importing Entourage 2001 to Entourage X not all messages transfer

T

Tech Girl

Upgraded user from OS 9 to OS X and did the import wizard in Entourage
X, it appeared to be working but when it said it was finished it had
only imported a few hundred emails, none of his extra folders or the
email in them. This isn't normally a problem and I've probably
imported at least 40 other setups like this with no problem. I do
suspect he is doing something different than the others, he drags
emails and attachments straight from Entourage onto their server. I
suspect the import is failing because these items are linking and it
can't retrieve them from the server. The only reason I suspect this is
because of the small portion of email that did import, when you launch
Entourage X it also launches the server log in screen, obviously not
the norm. So what I need is a way to get all the messages into his
Entourage X or else he might kill me ;-) Tried it all different ways,
tried just importing messages on their own, tried the wizard a few
times, even tried the import with the server mounted. It can't get
past 299 emails.
 
P

PostMaster

Upgraded user from OS 9 to OS X and did the import wizard in Entourage
X, it appeared to be working but when it said it was finished it had
only imported a few hundred emails, none of his extra folders or the
email in them. This isn't normally a problem and I've probably
imported at least 40 other setups like this with no problem. I do
suspect he is doing something different than the others, he drags
emails and attachments straight from Entourage onto their server. I
suspect the import is failing because these items are linking and it
can't retrieve them from the server. The only reason I suspect this is
because of the small portion of email that did import, when you launch
Entourage X it also launches the server log in screen, obviously not
the norm. So what I need is a way to get all the messages into his
Entourage X or else he might kill me ;-) Tried it all different ways,
tried just importing messages on their own, tried the wizard a few
times, even tried the import with the server mounted. It can't get
past 299 emails.
Click to expand...

There's nothing about dragging these to the server which would cause this
problem. The importer/port utility only reads the database internalized in
the Identity files stored in the Microsoft User Data directory, wherever he
has it living, and has no mechanism or intelligence to look elsewhere for
these individual emails. More than likely there's a problem with the
database itself. You can try launching his Entourage or his identity w/the
option key depressed and then selecting "Advanced Rebuild..." or something
to that effect and see if rebuilding the database structure will turn up
additional emails. Entourage doesn't read directly the emails from a
journalized listing of individual files but from a database listing each
email as nothing more than a record. The database structure can get mangled
from time to time. If you've already tried this, my apologies.

You can also "crack" the database itself by opening it in something like
CanOpener, stripping all the extraneous characters, and then exporting it
all out as tab or csv, ready to import INTO your new configuration, or into
a new account under the older version, so you can then re-export/port THAT
into the newer Entourage. Additionally you can run any and all of this into
FileMaker pro, merely setting up a shell db with the proper NUMBER of fields
(name them F1, F2, etc.). Any of these methods will work as I've tried all
of them successfully.

Good luck!
 
T

Tech Girl

PostMaster said:
There's nothing about dragging these to the server which would cause this
problem. The importer/port utility only reads the database internalized in
the Identity files stored in the Microsoft User Data directory, wherever he
has it living, and has no mechanism or intelligence to look elsewhere for
these individual emails. More than likely there's a problem with the
database itself. You can try launching his Entourage or his identity w/the
option key depressed and then selecting "Advanced Rebuild..." or something
to that effect and see if rebuilding the database structure will turn up
additional emails. Entourage doesn't read directly the emails from a
journalized listing of individual files but from a database listing each
email as nothing more than a record. The database structure can get mangled
from time to time. If you've already tried this, my apologies.

You can also "crack" the database itself by opening it in something like
CanOpener, stripping all the extraneous characters, and then exporting it
all out as tab or csv, ready to import INTO your new configuration, or into
a new account under the older version, so you can then re-export/port THAT
into the newer Entourage. Additionally you can run any and all of this into
FileMaker pro, merely setting up a shell db with the proper NUMBER of fields
(name them F1, F2, etc.). Any of these methods will work as I've tried all
of them successfully.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

I did try the advance rebuild before posting, but that is always an
excellent suggestion. With the other options you list will these keep
his attachments in their emails? I was "warned" that he had to have
all attachments and everything as is.
 
T

Tech Girl

PostMaster said:
There's nothing about dragging these to the server which would cause this
problem. The importer/port utility only reads the database internalized in
the Identity files stored in the Microsoft User Data directory, wherever he
has it living, and has no mechanism or intelligence to look elsewhere for
these individual emails. More than likely there's a problem with the
database itself. You can try launching his Entourage or his identity w/the
option key depressed and then selecting "Advanced Rebuild..." or something
to that effect and see if rebuilding the database structure will turn up
additional emails. Entourage doesn't read directly the emails from a
journalized listing of individual files but from a database listing each
email as nothing more than a record. The database structure can get mangled
from time to time. If you've already tried this, my apologies.

You can also "crack" the database itself by opening it in something like
CanOpener, stripping all the extraneous characters, and then exporting it
all out as tab or csv, ready to import INTO your new configuration, or into
a new account under the older version, so you can then re-export/port THAT
into the newer Entourage. Additionally you can run any and all of this into
FileMaker pro, merely setting up a shell db with the proper NUMBER of fields
(name them F1, F2, etc.). Any of these methods will work as I've tried all
of them successfully.

Good luck!
Click to expand...


So I tried something else, not the quickest, not the easiest, but so
far appears to have worked. I grabbed each individual folder that
contained email in Entourage 2001 and dragged it to a folder on the
desktop where it created .mbox files. Quit out of Entourage 2001,
opened up Entourage X and used the assistant to import everything but
the messages, then I dragged each folder into the inbox where it
recreated the folders with all messages in them. It looks like it
worked, guess I'll know for sure withen a few days ;-)
 
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