attachments from the currently selected messages in Entourage. The script
allows you to optionally extract removed attachments to a folder named
"Removed Attachments" on disk, and also optionally adds notes and links to
affected messages.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/downloads/scripts/Remove_Attachments.zip>

**Friendlier Claris it!** By: Rob Buckley

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/script/fav_scripts.html#favscript17>

**Save Attachments** by Paul Berkowitz
If you want to reduce the size of your Entourage Database or simply like to
save your attachments separately to a folder on your computer, you can do so
from an Entourage rule but then have the problem that there's no way to get
from the message to the saved and removed attachment. This script will save,
remove and link the saved files to the message, so you can open the file
directly from the message. You can also choose to go to the folder in Finder
instead from a companion script (useful if the file is stuffed, for
example).

<http://scriptbuilders.net/files/saveattachments20041.0.0.html>
 
A

Asger Højland

Hi Diana thanks for the quick response.

The size of the database is, when synced for the first time after resetting
everything - even uninstalling/installing Office, about 2 GB for each user.
This should, as far as I understand, be the correct size of the fully loaded
database. I have checked with the Exchange admins, and they confirm that the
user's mailbox is about that size.
But after a few weeks these few GBs grow to the huge sizes I described. Not
in the Exchange server, but locally on the Mac.

From what I understand from your answer is that attachments can make the
database bloat over time! Is that correct?

So cleaning up the users mail and folder structure should help in the
future?

Can there be any other reasons why the databases bloat like that?


Kind regards, Asger
 
D

Diane Ross

The size of the database is, when synced for the first time after resetting
everything - even uninstalling/installing Office, about 2 GB for each user.
This should, as far as I understand, be the correct size of the fully loaded
database. I have checked with the Exchange admins, and they confirm that the
user's mailbox is about that size.
But after a few weeks these few GBs grow to the huge sizes I described. Not
in the Exchange server, but locally on the Mac.
Click to expand...

This doesn't sound right at all. I don't ever remember hearing about a
database growing like this that quickly.
From what I understand from your answer is that attachments can make the
database bloat over time! Is that correct?
Click to expand...

Yes, but not in a few weeks.
So cleaning up the users mail and folder structure should help in the
future?
Click to expand...

It should, but I think there is something else going on here.
Can there be any other reasons why the databases bloat like that?
Click to expand...
Not that I'm aware of, but this is Exchange and that's not my area of
expertise. I'll run this past some Exchange folks.
 
A

Asger Højland

Thanks a million Diane :)
I really hope the exchange guys come up with something....

Regards, Asger
 
Top