Entourage X Attachment Anomalies

[Preston Kutzner]

Hello,

I'm an IT manager and a couple of my co-workers are experiencing
attachment anomalies in Entourage X. The anomaly they're experiencing
is that when they attach files (this usually happens w/multiple file
attachments, but sometimes with only single file attachments) as
Entourage sends the email, it will either remove, replace, or add files
or attach emails from other folders to the message being sent. When the
user looks through the 'Sent' folder, they will see all of the correct
attachments. However, when the intended recipient receives the message,
the attachments have changed.

Rebuilding the database does NOT correct the problem, and apparently
switching to a new profile is only good for a time, then the same
behavior re-surfaces in the new profile.

My questions are:

Has anyone else experienced this behavior as well? We have had several
different people on several different machines experience the SAME behavior.

Does anyone know why this is happening? I know the inner workings of
Entourage are probably near impossible to understand. I'm not sure even
Microsoft techs could figure it out <g> but I'm curious as to why this
behavior is present (even with the latest service packs applied).

Does anyone know how to prevent this behavior? As it stands now, we
will probably have to move away from Entourage, as this behavior is a
security risk. There is no way to tell when it's going to change
attachments, or what it's going to attach when it does.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Please send any emails to: grdnwsl <at> mrichi <dot> com (change the
appropriate items in the email address

 

[Barry Wainwright]

Hello,

I'm an IT manager and a couple of my co-workers are experiencing
attachment anomalies in Entourage X. The anomaly they're experiencing
is that when they attach files (this usually happens w/multiple file
attachments, but sometimes with only single file attachments) as
Entourage sends the email, it will either remove, replace, or add files
or attach emails from other folders to the message being sent. When the
user looks through the 'Sent' folder, they will see all of the correct
attachments. However, when the intended recipient receives the message,
the attachments have changed.

Rebuilding the database does NOT correct the problem, and apparently
switching to a new profile is only good for a time, then the same
behavior re-surfaces in the new profile.

It certainly sounds like classic database corruption, and the fact a new
identity solves the problem seems to confirm this.

What sort of rebuilds did you do? Simple (compact) rebuild, or an advanced
rebuild?

Main question is, why is the corruption recurring? Are you doing anything
unusual with the entourage installations, such as keeping the databases on a
remote server etc? Does your backup routine take copies of the database
without closing down the daemon first? Have the installations been updated
to the latest release (office 10.1.5 - entourage remains at 10.1.4, but
several support files are updated with the 10.1.5 release)?

My questions are:

Has anyone else experienced this behavior as well? We have had several
different people on several different machines experience the SAME behavior.

Certainly not a common problem. I think I have heard of one othe rsimilar
description, but I believe a rebuild fixed that.

Does anyone know why this is happening? I know the inner workings of
Entourage are probably near impossible to understand. I'm not sure even
Microsoft techs could figure it out <g> but I'm curious as to why this
behavior is present (even with the latest service packs applied).

Version numbers (office & system) would help.

Does anyone know how to prevent this behavior? As it stands now, we
will probably have to move away from Entourage, as this behavior is a
security risk. There is no way to tell when it's going to change
attachments, or what it's going to attach when it does.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Please send any emails to: grdnwsl <at> mrichi <dot> com (change the
appropriate items in the email address

Sorry, no. I don't have the time for one-to-one support (unless, of course,
you want to pay commercial rates for it <g>). All questions are asked and
answered in public forum.

 

[Preston Kutzner]

It certainly sounds like classic database corruption, and the fact a new
identity solves the problem seems to confirm this.

What sort of rebuilds did you do? Simple (compact) rebuild, or an advanced
rebuild?

We have done both the Simple and Advanced.

Main question is, why is the corruption recurring? Are you doing anything
unusual with the entourage installations, such as keeping the databases on a
remote server etc? Does your backup routine take copies of the database
without closing down the daemon first? Have the installations been updated
to the latest release (office 10.1.5 - entourage remains at 10.1.4, but
several support files are updated with the 10.1.5 release)?

Nothing unusual going on with the databases. We're running the latest
patches on Panther (which we keep updated as well). Our backup software
is Retrospect. As to whether or not it shuts down the daemon, that I
don't know. We do have the "open file" add-on for it.

Certainly not a common problem. I think I have heard of one othe rsimilar
description, but I believe a rebuild fixed that.

The rebuilds would fix the problem for a short time (a couple of weeks
maybe) the the problem would re-surface. It did get to a point where
rebuilds would not fix the problem anymore. After switching profiles,
the problem has re-surfaced in about 6 months. Although, this time the
symptoms are slightly different. The first time Entourage would attach
random emails from the user's mail folders. This time it changes the
attachments.

<soapbox> I was hoping Microsoft would get smart with Office 2004 and
move away from the monolithic "database" for Entourage and move to
something a little more standards based (and more forgiving in the event
of data errors), but then again Microsoft has never been one to abide by
standards other than their own.

The fact that EVERYTHING is stored in one file seems a little asonine to
me. Not only does corruption in Entourage's database effect Entourage,
but I've known it to wreak havoc on other Office applications as well.
It also makes doing incremental backups slightly more resource
intensive, especially if you have users who save all email they receive
(especially the execs.) as their database file can reach sizes in excess
of 2GB. That's a lot of data to pull across a network. Why they can't
just split things up into separate files is beyond me. I don't know
maybe their programmers are too lazy to do anything else... </soapbox>

Guess we'll just have to wind up going with Thunderbird instead. Save
us several thousand on upgrading to Office 2004. :-D

Version numbers (office & system) would help.

See above.