# Entourage: disappearing emails and addresses



## cdjeff (Mar 14, 2005)

I am using Entourage X on a G5:

Today when I opened Entourage ALL of my emails in my inbox, sent, deleted and trash were gone completely. Also all my addresses/contacts were gone.

I went to the Microsoft site and followed the instructions and did the "rebuild" thing to rebuild the database. That didn't do anything, so I tried the "advanced rebuild" with the same result. 

I also checked the trash.... nothing in there looking like email messages or databases. I have no idea where else to look or what else to try. I have been using this program since June 2004 so the file should be pretty large, but can't find anything in the Entourage folders that's large.

I'm pretty upset since I really need my emails and addresses. Some of the addresses are nowhere else, only in the emails.

A related topic would be, how do I back up my emails and addresses?

Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, CJ


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## cdjeff (Mar 14, 2005)

Update on disappearing and restoring lost emails:

I finally got ahold of someone at Microsoft. They had me do a "Find
file" search with the word "database". We found one that was about 50MB
with the right date on it (others were much older and not large
enough). It was located in the WRONG folder. So we simply moved it to
the right folder and everything magically appeared again after opening
the program. BIG sigh of relief.

When questioned why it was misplaced to the wrong location, there was
no definite answer. One possibility acknowledged was that the system
software update that I did recently, which also optimizes the entire
hard drive as part of it's automatic process, may have relocated the
file.... But this is not definite.

When asked about backing up emails two options are possible (in
Entourage X): Individual folders can be dragged to the desktop. This
creates files with the extension .mbox . These files can be opened in
MS Word and saved as word documents should one want to do that. Also
the entire database file can be copied elsewhere on a regular basis.

I was also advised to get the new update for Microsoft Office X since
it mainly has many security updates, but also provides additonal
stability for the entire suite of Office products. It is called 10.1.6
and located as follows: Go to www.mactopia.com . Select the "downloads"
option, go down to Office version X and select the security update
10.1.6 . This updates the entire suite of Office X products at one
time.

Thanks for your concern and help, Chris J.


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## Flashback (Oct 14, 1999)

glad you got everything back and it worked out for you. I know how it is to suddenly lose a lot of data, and it's not fun  You should try to find a way to back them up so that next time it won't be that big of a issue. Maybe put them on a CD.


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## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

Chris, sorry couldn't help you earlier, didn't have access to resources during the day.

Has this d/l fixed your problem for good? Please let us know results!

However, haven't had time tonight to find much info, besides to offer the following links:
http://www.macintouch.com/office2004part05.html
http://www.macwindows.com/entourage.html
http://www.versiontracker.com/users/donlevy323-225-2228

Thanks also for your 2nd post above that explained what worked, etc. :up:


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