Entourage email files. Where are they kept?

[willie45]

Hi

This is probaly a stupid question. Can anyone tell me where entourage stores the emails it gets. I want to locate all of these in a folder and back them up to a CD is this possible?

In any case I am now very curious to know where these files are so if someone could tell me I would be most grateful

Thanks

Willie

 

[Sky Blue]

Your Documents Folder/Microsoft User Data/Office 200X Identities/ Main Identity

 

[walnuts]

To be more specific, they are all saved in a database file (called "Database") (not individually as might be more helpful).

Unfortunately, even after saving this file elsewhere, I don't know how to retrieve old e-mails from this document. Entourage 2004 and the first version of 2008 had bugs with this database system, and occasionally the entire database would fail. After a few iterations of the 8-hour process of re-downloading my e-mail from the server, I tried backing up this database file. Unfortunately, restoring it gave no help.

Good luck!

 

[nadyne]

Entourage stores everything in a database, which other people in the thread have told you how to get to. You can back up that database, which has all of Entourage's data (email, contacts, tasks, etc etc etc). If you ever need to restore an old database, all that you need to do is tell Entourage to open up that database, and you should be fine.

Alternately, you can drag a mail folder from Entourage onto your desktop. It will create a file called YourFolderName.mbox. This file will only have the emails that are stored in that folder; if you have sub-folders, you'll need to drag them to the desktop separately.

You can do the same thing with other items in Entourage, too. If you drag a calendar event off of your calendar and onto the desktop, it will create an .ics file that you can backup. Contacts, tasks, and notes all behave in the same way.

After you've got these .mbox files, you can then do whatever you want with them -- move them around, burn them to CD, whatever. If you ever need to restore your email from this backup, you can simply drag the .mbox file from the Finder into Entourage. If there's a lot of email in there, it might take a minute or two for it to import.

Personally, I do this once a month (I have a recurring task set up to remind me to do it on the first Friday of every month) and save the files on a server somewhere. I'm always running pre-alpha software on my laptop, so having a good backup is very very important to me. 🙂

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[willie45]

Thank you all for your excellent advice. Particular thanks Nadyne for the tips. I understand how to sort this out now.

Willie

 

[Abi]

Need more help

Hi Nadyne,

I try to this because i lost one folder in my entourage but every time that I open the database from my backup (for example 02.01.2010) the entourage open with all folders from today (13.03.10) not from that date.

Can you help me?

Entourage stores everything in a database, which other people in the thread have told you how to get to. You can back up that database, which has all of Entourage's data (email, contacts, tasks, etc etc etc). If you ever need to restore an old database, all that you need to do is tell Entourage to open up that database, and you should be fine.

Alternately, you can drag a mail folder from Entourage onto your desktop. It will create a file called YourFolderName.mbox. This file will only have the emails that are stored in that folder; if you have sub-folders, you'll need to drag them to the desktop separately.

You can do the same thing with other items in Entourage, too. If you drag a calendar event off of your calendar and onto the desktop, it will create an .ics file that you can backup. Contacts, tasks, and notes all behave in the same way.

After you've got these .mbox files, you can then do whatever you want with them -- move them around, burn them to CD, whatever. If you ever need to restore your email from this backup, you can simply drag the .mbox file from the Finder into Entourage. If there's a lot of email in there, it might take a minute or two for it to import.

Personally, I do this once a month (I have a recurring task set up to remind me to do it on the first Friday of every month) and save the files on a server somewhere. I'm always running pre-alpha software on my laptop, so having a good backup is very very important to me. 🙂

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[Abi]

Need more help Entourage database

Hi Nadyne,

I tried to do those steps because I lost one folder in my entourage but every time that I open the database from my backup (for example 02.01.2010) the entourage open with all folders from today (13.03.10) not from that date.

Can you help me?

Entourage stores everything in a database, which other people in the thread have told you how to get to. You can back up that database, which has all of Entourage's data (email, contacts, tasks, etc etc etc). If you ever need to restore an old database, all that you need to do is tell Entourage to open up that database, and you should be fine.

Alternately, you can drag a mail folder from Entourage onto your desktop. It will create a file called YourFolderName.mbox. This file will only have the emails that are stored in that folder; if you have sub-folders, you'll need to drag them to the desktop separately.

You can do the same thing with other items in Entourage, too. If you drag a calendar event off of your calendar and onto the desktop, it will create an .ics file that you can backup. Contacts, tasks, and notes all behave in the same way.

After you've got these .mbox files, you can then do whatever you want with them -- move them around, burn them to CD, whatever. If you ever need to restore your email from this backup, you can simply drag the .mbox file from the Finder into Entourage. If there's a lot of email in there, it might take a minute or two for it to import.

Personally, I do this once a month (I have a recurring task set up to remind me to do it on the first Friday of every month) and save the files on a server somewhere. I'm always running pre-alpha software on my laptop, so having a good backup is very very important to me. 🙂

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[cheath]

I'm hoping these solutions already given solve my problem, but if not, I'd appreciate someone helping me out.

I was using Entourage from Office 04 on my Mac laptop at home. That laptop recently had an accident and is dead! Fortunately, I use Super Duper every night to create a carbon back up of my hard drive. I will be getting a new computer soon with Office 08.

I understand that when I set up Entourage on the new computer, it will automatically pull in my Inbox emails from the server. However, it will not have the folders and emails that are stored in the "on my computer" section. However, those should be saved somewhere on that back up drive, but I'm not sure where they are, or how to get them onto my new computer.

Can I simply replace the database file that's on the back up drive with the database folder that will be on the new machine? Or can I just click to open that database file? Or do I have to export/import some way? Thanks so much!

 

[cheath]

Found the answer to my own question. If you go under user > documents > Microsoft User Data > Office XXXX Identities > Main Identities, you'll see a folder called "Database". Just pull that file from your back up and replace it in the file from the new machine (which would be relatively small) and everything will be replaced. Walla!