Entourage Database Daemon goes into endless spin cycle

M

mrspeakers

At random times, the Database Daemon goes into a disk-churning frenzy,
freezing Entourage. I've rebuilt the DB, and tried turning off
Spotlight on the User Data folder. no luck.

Ideas?
 
B

Barry Wainwright [MVP]

At random times, the Database Daemon goes into a disk-churning frenzy,
freezing Entourage. I've rebuilt the DB, and tried turning off
Spotlight on the User Data folder. no luck.

Ideas?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately not :(

Many people (myself included) suffer from this several times a day. The
freezes can last from a few seconds to a few minutes.
 
D

Diane Ross

Unfortunately not :(

Many people (myself included) suffer from this several times a day. The
freezes can last from a few seconds to a few minutes.
Click to expand...

Seems I remember that this was a huge problem when Entourage 2004 was first
released and it was fixed in subsequent updates.

Try deleting the preference file to see if that helps:

~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.DatabaseDaemon.plist
--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
M

mrspeakers

I had deleted preferences, no luck.

Seems I remember that this was a huge problem when Entourage 2004 was first
released and it was fixed in subsequent updates.

Try deleting the preference file to see if that helps:

~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.DatabaseDaemon.plist
--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
Click to expand...
 
D

Diane Ross

Open the Activity Monitor and see what %CPU is showing when you see this
activity.

Right now my Microsoft Database daemon is showing 0%.

The daemon is also tied to sync services. Try turning off Spotlight in
Entourage preferences and see if that helps.

Basics:

Spotlight will index any cache files the Entourage daemon has created even
if the daemon is not launched, but no new cache files will be created until
the daemon is launched again. If the Microsoft Sync daemon never launches,
there's no way for Entourage to sync data with Sync Services. The
preferences in Entourage for Sync Services basically control 1) if this
daemon app is launched and 2) where it should sync data to-from.

To help performance, add your Identities folder to Spotlight Exclude list.
See this page for more tips to help performance. Entourage has a different
mechanism to provide Spotlight information for e-mails and contacts so you
don't loose this functionality by excluding the database.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/performance.html#options_perform
ance>
 
M

mrspeakers

Hi Diane,

I had added the Identities folder to SPotlight exclusion. The problem
had gone away for a few days, but it's baaaack. The Daemon is
currently usings 1.1%, up to 1.5%.

I will try turning off Spotlight in Entourage, but that's a huge
issue. I use that heavily. :-( I almost hope that does not work,
because if it does, I'm going to have to find a way to switch to Apple
mail for all mail. The search capability is just part of how I work
now.

What's the deal? Is it that Entourage creates a huge DB, while Apple
mail stores each mail in a folder as a file (I think?)?

Dan
 
D

Diane Ross

I had added the Identities folder to SPotlight exclusion. The problem
had gone away for a few days, but it's baaaack. The Daemon is
currently usings 1.1%, up to 1.5%.
Click to expand...

That's not too bad.
I will try turning off Spotlight in Entourage, but that's a huge
issue. I use that heavily. :-( I almost hope that does not work,
because if it does, I'm going to have to find a way to switch to Apple
mail for all mail. The search capability is just part of how I work
now.
Click to expand...

By turning off Spotlight, I was trying to eliminate and isolate the problem.
Anytime you have two applications working together there are multiple issues
that can arise. Spotlight is very demanding on resources. The problem could
eventually lead to something like a full/fragmented drive, or memory. How
much RAM do you have? You could be paging in/out and that's causing your
slowdowns.
What's the deal? Is it that Entourage creates a huge DB, while Apple
mail stores each mail in a folder as a file (I think?)?
Click to expand...
We really haven't determined the root of your problem, so that answer isn't
relevant now. FWIW, I'm not sure how Apple stores it's mail now. I know it
seems to change frequently with the new features. I think if you'll
persevere you will be glad you did as Entourage is a much better application
than Mail. IMHO. If everyone were having your problems, then Entourage
wouldn't be used by so many people. Try to find what is different on your
set up.

Try to follow the steps:

Troubleshooting Entourage in a New User Account

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/test_new_user.html>
 
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