How I restored a Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 Database and Data Store after Microsoft's Database Utility Failed.
I imagine that Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 was left as a 32-bit application for reasons that served the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit, but not this end user. (64-bit versions have been available on 64-bit Windows operating systems for over fifteen years.) I'm sure it made perfect sense from their perspective. I further imagine that this limits the performance of the application with large databases and large Data Record stores and may contribute to database and performance issues that the Microsoft Database Utility, also a 32-bit application, is simply unable to address.
There is not a lot of clear assistance beyond using the Database Utility on Microsoft's Mac Knowledge Base, MVP and Help pages, or, I simply failed to find it. Microsoft phone support was not helpful. Other sources provided hints, but I could find no road map on a single page for a recent patch of Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3.
Since I may well have missed write-ups better than this one, if you would kindly provide links to these in the comments, so that others may find the best description of how to deal with these issues, instead of wading in deeper here, I would be highly appreciative.
This is intended as a record of an apparently successful restoration, not self-help instructions. I have attempted to be as complete as possible, however, I am not available to help with an individual case or answer questions about same. I have limited availability to make corrections to this report. Please read this report twice before taking any action where you would like a response from me. My availability is limited and there is a lot to absorb in this report in a single reading.
Here I will attempt to reconstruct what seems to have worked for one instance. This is for informational purposes only!
YOU ASSUME ALL RISK IF YOU USE ANY INFORMATION FROM THIS POSTING ON YOUR SYSTEM(S).
The System:
Mac OS X 10.9.1 (13B42) Mavericks (Client)
Apple iMac 24" (iMac9,1, Early 2009, EMC 2266) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz, 8GB DDR3 memory,
4TB Hitachi Deskstar internal hard disk (approximately 478 GB used).
NVIDIA GE Force GT 120 256MB graphics
External 2TB FireWire 800 drive for a full system clone
External 0.5TB FireWire 800 drive for an extra backup of the ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities folder
Time Capsule 3TB back-up device as last-resort restoration.
Microsoft Office:mac Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 14.3.9 (131030)
Before the repair I had:
• 12405 contacts (50.9 MB as a separate .olm file) 100,000+ items (mostly e-mail)
• Microsoft User Data Folder - 16.71 GB
Office 2011 Identities / Main Identity / Data Records - 15.97 GB
Office 2011 Identities / Main Identity / Database - 390.9 MB (Database Utility failed)
• Contact search was broken.
• Contacts were mainly in the "On My Computer" folders and around 30 remaining in "Address Book" folder.
• The Database Utility failed at step 4 of 5 with error message "Your database could not be rebuilt. [-18000]"
After the repair I had:
• 12405 contacts (50.9 MB as a separate .olm file) 100,000+ items (mostly e-mail)
• Microsoft User Data Folder - 10.22 GB
Office 2011 Identities / Main Identity / Data Records - 10.04 GB
Office 2011 Identities / Main Identity / Database - 174.8 MB (before running Database Utility)
Office 2011 Identities / Main Identity / Database - 174.8 MB (after running Database Utility successfully)
• Some Address Book Categories had to be re-enabled in preferences to be visible after the re-import process. (The import process did preserve the categories, however.)
• Contact search works.
• Contacts moved to the "Address Book" folder and the "One My Computer" folder was emptied and deleted.
• The Database Utility completes 5 of 5 steps successfully.
Note: although after a diverse set of checks of all major functions, "everything appears to be there" I have not investigated nor do I understand the loss of almost 6 GB of data! I may not investigate it. If I do,
I will add a comment here if I learn anything useful.
If you cannot afford the uncertainty of such a large loss of data, I would recommend that you consider blazing your own new path. For example, consider splitting up the export and import phases (contacts alone, followed by calendar alone, followed by mail alone, followed by notes alone, and so on) in the following steps. This may contain the data loss "damage" to one category. If, for example, your notes appear to be intact and all of the data loss appears to be associated with your notes and only your notes, you might, at your option, choose to live with that data loss, since that loss was apparently contained to the notes area.
