Entourage slow all of a sudden

F

Frank Stefanec

Hi,

This week I¹m finding that Entourage is slow to load, jerky in movement,
much like my wife's Windows box. Any thoughts????

Thanks.

Frank
 
M

Michel Bintener

Hi Frank,

I'm afraid we're going to need more information than that. What kind of
e-mail accounts do you use? Do you notice this slowdown in every component
of Entourage, or does it only affect the e-mail component? Entourage can
slow down considerably if you use the Project Center feature and share many
addresses at once, if I remember correctly. Also, could it not be that
another program slows down the Mac in general, and not just Entourage? Or
are there maybe any system hackies that you happen to be using right now?
Also, do you remember when exactly this slowdown started, and can you relate
to something else that happened at the same time (system update,
installation of new software and so on).

Lastly, I guess it can't hurt to compact your database; to do that, hold
down the Option (Alt) key when you launch Entourage. This should reduce the
size of your database considerably, and it might actually improve
Entourage's responsiveness.


Hi,

This week I¹m finding that Entourage is slow to load, jerky in movement, much
like my wife's Windows box. Any thoughts????

Thanks.

Frank
Click to expand...


--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
 
F

Frank Stefanec

Michael,
e-mail accounts do you use?<<

.mac/gmail/hotmail/local ISP, but I¹ve always used these. I¹ve been using
Entourage for 3 years and this just started happening this week. Literally,
out of the blue. My wife has a Windows box, and I play with my son¹s old Dell,
and I don¹t notice any slowdown there.


Just the e-mail loading and displaying the mail and pics that are accompanying
the e-mails.

Also, could it not be that another program slows down the Mac in general, and
not just Entourage?<<

Nothing new or different. I run Entourage and Firefox.


Not sure what that is‹exactly???

to something else that happened at the same time (system update,
installation of new software and so on).<<

Monday morning, it was slow, and it¹s been that way all week.

down the Option (Alt) key when you launch Entourage. This should reduce the
size of your database considerably, and it might actually improve
Entourage's responsiveness.<<

I¹ll have to try that. I didn¹t know it existed.
What does that do exactly??

Thanks.

Frank
Click to expand...
 
M

Michel Bintener

Michael,


.mac/gmail/hotmail/local ISP, but I¹ve always used these. IR 17;ve been
using Entourage for 3 years and this just started happening this week.
Literally, out of the blue. My wife has a Windows box, and I play with my
son¹s old Dell, and I don¹t notice any slowdown there.
Click to expand...

Okay, so it's not just restricted to one single e-mail account. There's no
use in comparing Entourage on a Mac to any other e-mail client on Windows,
though, as the platforms and the e-mail clients are completely different.
Just the e-mail loading and displaying the mail and pics that are
accompanying the e-mails.
Click to expand...

Entourage has always been slow at best when it comes to displaying complex
HTML messages. In that case, it needs to download data from the internet,
which explains why it's slower than regular text-only e-mails.
Nothing new or different. I run Entourage and Firefox.
Click to expand...

Good, that tells us that there have been no dramatic modifications which
might have been responsible for Entourage's behaviour.
Not sure what that is‹exactly???
Click to expand...

Well, I call them hackies, but the more popular and probably more correct
expression would be "haxies". These are little programs that change the
system itself, or hack into the system to provide some additional
functionality, such as changing the appearance of brushed metal windows and
so on.
Monday morning, it was slow, and it¹s been that way all week.
Click to expand...

Well, your Mac might be configured to download updates automatically, so we
cannot exclude that possibility unless you go to System Preferences,
Software Update section, and click on the Installed Updates tab to see if
any updates were installed on or before Monday.
I¹ll have to try that. I didn¹t know it existed.
What does that do exactly??
Click to expand...

Entourage stores all of its data in a database, under ~/Documents/Microsoft
User Data/Office 2004 Identities/<your identity>/. Let's say you have a
database which is exactly 100 MB. If you now receive an e-mail message of
10MB, your database size will go up to 110 MB. If you delete that message,
your Entourage database will not, as expected, go down to 100 MB again, but
will still be 110 MB. Entourage does not reduce the size of the database,
but it will instead overwrite those 10 MB with new, incoming e-mail
messages. Over time, your database might have grown quite large, even though
it doesn't really contain that much information, simply because Entourage
does not automatically compact its database. It might not change anything,
but if you compact your database, you should see the size of your database
go down considerably, and it could very well be that Entourage will be more
responsive afterwards. As I've said, it's really a shot in the dark, but you
should definitely give it a try.
Thanks.

Frank
Click to expand...

You're welcome.


--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
 
F

Frank Stefanec

Michael,

When I held down the Option key upon starting Entourage, I first checked the
Verify Database Integrity button which showed ³problems² with the database.
After compacting the database, I did the same thing, and it showed that
there were no problems with the database. It asked if I wanted to ³rebuild²
the database, but I wasn¹t sure what that meant in the way of my existing
e-mails, appointments, etc, so I deferred doing that. What does
³rebuilding² do??

We¹ll see if this solves my problems.

Thanks again.

Frank
 
D

Diane Ross

When I held down the Option key upon starting Entourage, I first checked the
Verify Database Integrity button which showed ³problems² with the database.
After compacting the database, I did the same thing, and it showed that there
were no problems with the database. It asked if I wanted to ³rebuild² the
database, but I wasn¹t sure what that meant in the way of my existing e-mails,
appointments, etc, so I deferred doing that. What does ³rebuilding² do??
Click to expand...

Hopefully, rebuilding will fix your problems. :) Read over the directions
and tips here:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/rebuild.html>

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
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