Entourage Database Archiving?

[dialtone76]

Hello all! I am hoping to find some solutions for a complex problem I
have with one of my users.

The problem? He has a 14GB Database file. (What's the world record
anyway?).

This is a 'worst case scenario' type user. Saves all of his emails and
Calendar events.

Entourage works just fine, but I KNOW I am sitting on a timebomb. I
know I can just tell him, start a new identity, delete some stuff, or
just tell him he is on his own, but I am curious to know if there is a
way to pull off a better solution. (Plus I feel like this is a
challenge.. Anyone else like that??)

Anyway, heres the objective. I would like to get his email broken up
into "archive identities" for past years, 2005, 2006, and 1st semester
2007. Sounds easy enough, right?

Tricks i know: I know about how to make .mbox files and I am aware of
some of the various message export scripts that are floating around,
as well as the export to filemaker software (though i haven't used it
yet).

The challenge: He has approximately 70 folders in his database, each
may contain 3-4 sub folders. Date Modified MUST remain unchanged. The
messages must remain in email format so that he can forward them when
disputes arise. Oh did I forget to mention he as a calendar too? I
can deal with that later.

So the task may appear pretty daunting, but for some reason I feel
compelled to take it on, provided I don't have to manually sift
through every email to organize it.

I am open to ideas on strategy, tools, and techniques.

The path I see so far is that the first thing I need to do somehow
duplicate his folder structure, all the way down to the sub folders.
If I can duplicate it, say a folder called Archive 2005, I could then
use an email export script, in a worse case run on each folder (can
this be avoided?) which will comb through the mail and moving out the
messages that fit the date into the corresponding folder. The key is
going to be that the same script will need to be used to delete the
messages after they are successfully moved so that the original
database size can be reduced.

Provided I can find a solution for that, the next step should be
getting those folders into a new database.I supposed I can make mbox
files files of each folder and them drag them into the new identity. I
cringe at that because mbox doesn't grab the sub folders and that
would be an awful lot of mbox files. Perhaps using a script to
automatically create all the mbox files for me? I seem to rememeber
runnign into one of those.

Anyway, that is all for now. I will see if I get any response from
folks that like this challenge before I go too far.

Incidentally, does anyone know if Office 2008 has any different
archiving features that would make this easier? I keep hoping that one
day a single identity will be able to open up multiple database files
much the way outlook does with the.pst files and personal folders.

Thanks for reading!

Ian

 

[tilenius]

Sadly, Microsoft has the answer, but just hasn't devoted any resources to delivering it on Mac. Archive is a standard feature in Outlook, yet another one that NEEDS to be in Entourage, but isn't.

I suggest you do HELP >> Send Feedback about Entourage and suggest Microsoft implement a proper ARCHIVE function in this product.

In the meantime, if you are on an Exchange server, you could set up an Outlook 2007 client, archive the data into .PST files, then quit. However, the Mac version cannot access or import .PST files -- another deficiency.

Sorry that's all I can suggest right now. The UI and stuff are great in Entourage, but it's way way way behind Outlook and right now just doesn't deliver stuff like this that real users need.

The worst part is no one from Microsoft (that I'm aware of) will go on record to say when they can deliver a proper email client for Mac. Given the frequency of updates so far, I'm hoping we're not talking Office 2012, but seems that may be the earliest we can HOPE for real Mac email client functionality.

Okay, sorry for ranting, but do suggest this to Microsoft. Maybe someone has a good workaround, but my best shot at it is to still keep a copy of Windows on my Mac. I was hoping the Mac BU could liberate me from that, but alas they have not.

(BTW, even a Microsoft employee at Macworld confessed to me that he still needs to use Outlook "on occasion" due to the limited functionality in Entourage 2008. IE: Microsoft still expects people to use Windows to get their email. Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad.)

 

[Diane Ross]

The path I see so far is that the first thing I need to do somehow
duplicate his folder structure, all the way down to the sub folders.
If I can duplicate it, say a folder called Archive 2005, I could then
use an email export script, in a worse case run on each folder (can
this be avoided?) which will comb through the mail and moving out the
messages that fit the date into the corresponding folder. The key is
going to be that the same script will need to be used to delete the
messages after they are successfully moved so that the original
database size can be reduced.

Make duplicates in the Finder of the Identity folder. Depending on how you
do this, you might have to duplicate after each change. Your Identity is
called Main by default. Always keep a backup before doing anything radical.

Open the Identity you have renamed Archive xxx.

Use a Custom Mail view to view mail by one of the Date Sent options. They
don't have an option to find by specific year. Delete the mail that doesn't
belong in the Identity xxx.

Rinse and Repeat.