From the Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 export log:
YYYY-MM-DD HH:08:36: Error writing attachment to archive "/Users/***********/Desktop/Outlook for Mac Archive.olm".
YYYY-MM-DD HH:08:37: Error exporting folder 'On My Computer/folder name/subfoldername/subsubsubfoldername
YYYY-MM-DD HH:10:58: Error writing attachment to archive "/Users/***********/Desktop/Outlook for Mac Archive.olm".
YYYY-MM-DD HH:10:58: Error writing attachment to archive "/Users/***********/Desktop/Outlook for Mac Archive.olm".
YYYY-MM-DD HH:10:58: Error writing attachment to archive "/Users/***********/Desktop/Outlook for Mac Archive.olm".
YYYY-MM-DD HH:10:58: Error writing attachment to archive "/Users/***********/Desktop/Outlook for Mac Archive.olm".
YYYY-MM-DD HH:10:58: Error exporting folder 'On My Computer/folder name/subfoldername/subsubfoldername'.
YYYY-MM-DD HH:37:27: Exception calendar event encountered but master event not found! FW: Event name
YYYY-MM-DD HH:37:27: Exception calendar event encountered but master event not found! Event name
YYYY-MM-DD HH:37:27: Exception calendar event encountered but master event not found! Event name
YYYY-MM-DD HH:37:27: Exception calendar event encountered but master event not found! Event name
YYYY-MM-DD HH:37:27: Exception calendar event encountered but master event not found! Event name
YYYY-MM-DD HH:37:27: Exception calendar event encountered but master event not found! Event name
The log file did not reveal in detail what happened to what attachments. Perhaps another more detailed log file exists which will. Unfortunately, this means that there is no way to return to the original instance of Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 and examine, for example, the original message and its attachment. Thus, it is impossible to make an informed assessment of any data loss with error logging of such low fidelity.
Here are the steps I followed. It took several wrong moves, each of which necessitated restoring from a backup, to finally get it right. In each case the backup was easy, taking only the time to copy about 16 GB, or, to rename a folder, for the case where the original and backup were on the same physical disk.
Thus, this is a reconstruction, written as if I had gotten it more or less right the first time.
YOU ASSUME ALL RISK IF YOU USE ANY INFORMATION FROM THIS POSTING ON YOUR SYSTEM(S).
00.) Can you launch Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 and open your data, with or without errors?
If not, these instructions are not for you.
01.) Back up ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities in MULTIPLE places, via COPY or Carbon Copy Cloner, etc.
02.) Protect / isolate these independent backups from your other regular Backup systems, e.g. nightly cloning, Time Machine, etc.
02a) If at any point you need to bail, restore from a backup! ...
02b) Go to /Applications/Utilities and launch Activity Monitor ->>
(FORCE if necessary) QUIT all Microsoft processes:
Microsoft Database Deamon, Microsoft AU Deamon, Microsoft Office Reminders...
02c.) Restore your original ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities from your backup.
02d.) Restart the Microsoft Database Deamon by starting Outlook or manually.
02e.) Test your restoration thoroughly.
03.) If necessary, launch Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3.
04.) Delete any unneeded attachments, messages, etc. Get the old house in order before you move out of it, if possible.
05.) If necessary, arrange messages into sub-folders. Outlook:mac may have issues with large folders that are cured by using smaller sub-folders. (The online information I found was far from clear. How does one determine the storage size associated with a folder, for example?)
06.) Disable any of the 4 Sync Services on Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 preferences. Keep a record of which one(s) you used.
07a.) Use the Outlook -> File -> Export ... tool to export all contacts, e-mail, calendars to an Outlook OLM file. Protect it.
07b.) Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 Exports contacts only from "Address Book" and Imports only to "On My Computer".
Note only the "Address Book" contacts are exported provided "Contacts" (inconsistent terminology) is
checked during the export process. No contacts under "on my computer" are exported.
If necessary, Right-click on any contacts under "on my computer" and select "move" and move your
"on my computer" contacts into "address book" PRIOR to export.
