Rebuild Does Not Reduce Message File Size

R

Roebing28

I am running Entourage 2001 on a Powerbook running Mac OS 9.2 and the
program will not receive new messages, apparently because the Message
file in the Identies folder is almost at the 2GB limit. It is 1.97 GB
to be precise,
while the Database file is 200MB. Unlikely other postings here
regarding
rebuilding the database, I have more than 8GB of free space on the hard
drive, which was recently defragmented, which should give me more than
enough room for a successful rebuild. However, both typical and
advance rebuild procedures fail to reduce the size of the Message file.
Even after archiving more than 500MB of messages as MBox files and
deleting the folders in which they were contained from Entourage, the
rebuild efforts fail to reduce the size of the Message file. In a
related and troubling development, when I attempt to import the MBox
archived messages back into the program, only a portion of the messages
from a given folder reappear. I would welcome any suggestions
you may offer.

Thom D.
 
M

matt neuburg

Roebing28 said:
I am running Entourage 2001 on a Powerbook running Mac OS 9.2 and the
program will not receive new messages, apparently because the Message
file in the Identies folder is almost at the 2GB limit. It is 1.97 GB
to be precise,
while the Database file is 200MB. Unlikely other postings here
regarding
rebuilding the database, I have more than 8GB of free space on the hard
drive, which was recently defragmented, which should give me more than
enough room for a successful rebuild. However, both typical and
advance rebuild procedures fail to reduce the size of the Message file.
Even after archiving more than 500MB of messages as MBox files and
deleting the folders in which they were contained from Entourage, the
rebuild efforts fail to reduce the size of the Message file. In a
related and troubling development, when I attempt to import the MBox
archived messages back into the program, only a portion of the messages
from a given folder reappear. I would welcome any suggestions
you may offer.
Click to expand...

* One obvious solution is to upgrade to Mac OS X Office 2004 which is
not hampered by the 2 GB limit.

* Another solution might be to make a new Identity. This will allow you
to start with an essentially empty database. (Does Entourage 2001 have
Identities?)

* The failure of the database to get smaller after deleting messages and
rebuilding the database is surprising. I usually find that large
databases are caused mostly by attachments, either sent or received. How
do you know that what you deleted was 500MB of messages?

* I would not worry about your inability to reimport the archives
messages, since we have already stipulated that the database is full and
is not getting smaller. Therefore you can't import any more stuff (even
though it is the same stuff you archived and deteled) - it's already
full. An mbox file is text so you can easily examine the archived
messages to confirm that they were exported successfully. If you try my
advice of making a new Identity, see if the exported material can be
imported into it. If it can, this suggests a solution to the problem in
general: export some material from the old Identity and import it into
the new Identity. However, in future be careful not to let yourself
approach the 2GB limit on any one Identity.

m.
 
R

Roebing28

Matt

Thanks for your reply. I would welcome further input from yourself or
others.

Upgrading to Mac OS X Office 2004 which does not have the 2GB
limit on Identiy data is a long-term solution but not a present option.

I estimate that I have deleted some 500MB worth of messages based the
size of the MBox files created from folders of messages that are
archived on an external hard disc. After archiving these folders of
messages, I have used the Delete/Folder option and then done a rebuild
-- but as noted neither a typical nor an advance rebuild reduce the
size of the database from 200MB nor the message file from 1.97GB.

I also have assumed that the failure of the "full" identity to reimport
the MBox files is due to the size of the database.

I have successfully reimported the MBox archived messages into a new
identity -- and this does indeed suggest a solution to my
oversized database and message file.

If I create a new identity, I can base it on the settings of the "old"
identity. I assume I can also export messages and contacts from the
"old" identity as MBox files and a tab-delimited text file respectively
-- then import that data into the new identity.

But how, then, do I export the other data -- Calendar, Notes, To Do
Lists -- from the "old" identity and then import it into the "new"
identity?

Again, I welcome further suggestions on this.

Thom D.
 
B

Barry Wainwright

I estimate that I have deleted some 500MB worth of messages based the
size of the MBox files created from folders of messages that are
archived on an external hard disc. After archiving these folders of
messages, I have used the Delete/Folder option and then done a rebuild
-- but as noted neither a typical nor an advance rebuild reduce the
size of the database from 200MB nor the message file from 1.97GB.
Click to expand...

It may be an obvious point, but did you empty the 'deleted items' folder
after deleting the messages? If not, the messages were still present in the
database...
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

I estimate that I have deleted some 500MB worth of messages based the
size of the MBox files created from folders of messages that are
archived on an external hard disc. After archiving these folders of
messages, I have used the Delete/Folder option and then done a rebuild
-- but as noted neither a typical nor an advance rebuild reduce the
size of the database from 200MB nor the message file from 1.97GB.
Click to expand...

Did you remember to Empty the Deleted Items Folder before rebuilding?

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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