[footie]

I backed up my Main Identity Database for Entourage a week or so ago as a way of saving all of my emails ( it's 600+ mb ). I had a problem with Entourage last night and it started crashing on launch. So I tried the 'rebuild' option key methods. No luck.

So I pulled the current Database out and dropped the old one in. Entourage didn't recognize it for some reason.

I'd like to get it in there since it has the last couple of years' business emails in it and I didn't have much traffic over the last week.

Any suggestions on how to get Entourage to recognize the old Database file I saved?

Thanks for any advice

Footie

[Boochie]

Did you try File->Import?

[footie]

Originally posted by Boochie:
Did you try File->Import?

I tried the file import. It doesn't appear to work for importing from Entourage from itself.

Thanks for the suggestion, tho!

Footie

[gorickey]

This could be a long-shot; however, can you import the data into Mail.app and then from there, try to import into Entourage?

[footie]

Originally posted by gorickey:
This could be a long-shot; however, can you import the data into Mail.app and then from there, try to import into Entourage?

Thanks, I tried that!

The first thing that Apple Mail does is launch Entourage, which wakes up and completely ignores the Database and creates its own.

When I import, I got zilch.

Are there any command line things I can do to tell Entourage to use the Database I want?

Thanks for the suggestion,

Footie

[gorickey]

Hmmm, darn.

Did you try "rebuilding" the current database you have? I know you tried rebuilding one, but did you try the other?

[Macola]

Here's a long shot: Try creating a new identity, quit Entourage, then go to the folder for that identity, and drop in your old database and cache files. Relaunch and see if it works.

[bbales]

Is it telling you that the database is in use, or something like that?

This has happened to me before and I know there were difficulties in putting in the "saved" database.

I found the answer on these forums! Unfortunately, I can't remember all the specifics. But trhere's something called "daemon" that starts when you launch the program, and as long as that's running, Entourage won't recognize the new database. And you have to force-quit it to get rid of it.

I will look in a minute, but I BELIEVE you access it via the "activity monitor" application in the utilities folder in your application file. There are 2 in there with "daemon" in it (I did just check) and one is the database and one says Microsoft daemon.

Oh -- also quit the office notifications program, too -- that will prevent Entourage from recognizing the new database.

Just putting this out there for you. I'll try to find the exact stuff in the forums, too.

[bbales]

OK, I did a search on the forum, using "Entourage" and "daemon."

I found my old problems, by the way. And in a thread from early 2003, I found the following:


[[ Posted on : 01-31-2003 09:01 PM __

One problem that comes up replacing the Entourage identity Database in Office v.X is the Microsoft Database Daemon process. This is the process that pops up your calendar appointment reminders, and it usually sets itself up to start at login. Since it has already opened the Database, even after the Database is in the Trash it's still reading it (and making it impossible to empty the trash.) You can stop it by logging out or quitting it from the Process Viewer utility, or using Entourage to "Turn Off Office Notifications". (Running Word will launch the Database Daemon, too. Word uses it to fetch auto-completions of contact names and addresses from the Entourage Address Book.)

Try this:
Keep your backup copy of your old Main Identity folder in a safe location, of course.

Quit Entourage (and all other Office applications.)
Launch the Process Viewer utilty. Locate the "Database Daemon" process. Quit it.
Trash whatever identity folder is in the Office X Identities folder.

Launch Entourage so it creates a new (empty) Main Identity. Quit Entourage.

Copy your backed-up Main Identity folder to some out of the way place such as the Desktop. Rename it "Old Identity". Then drag the "Old Identity" folder into the "Office X Identities" folder. (I.e., don't try to replace the Main Identity folder.)

Launch Entourage.
Select "Switch Identity..." from the Entourage menu.
Select "Old Identity" from the identity list.

See if that lets you use your old mail.]]

By the way, congrats on backing up. When I lost all my stuff, I was heartsick. BUT -- I'd backed up just the night before, so I was OK. It was just a pain figuring out how to actually USE my backup.

Good luck.

[Boochie]

If it's an option, I suppose you could also boot into OS9 to replace the database, so as to fool the daemon.

[footie]

I tried the suggestions of starting and stopping Entourage and dropping the old database in as an 'Old Identity'. It worked as suggested.

However, Entourage was still crashing.

So, I did it over, but when Entourage came up the first time, I set it to work off line. Then I quit, dropped in the old DB as an Old Identity and restarted.

All of my stuff was there. I tediously mbox'd all of the folders and saved them.

Then I turned off all of my mail accounts and brought them back on one at a time.

When I turned my Comcast account back on, Entourage immediately crashed while trying to retrieve mail.

We have this problem on our OS9 PB running Outlook Express as the mail client.

It is due to a malformed email message (spam). Under OS9 OE hangs. Apparently, Entourage crashes. It was the first time.

To fix this, I have to go to Comcast webmail, find the errant message and delete it there.

I think that had I done this first the whole DB rebuild problem wouldn't have been necessary.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions and support!

Footie