MS Entourage: have lost access to POP-stored e-mails 3

[SantaMufasa]

Chairman of the Board of our company uses Entourage (11.4.0) on his Mac (Mac OS X 10.5.4).

He recently encountered a hard-disk malfunction. At that time, he did a full backup of his problematic hard disk onto an external drive. The machine went into the "Apple Doctor" for a replacement hard drive. We have loaded the contents of the external backup onto the new drive. Everything that we loaded back onto his machine seems healthy and accessible.

Since about July 1, 2008, his Entourage has been using IMAP for his e-mail. Prior to July 1, he was using POP, which stored his e-mail messages locally.

Now that we have his machine reloaded, he has access to all of his July 1-forward IMAP e-mail messages, but he cannot see any of his pre-July 1 (POP-stored) messages.

Can you advise me:[ul][li]How can I identify the email-repository file(s) that Entourage was using for his pre-July 1 messages?[/li][li]Once I identify the POP repository, how can I re-establish the linkage between Entourage and those/that POP file(s)?[/li][li]Am I even on the right track here? Can/should I be following some other remedial track to give him back access to his e-mail before he has a stroke?[/li][/ul]

Thanks,

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
“Beware of those that seek to protect you from harm. The cost will be your freedoms and your liberty.”

 

[twiSSt]

If you still have the full back up available to you, you need to look for a folder called Microsoft User Data. It should be enclosed in the Users home folder something like this path below just replace the the username with his:

username/Documents/MicorsoftUserData/Main Identity.

If you cpoy and drop that folder into the same folder on his new harddrive you should "get" his old mail back, providing it really exist anymore.

Entourage is not without it's share of problems and if the mail store was really large it can and will go corrupt.

Twist

===========================================
Everything will be OK in the end.
If it's not OK, then it's not the end

 

[jmgalvin]

Go to the Help menu in Entourage and search "rebuild database". It's best that you copy the instructions to a non MS app like Textedit, since part of the rebuild requires that you quit all Office apps.

Then follow the instructions given. Try the quick fix first and see what happens. It usually does not work and you have to go to the advanced rebuild. Before you do that, copy Microsoft User data to a different part of the computer or to something like an outboard drive to protect it, in case.

As the above poster said, Entourage can corrupt its database over time - pretty much guaranteed in fact. The rebuild of the database usually works to get it back but it's best to set up Entourage so that it leaves a copy of the email on the server, but deletes deleted messages from the server when they're deleted on the client.

It's also best to to set up a schedule for "empty deleted items folder" so it's done automatically on quit, once a day, once a week, or whatever. To many users fail to empty the deleted items. That greatly increases the volume of messages in the database; increasing the chance of corruption.




Using OSX 10.3.9 & 10.4.11 on a G4, G5 & Intel Macbook

 

[jpadie]

Santa
as an alternative, the identities library can also reside ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft User Data/.

i always move my installations to this location so that the Documents folder can be synced without the bloated libraries that Office creates.

remember to check permissions on the libraries once you've copied them across to one location or the other.

 

[SantaMufasa]

Thanks, All ! Your contributions, both individually and collectively, set me off in the right direction. Have

s, along with my gratitude.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
“Beware of those that seek to protect you from harm. The cost will be your freedoms and your liberty.”