Entourage Quits w/ "Mail Error" While Writing Email

M

mcgreek

Version: v.X
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)
Processor: Power PC
Email Client: pop

Hi. I'm a newbie here, sent by Microsoft Tech SUpport. I'm grateful you're here..... I read a lot of the "Entourage crashes" questions, but have not seen my problem, so here goes...

For starters, I have Entourage 10.1.6 from Office X for Mac. And my Mac is 10.3.9 on a Power PC G4 tower....

For the past week I have been unable to Compose New Msg, Reply or Forward an email on my Entourage without it suddenly freezing after just a minute or two of typing.... Two things happen: (a) the message freezes on the screen and (b) the entire computer freezes -- it won't let me click on the desktop or go online or do anything else till it chills out. The cursor is paralyzed... I also notice during this time that the FROM (my email name) is Grey -- regardless of which email address I use (I have 3 FROM addresses)....

Finally, after a minute or two, I get a msg on my frozen screen that says "The action could not be completed. Mail error." I hit OK. The msg pops up again. I hit OK. We do this dance a half-dozen times......

I then do one of two things to get out of the program: (a) I hit FORCE QUIT, in which case a portion might show up on Drafts but usually I lose it all, including not only my text but all history that any msg had ever been attempted; OR (b) It unfreezes long enough for me to go to either FILE & QUIT ENTOURAGE OR I hit the little red circle that's on the top bar of the program when you want to close the screen window (the red circle next to yellow circle next to green circle)....

In the latter scenario of FILE & QUIT or the little red circle, I get a series of messages: (a) "Do you want to save your changes to this message?" I hit SAVE, then (b) I get a message that Entourage will put it in the Drafts folder, and I hit OK or SAVE; BUT (c ) "Action could not be completed. Mail error."... I then hit OK a few more times, and finally it lets me do the FILE-EXIT and a portion -- but only SOME -- of my message gets saved in the Drafts.....

I COPY whatever was saved in the Drafts version, and then PASTE it on a new message. I can NOT use the Draft version as my baseline. I’ve got to start fresh with a New Message or go back to the original and hit REPLY or FORWARD from scratch.... Anyway, if I manage to write the world's shortest msg or if I manage to do the PASTE and then write a bit more before it freezes, I have NO problem Sending it. (Or Replying or Forwarding) Ditto, no problem RECEIVING emails....

It seems that the amount of time I spend writing the email is what triggers it - it'll let me go for 30 seconds to about 2 minutes, I'd say. But it almost always crashes when I try to add a cc or bcc, and it's very quick to crash when I add the Subject line ......

I noticed this began when I did a RESTART on my computer about a week ago because my Printer was not responding. A friend suggested I hold the CONTROL down after I do the Restart... Well that helped w/my printer, but soon after (not immediately -- maybe the next day) my email went nuts.. I then did a normal RESTART without holding down the Control key, but the problem w/ the email persists...

WHAT do I do?? I've seen replies to other questions that say something about rebuilding Databases, etc, but I'm totally clueless.....

Pls, if anyone out there could give any advice, can you pls pretend that I'm a toddler and do the (a) Go to your applications folder (b) look for this (c ) double click on that, etc etc.

* *Also, while I'm at it: My LIFE for the past 8 years is in my email, tucked in folders.... HOW DO I SAVE // COPY THEM??? Someone told me eons ago that I drag the folder onto my desktop or something, but then put some extension on it, like .xrp or .qdf or something like that? Is that what I do -- drag to desktop? What is the extension? Can I then put them all on a CD for when I (finally) get new computer and the latest version of Office w/ Entourage?....

I really can't thank you enough. Thank you!!

Marian
 
M

Mickey Stevens

Hi. I'm a newbie here, sent by Microsoft Tech SUpport. I'm grateful you're
here..... I read a lot of the "Entourage crashes" questions, but have not seen
my problem, so here goes...

For starters, I have Entourage 10.1.6 from Office X for Mac. And my Mac is
10.3.9 on a Power PC G4 tower....

For the past week I have been unable to Compose New Msg, Reply or Forward an
email on my Entourage without it suddenly freezing after just a minute or two
of typing.... Two things happen: (a) the message freezes on the screen and (b)
the entire computer freezes -- it won't let me click on the desktop or go
online or do anything else till it chills out. The cursor is paralyzed... I
also notice during this time that the FROM (my email name) is Grey --
regardless of which email address I use (I have 3 FROM addresses)....

Finally, after a minute or two, I get a msg on my frozen screen that says "The
action could not be completed. Mail error." I hit OK. The msg pops up again. I
hit OK. We do this dance a half-dozen times......

I then do one of two things to get out of the program: (a) I hit FORCE QUIT,
in which case a portion might show up on Drafts but usually I lose it all,
including not only my text but all history that any msg had ever been
attempted; OR (b) It unfreezes long enough for me to go to either FILE & QUIT
ENTOURAGE OR I hit the little red circle that's on the top bar of the program
when you want to close the screen window (the red circle next to yellow circle
next to green circle)....

It seems that the amount of time I spend writing the email is what triggers it
- it'll let me go for 30 seconds to about 2 minutes, I'd say. But it almost
always crashes when I try to add a cc or bcc, and it's very quick to crash
when I add the Subject line .....

WHAT do I do?? I've seen replies to other questions that say something about
rebuilding Databases, etc, but I'm totally clueless.....

It does sound like a database problem.

First, download and install the Office X 10.1.9 update.
http://snipurl.com/22zx4

Then, rebuild the database. In Entourage X, first go to Entourage > Turn
Off Office Notifications. Now, quit Entourage, and then restart Entourage
holding down the Option key. When the Rebuild dialog box comes up, choose
to do a Typical Rebuild. If that does not fix the problem, repeat the
procedure, instead opting to do the Advanced Rebuild.
* *Also, while I'm at it: My LIFE for the past 8 years is in my email, tucked
in folders.... HOW DO I SAVE // COPY THEM??? Someone told me eons ago that I
drag the folder onto my desktop or something, but then put some extension on
it, like .xrp or .qdf or something like that? Is that what I do -- drag to
desktop? What is the extension? Can I then put them all on a CD for when I
(finally) get new computer and the latest version of Office w/ Entourage?....

You can backup all Entourage data by copying the "Microsoft User Data"
folder to another drive. It's located here
/Users/<Your User>/Documents/Microsoft User Data/

You can also export individual folders from Entourage at any time by
dragging the folders directly from the Entourage folder list to the Desktop.
 

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