Searching mbox files.

[Joseph Chamberlain, D.D.S.]

Dear members:


I have Entourage set up with numerous folders so that e-mail coming from
certain sources or groups can be directed to these specific folders. Every
year I try to export these folders so that I can archive them as mbox files.

Some data I need to access is contained in some of these mbox files. How can
I search it ? Can these mbox files be searched with Spotlight and return
these e-mails formated the way a typical e-mail appears under entourage or
spotlight ?

I have come across some applications that claim to make the archival of
Entourage files or messages an easier process. Two of them are MailSteward
and EEAX (Entourage Email Archive X). What has been your experience with
these applications ? Can they be used to access mbox files that have already
been saved or exported instead of being inside the MUD (Microsoft User
Database) ? Could I point either one of these applications to my mbox files
and search their content ?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Joseph Chamberlain

 

[William Smith]

Dear members:


I have Entourage set up with numerous folders so that e-mail coming from
certain sources or groups can be directed to these specific folders. Every
year I try to export these folders so that I can archive them as mbox files.

Some data I need to access is contained in some of these mbox files. How can
I search it ? Can these mbox files be searched with Spotlight and return
these e-mails formated the way a typical e-mail appears under entourage or
spotlight ?

I have come across some applications that claim to make the archival of
Entourage files or messages an easier process. Two of them are MailSteward
and EEAX (Entourage Email Archive X). What has been your experience with
these applications ? Can they be used to access mbox files that have already
been saved or exported instead of being inside the MUD (Microsoft User
Database) ? Could I point either one of these applications to my mbox files
and search their content ?

Hi Joseph!

If you're creating .mbox files by dragging Entourage mail folders into
the Finder, then Spotlight will not be able to read and index them. Keep
in mind that the MBOX format is a standards compliant E-mail archive and
not just an Entourage format, so this isn't necessarily an Entourage
problem.

I've found that if I drag individual messages into the Finder then I'll
get .rge files that are indexed by Spotlight and if you have Leopard
then Quick Look works fantastic (no need to re-open in Entourage)! I've
re-discovered a lot of old messages with Quick Look.

Hope this helps!

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[Diane]

I have come across some applications that claim to make the archival of
Entourage files or messages an easier process. Two of them are MailSteward
and EEAX (Entourage Email Archive X). What has been your experience with
these applications ? Can they be used to access mbox files that have already
been saved or exported instead of being inside the MUD (Microsoft User
Database) ? Could I point either one of these applications to my mbox files
and search their content ?

John Carlsen's EEAX is an excellent application.
<http://homepage.mac.com/thinkagain/eMA/>

Since it provides a version that has a runtime Filemaker database it's very
reasonable. I'm not familiar with MailSteward. Check the Third Pary Product
page for some other solutions:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/xtras/third.html>

Basics on MBOX files:

An MBOX file is a specially-constructed text file, usable by any text
editor, which contains mail messages within the file (some other email
programs also use them).

This functionality is used in Entourage: If you drag a folder of messages to
the desktop, Entourage will automatically create an MBOX file. You can use
these to store messages and reduce the size of your database.

Note: Subfolders won't be included; you need to drag them separately, or use
the freeware script "Export Folders" by Barry Wainwright from
macscripter.net.

Note: Dragging an MBOX file into Entourage changes Received Time to the time
you drag the MBOX back in.
It leaves and Sent time exactly how it was - correct. Sort the messages by
Sent time, it will still sort them correctly.

Hope this helps.

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

If you're creating .mbox files by dragging Entourage mail folders into
the Finder, then Spotlight will not be able to read and index them. Keep
in mind that the MBOX format is a standards compliant E-mail archive and
not just an Entourage format, so this isn't necessarily an Entourage
problem.

Not strictly true.

Since they are text files, spotlight can index them (limited to the first
100k, I think) but only as a simple text file - no way it can return a
formatted email from an MBOX file. The individual emails can be read as raw
source using a text editor such as TextEdit or TextWrangler, but atachments
and HTML make a mess of this at times.