Similarly, Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 imports e-mail from the .OLM file to "On My Computer" (including subfolders)
and not to the new inbox.
The reason for these rules is to prevent commingling existing and imported content during the import.
It is incumbent on the end user to move contacts, messages, notes, calendar entries, etc., from their "arrival" folders after
importing to their proper places. With care, duplicate e-mail messages, calendar entries, notes and contacts can
be avoided.
07c.) Review the export log file when prompted. Are there any clear errors? Decide what to do about them. Unfortunately, there may be ambiguous errors about, for example, missing attachments. If you can live with the ambiguous errors and act appropriately on the clear ones, then proceed.
OTHERWISE, STOP NOW AND GO BACK TO YOUR BACKUP(S)
Or explore/invent your own new procedures, for example, making multiple exports of fewer items, and see if you can contain the damage that way.
08a.) Kill the Microsoft Database Deamon.
08b.) Remove it from the user's login preference pane auto launch
using System Preferences. It can be re-added later.
08c.) Go to /Applications/Utilities and launch Activity Monitor ->>
(FORCE if necessary) QUIT all Microsoft processes:
Microsoft Database Deamon, Microsoft AU Deamon, Microsoft Office Reminders...
09.) Quit Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011
10.) Go to original ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/Main Identity and delete folder "Data Records" and the "Database".
11.) Launch Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3
12.) Verify that Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 is "empty" of accounts, messages, contacts, calendars, etc,
13.) Use the Outlook -> File -> Import ... tool to import all contacts, e-mail, calendars from the Outlook OLM file.
14a.) Right-click on any re-imported contacts under "on my computer" and select "move" and move your
"on my computer" contacts into "address book"
14b.) If Right-click "move" does not work, for example, if the search field in the following step does not reveal your
"address book", open the contacts under "on my computer" as a list, Select All, and drag them into your Address Book.
14c.) Verify that your "On My Computer" contacts are empty and delete the empty folder(s).
14d.) Check that all messages, contacts, calendars, etc. are AS THEY SHOULD BE.
15a.) If they are not, make a list of what is missing. For example, if your contacts are missing, add "contacts" to that list.
15b.) Quit Outlook:mac 2011 SP3
15c.) Rename ONE of your backups, or exchange contents (renaming is faster if both are on the same disk)
your ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identity/Main Identity folder
for ONE of your multiple backups.
15d.) Launch Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 and repeat the Export... steps above,
but ONLY for the missing item(s) from your list. Keep the new .OLM file in a separate place with a different name.
15e.) Quit Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3.
15f.) Reverse the renaming / exchange of your backup Main Identity Folder with the backup from step (15c.).
15g.) Launch Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP3
15h.) Verify that you still have your new, partially recovered contacts, messages, calendars, etc... "back" minus those missing
from your list.
15i.) Use the Import... tool and your second .OLM file to import the missing items you exported in the second export.
15j.) Go back to step (14.) and check that all is as IT SHOULD BE.
16.) Quit Microsoft Outlook:mac 2011 SP2.
17.) Go to your System Preferences --> Users Preference Pane --> Your user profile --> Login items
18.) Re-add /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/Microsoft Database Deamon.app to your login items.
19.) Go to /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/ and manually click on the
Microsoft Database Deamon.app to run it if it is not already running.
20.) Go to Outlook:mac 2011 SP3 Preferences - Sync Services pane, and re-enable any Sync Services you were using.
Check your notes for which Sync services to re-enable.
21a.) Verify, verify, verify. Is "everything there"?
21a.) Do you Sync with all of your devices and services (i.e. iCloud)?
21c.) Does the Microsoft Database Utility successfully complete all five steps?
22.) After you have verified that all of Outlook is working, and all of your data is present, delete all of your protected backups except one and any .OLM file(s) you exported and re-imported.
23.) Restore your normal system-wide backup systems to active status, if necessary. Verify that they are actually working, i.e., try to restore something.
24.) Once you are comfortable with your results, including their stability over time, (a week, a month?) SECURELY delete any protected and redundant backups of your pre-repair system.
Good luck with your efforts.
Mark Frautschi
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