 

[tilenius]

P.S. To suggest having ARCHIVE added as a feature in the next version of Entourage, here's the link:

 

 

[Diane Ross]

P.S. To suggest having ARCHIVE added as a feature in the next version of
Entourage, here's the link:

The link didn¹t come across. Can you post it as text with brackets?

 

[Diane Ross]

The worst part is no one from Microsoft (that I'm aware of) will go on record
to say when they can deliver a proper email client for Mac. Given the
frequency of updates so far, I'm hoping we're not talking Office 2012, but
seems that may be the earliest we can HOPE for real Mac email client
functionality.

One of the developers mentioned on one of the newsgroups, that a lot of the
groundwork was established in 2008 so adding new features shouldn't be as
difficult now. Hopefully, this will see some new features added before 2012.
I expect though that the next few weeks they will be working on getting out
bug fixes for 2008.

 

[William Smith]

Make duplicates in the Finder of the Identity folder. Depending on how you
do this, you might have to duplicate after each change. Your Identity is
called Main by default. Always keep a backup before doing anything radical.

Open the Identity you have renamed Archive xxx.

Use a Custom Mail view to view mail by one of the Date Sent options. They
don't have an option to find by specific year. Delete the mail that doesn't
belong in the Identity xxx.

Rinse and Repeat.

That's the way I'd do it but first I'd set the current identity to Work
Offline so that new messages don't import as you're working. Then leave
all your "archive" identities offline going forward.

You'll want to compact each identity afterward as well. Although you're
removing up to 80% of your messages the database is still 14GB waiting
with lots of empty space to write more information.

This is how I do my archiving. Plus I do this once per year, leaving my
past year's messages in my current identity.

Finally, while you are being a good admin to try to stop a potential
time bomb, the problem is really one of data management (or lack of
management). Show your user how to manage his data using this method of
archiving but make him do the work. This will be a time consuming
process. If he thinks it will take too long just tell him that
"Organization takes time and organization saves time."

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[Diane Ross]

That's the way I'd do it but first I'd set the current identity to Work
Offline so that new messages don't import as you're working. Then leave
all your "archive" identities offline going forward.

You'll want to compact each identity afterward as well. Although you're
removing up to 80% of your messages the database is still 14GB waiting
with lots of empty space to write more information.

I forgot about those steps. Thanks for adding those. I even have a schedule
to work offline on quit so I don't accidentally download messages while I'm
viewing other Identities especially if I'm testing accounts.

Schedule Work Offline.

On Quit

Run AppleScript "toggle work offline"

You can download script here:

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

To view other handy scripts for Entourage visit:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/downloads.html>

 

[dialtone76]

I forgot about those steps. Thanks for adding those. I even have a schedule
to work offline on quit so I don't accidentally download messages while I'm
viewing other Identities especially if I'm testing accounts.

Schedule Work Offline.

On Quit

Run AppleScript "toggle work offline"

You can download script here:

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

To view other handy scripts for Entourage visit:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/downloads.html>

Thank you all for your replies!

Diane, that is a GREAT Suggestion!!! Definitely some good 'outside
the box' thinking. I follow you on the creating a custom view. So if I
wanted to give him say 6 months of data in a "current" Identity, I
duplicate, custom view of message GREATER than 180 days. I wait for
the list to populate, then delete all messages found. That should
leave only the messages that are less than 180 days. I then compress
the database and move on to the next identity. Am i following right?

I have a question on the criteria to use. I have a choice between
messages "sent" on or message "received" on. I am interpreting this
that the received will omit filtering the sent items folder and will
have to be handled separately. Am i correct on this?

Thanks again for your help!

Ian

 

[Diane Ross]

Diane, that is a GREAT Suggestion!!! Definitely some good 'outside
the box' thinking. I follow you on the creating a custom view. So if I
wanted to give him say 6 months of data in a "current" Identity, I
duplicate, custom view of message GREATER than 180 days. I wait for
the list to populate, then delete all messages found. That should
leave only the messages that are less than 180 days. I then compress
the database and move on to the next identity. Am i following right?

Yes. Again when doing deletions, be sure you make a backup first.

I have a question on the criteria to use. I have a choice between
messages "sent" on or message "received" on. I am interpreting this
that the received will omit filtering the sent items folder and will
have to be handled separately. Am i correct on this?

Yes, it filters on what you select. FWIW, I generally do some overlap. For
example at the end of the year, I always leave at least the last 60 days in
the previous year.

Since Spotlight does not index other Identities, I save my messages as
individual files so Spotlight can search these. You can only drag 199 at a
time to the desktop. A huge pain when doing a lot of emails. Haven't found a
way to automate this part yet.