How I Archived Old Mail and Started 2009 Clean

[aRKay]

-------------------------------
How I Archived Old Mail and Started 2009 Clean
Using Entourage 2008 12.1.5 and Mac OSX 10.5.6

There are other ways to archive your old Entourage mail files; however,
the following is what I did to get ready for the new year:

1. I already have a separate Entourage Identity called "Archived Mail
2001 to 2007" with sub folders for each of the previous years.

a. The first thing I did was to open the Office 2008 Identities folder
and
change the filename to "Archived Mail 2001 to 2008."

b. Then from within the active Entourage I created a new subfolder
called "Mail 2008."

c. To stop Entourage from popping my mail while I was making changes,
I turned OFF my network connection.

2. I then used the standard Entourage tip to drag my current "Inbox" and
"Sent Items" to the desktop. This created two mbox format files. It
takes a few minutes so please do not rush.

3. Now drag the two new mbox files into the newly created (Step 1.b)
"Mail 2008" folder. Again, it takes a few minutes so do not be in a
hurry. I then changed the filenames from Inbox and Sent Items to
Inbox-08 and Sent Items-08. This change is to make them unique.

4. Check that these files are good copies of your current Inbox and Sent
Items in the new Mail 2008 folder are correct. Check that they look like
your current Inbox and Sent Items. If not correct, repeat steps 2 and 3
until you get it right. Save the two files on your desktop for later use
(in step #7 below).

5. Once you are satisfied with step 4, open your primary Inbox and use
the "Select All" and Delete Key to create fresh file that will contain
your new 2009 mail. Do the same thing with your Sent Items file.
Sometimes they may be sent to the Deleted Items so you may have to
delete the files in the Deleted Items folder. This step is important to
give you a clean file for the new year as the primary user.

6. After you finish the above, I recommend rebuilding the database by
starting Entourage with the Option key held down. The cool thing about
this procedure and the reason I use it is I have almost instant access
to the previous year mail files.

7. Last year I created a new Entourage identity called Archived Mail
2001 to 2007 and it contained mail folders from my old Eudora mail and
separate folders for 2002 to 2007 for Entourage mail. To add 2008 to
this identity I log in as a the "Archived Mail 2001 to 2009" user and
created a new subfolder for 2008; and then dragged in the the two files
from desktop to the new 2008 Mail folder and change the names, like in
step #3. The first time I opened the old archived mail it took a few
minutes to convert the files to the new Entourage 2008 format.
Something I probably forgot to do when I upgraded to Office 2008.

8. I then changed identity back to my primary identity and double checked
that everything was working correct. I now have two versions of my 2008
Mail. One is archived in a separate identity and one is in the 2008
Mail subfolder in my primary user account. This will give me almost
instant access for easy referral to 2008 mail. When I decide I no longer
need the near instant access, I will delete the 2008 Mail folder from my
primary user folder. I will always be able to go back by changing to
the "Archived Mail 2001 to 2008" identity.

I have probably made this sound too complicated. It is not! All I did was
save and store the old mail to start the new year with a clean mail file.
Entourage is snappy with the clean file and will be even better when I
decided to delete the new "2008 Mail" sub folder. Mail from prior years
is archived under another identity and mail for 2008 and 2009 are active.

The other advantage is once saved the Time Machine will only have to deal
with changes to my primary user mail. The archived user file will not
change and this should help. You can always use the TM to go back to
your saved primary user database.

Please let me know if this posting is of interest. There may be a
better way to archive mail but I have not found it.

Happy New Year

 

[aRKay]

How I Archived Old Mail and Started 2009 Clean
Using Entourage 2008 12.1.5 and Mac OSX 10.5.6

Not one response so it was probably a waste of my time to post

 

[Diane Ross]

I don't always get comments either when I blog. I'm sure you helped some
people. You got me off my duff and post my blog article on year end cleanup.
Please leave your direction on the blog comments. You'll reach more people
this way.

Options for end of year archiving (The Entourage Help Blog)
<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/12/options_for_end_of_year_archiving.ht
ml>
In case the above link does not work:

They are viewing the
Microsoft web site looking for help, and that's all that matters. Way to
ruin a good thing, Microsoft!

