Rebuild for spotlight?

P

philcozz

Hi,

I have been trying to get my Entourage e-mails to show up in spotlight
via 11.2.3, but with no luck. I have Set the preference accordingly, I
have compacted and rebuilt my database, and I have hit the "rebuild"
button in Entourage's spotlight preference panel. Nothing seems to
happen. I know the preferences say that it could take a long time to
rebuild if the database is big... How long is it taking others to get
the "rebuild" to happen?

TIA.
 
C

Corentin Cras-Méneur

philcozz said:
Hi,

I have been trying to get my Entourage e-mails to show up in spotlight
via 11.2.3, but with no luck. I have Set the preference accordingly, I
have compacted and rebuilt my database, and I have hit the "rebuild"
button in Entourage's spotlight preference panel. Nothing seems to
happen. I know the preferences say that it could take a long time to
rebuild if the database is big... How long is it taking others to get
the "rebuild" to happen?
Click to expand...

I believe the rebuild can take quite some time. It all depends on how
many e-mails you have in your database of course. It appears ENtourage
has to populate a folder with a bunch of small index files corresponding
to all your e-mails and then Spotlight has to scan them all to
integrate tham in its database.
Check out:
~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage/2004

The process therefore depends both on Entourage and on Spotlight and can
take quite some time.

Corentin
 
A

Andy Ruff

When Spotlight is turned on within Entourage, a series of files for indexing
at ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage/. Are there files at this
directory?

The "cache" files represent a mirror of your Entourage database contents and
then are picked up by and parsed by the Entourage Spotlight Importer when
the OS' Spotlight indexing process is ready. When this processing occurs,
depends on the OS--Entourage does not attempt to force Spotlight to index
these items. The OS usually does this when it has some idle time.

It's similar to how a newly purchased song from the iTunes Music Store finds
its way into your Spotlight search results. When you purchase a new song
from iTunes, the song is saved as a file within your iTunes library. The OS
takes note of the new song file. Whenever it gets some idle time, it hands
the file off to a Spotlight importer specifically for music files. The
importer reads the metadata (e.g. song title, author, etc.) from the file
and tells this information to Spotlight. It's at this point that Spotlight
is first able to allow you to search on this information.

In Entourage's case, the OS takes note of all these new files, eventually
handing them off one-by-one to the Entourage Importer. The importer reads
each file, finds information such as an e-mail's subject, an event's due
date, or a contact's category, and then provides all such metadata to
Spotlight. At this point, the Entourage files and their metadata should be
searchable within Spotlight.

Typically this happens pretty fast, but if you're doing a lot on your
computer, it may take some time. If you've got lots of items in your
Entoruage database, there will be large numbers of these files created the
first time you turn on Spotlight--so it might take some time. After which,
it'll be just as fast (if not faster) as the time it takes for a new song to
show up in your Spotlight results.

-Andy

--
Andy Ruff
MacBU Program Management
Entoruage Weblog: http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/

This posting is provided ³AS IS² with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
D

Diane Ross [MVP]

I have been trying to get my Entourage e-mails to show up in spotlight
via 11.2.3, but with no luck. I have Set the preference accordingly, I
have compacted and rebuilt my database, and I have hit the "rebuild"
button in Entourage's spotlight preference panel. Nothing seems to
happen. I know the preferences say that it could take a long time to
rebuild if the database is big... How long is it taking others to get
the "rebuild" to happen?
Click to expand...

Check your Spotlight preferences in System Preferences. Be sure to check
Mail Messages.
 
P

philcozz

Thanks for all the replies... I have started the "rebuild" again under
the assumption that I didn't wait long enough before. We'll see what
happens! I'll update later.
 
J

Jeff Zienowicz

Check your Spotlight preferences in System Preferences. Be sure to check
Mail Messages.
Click to expand...

Many of us had hidden our MUDs from Spotlight searches due to performance
issues. I wonder if the MUD needs to be removed from the Privacy list in
Spotlight preferences (I did remove mine, just on a hunch, and I'm having no
problems with Spotlight searches -- the indexing occurred pretty quickly).
 
M

MikeTRose

Probably best to leave the main identity folder/MUD excluded from
Spotlight, assuming that you weren't having any issues beforehand -- as
other posts have pointed out, the actual indexing is done from the
files in ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage, so the
private/indexable status of the MUD folder isn't relevant.
 
P

philcozz

I don't know what's going on (or what's NOT going on). I have many
files at ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage, but a Spotlight
search still turns up nothing.
 
D

Diane Ross [MVP]

Check your Spotlight preferences in System Preferences. Be sure to check
Mail Messages.
Click to expand...

Adding to Spotlight Preferences:

Using 10.4.3 and higher, Entourage items will show in Spotlight results
under the same group headings as corresponding Apple items. If those
groupings are not selected in the Spotlight System Preferences, you will
not see Entourage items in the Spotlight results.

Entourage items are grouped this way:

* Entourage Mail items are listed under "Mail Messages" group.
* Entourage Events & Task items are listed under "Events and To Do
Items" group.
* Entourage Contacts are listed under the "Contacts" group.
* Entourage Notes are listed under the "Documents" group

If you are using a pre-10.4.3 OS, all Entourage item results will be
displayed under the "Other" grouping.
 
C

Corentin Cras-Méneur

philcozz said:
I have many
files at ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage, but a Spotlight
search still turns up nothing.
Click to expand...


I would wait for a while to let spotlight pick them up. THere was a
Terminal command to force indexing, but I simply can't remember what it
was :-\


Corentin
 
D

Diane Ross [MVP]

I don't know what's going on (or what's NOT going on). I have many
files at ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage, but a Spotlight
search still turns up nothing.
Click to expand...

Did you check System Preferences for Spotlight and check Mail Messages?
 
P

philcozz

Well, I give up. Waiting patiently for Spotlight to index my Entourage
e-mail and nothing. Weird.
 
G

Gary Stein

Phil,
It works great for me, this is what I did, hope it helps.

1) Using OnyX
run/execute Automation; it forces a restart

then under: Maintenance
check reset Spotlight
run/execute Maintenance

2) After OnyX forces a restart, I opened Entourage, hit rebuild.

When I came back, it was done, and working.

OnyX (v 1.6.7) is a maintenance app. Find it at MacUpdate.com

Hope this works !

Gary
 
S

Steven Day

I'm still having problems with this; again, my work computer works fine.

My version of OnyX must be different as well. Under Automantion:
Maintenance, there's not Spotlight option at all.
 
P

philcozz

Nah... It doesn't seem to be working, even after the Onyx tips. I've
been waiting for Spotlight access to Entourage; very frustrating.
 
S

Steven Day

Same for me Phil. I did nothing on my computer at work, and after logging in
once or twice and rebooting, Spotlight was indexing my Entourage messages
just fine. Now at home I try everything and nothing works.

Spotlight preferences are fine (Mail messages checked; assuming that means
Entourage as my default client)

Rebuilt index in Entourage. Still no luck.

Tried OnyX maintenance. Rebuilt Entourage index. Still no luck.

Checked Caches/metadata. Files for Entourage are all there.

So, what else could it be?

Oh, after running OnyX, Spotlight reindexed as well.

Very frustrating, indeed (though I'm glad this feature and sync are offered
now).
 
S

Steven Day

Is the command sudo mdimport ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft

Instead of what is below?

Thanks Andy.
 
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