I'm the first to admit that the Microsoft interface to this newsgroup is
severely lacking, but in general newsgroups tend to be less of a community.
I find mailing lists lend themselves to be more friendly. I've known users
on some lists for years. In fact, many of the people on the Entourage talk
list were previously on the Outlook Express and Claris Emailer talk lists.

If you look at this newsgroup besides the MVPs there are just a handful of
other people that help out. Everyone else is asking a question.

How to subscribe to the Microsoft Entourage talk list:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/support_options/subtalk.html>

 

[Kerry]

Way to

ruin a good thing, Microsoft!

JR I have no idea what this was like before but this really is not a
good method to provide online forum support. I like reading the e-mail
that comes in every day but I really think Microsoft should provide a
proper support forum. The poster would at least be able to see how
many people viewed his post etc. Microsoft is doing a number of things
though that are not in its best interest. I don't know what's happened
to them but they've always been known and sued for their strong arm,
non-competitive tactics and arrogance. I read they might let 10% of
their workforce go of 95,000. I'm not surprised. They're starting to
even have trouble in their core business - Windows and Office. Office
2007 for Windows has had numerous criticisms around its GUI
implementation and the reviewers have asked how is Microsoft getting
its feedback if any and putting these things together. They've started
to cancel programs/projects which many companies of course have to do
but it reflects just poor management. They're not doing their
homework. The mess of Entourage 08 is an example. This could not have
been properly beta tested as if it had been it would have never gotten
out the door in this shape. And some of the things they can't fix -
with the talent pool they have - well something is really wrong. It'll
be interesting to watch.

 

[Hazel Greenberg]

Speaking of archiving methods, one of the methods suggested here and on the
MVP website may not be working properly for me. It's the one where you set
up a Time Machine like workflow to do daily backups of Entourage to another
drive via Automator and with an alarm in iCal. I followed all the
instructions as I understood them step by step several times, and I can see
"MUD Backup" come on in the top menu bar on the left, and the drive is
highlighted on the desktop. I also get an iCal alarm announcing that the
workflow has run. However, when I go into that drive to the "Archive
Entourage Mail" folder, I do not see a list of folders at all, let alone by
date. My main identity is there as I saved it to begin with, and that's all.
Is it possible to guess what I might have done wrong?

 

[Diane Ross]

Is it possible to guess what I might have done wrong?

Are you using the folder action? If yes, it does not work on external
drives. No one has been able to explain to me what it fails.

You can test by creating a folder for the backup and attach the folder
action ON A VOLUME/HD that's internal.

If you hd is large enough you can use this, BUT is your hd fails you've lost
your backup. In in a situation now where I have a fairly small hd in my iMac
so I do my daily backups of Entourage to the iMac, but around every week
end, I copy over the Sunday backup to an external. Every six months or so I
will delete all the weeklys and keep only one per month.

If you check the date on the database you will see it's the most current.
Your file is being overwritten.

Hope this helps!

 

[Hazel Greenberg]

Yes, indeed, that's it--folder action. I did that because it does say on the
mvp website that it works for an external drive. Maybe that should be
changed.

Actually, the date on the database on that external drive is still the same
date when I put it onto the drive. It has not even been overwritten.

Is it even bad that the file is overwritten? You mean on the external drive,
right? At least then I would always have the most recent copy? I know it
loses the "Time Machine" aspect, but still, it is the fullest copy of what I
would want to keep. So I would love to be able to get that to work--but
apparently it isn't.

 

[Diane Ross]

Yes, indeed, that's it--folder action. I did that because it does say on the
mvp website that it works for an external drive. Maybe that should be
changed.

It doesn't specifically say it does work on externals, but one would assume
since it wasn't stated. I've clarified the directions. Thanks for pointing
this out.

Is it even bad that the file is overwritten? You mean on the external drive,
right? Yes
At least then I would always have the most recent copy? I know it
loses the "Time Machine" aspect, but still, it is the fullest copy of what I
would want to keep. So I would love to be able to get that to work--but
apparently it isn't.

You have a date created and a date modified. Is the date modified the most
recent?

You can test by just dragging to your backup folder.