which email client for Exchange access?

[mlevin77]

I can't take Entourage (2008) any more - the constant garbling of the enormous single database file (and the database "repairs" which always seem to lose data) are driving me crazy. Our institution is going to upgrade to Exchange 2007 (or perhaps 2010) in a few weeks, and I need to move to a more stable client. I'm running the latest 10.6. Can someone advise me: do I want Apple Mail, Thunderbird, or something else? My criteria are:

1) I need to be able to access Exchange email, Calendar, and Addressbook, but not necessarily with the same application.
2) I have a very large database of emails - 22 Gigs or so, and I need to be able to view and search them all. So,
3) which client will make migration from Entourage easiest?
4) which one is the most stable, so that this huge (and growing database) won't get corrupted? It's insane that one bad action can ruin the whole thing. Surely there are clients that store emails separately so that even if something gets damaged, the whole thing isn't munged...

Any hints greatly appreciated!

thank you,

Mike Levin

 

[slpdLoad]

1) I would go with Apple Mail. It will support 2007 Exchange out of the box, and then you'll use iCal and Address book for the other features. If you use Thunderbird, you'll configure it as an IMAP account, and then enter your Exchange credentials.

2) 22gb is rather ridiculous and is going to piss off any email client and server setup frankly. I'd look into a better way to archive your mail, but whatever. Your individual email messages will be available through the finder in a normal hierarchy, in the .emlx format.

3) Once you enter your Exchange info in Mail, it should pull everything down from the server, no importing from Entourage necessary. Mail can however import Entourage's mailbox files if you need.

4) I'd still prefer Mail personally, although a good incremental backup strategy is the real solution here. Plus since it's Exchange, your stuff should always be available up on the server to pull down anew.

 

[mlevin77]

>1) I would go with Apple Mail.

ok thanks.

> 2) 22gb is rather ridiculous and is going to piss off any email client and
> server setup frankly. I'd look into a better way to archive your mail, but

agreed, but what is my option? I need to be able to search through and find emails by date, from field, etc. etc. going back a couple of decades. It shouldn't bother the server, because I keep most of it in local folders, only a small percentage of that is actually on the server. What's the right way to archive so that they're available for searching?

> whatever. Your individual email messages will be available through the
> finder in a normal hierarchy, in the .emlx format.

for some reason Spotlight finds a lot of emails that don't exist - they come up in a search window but when I click on them it says "this item has been deleted or cannot be found" or something like that. How to clear them out of the Spotlight database?

> Mail can however import Entourage's mailbox files if you need.

I have a lot of the old emails in local folders. So I drag them to desktop so they become .mbox files and then import into Mail? will it keep the dates fields correct etc.?

thanks,

Mike

 

[slpdLoad]

agreed, but what is my option? I need to be able to search through and find emails by date, from field, etc. etc. going back a couple of decades. It shouldn't bother the server, because I keep most of it in local folders, only a small percentage of that is actually on the server. What's the right way to archive so that they're available for searching?

Fair enough. With Mail you shouldn't have issues with things getting corrupted, but it may be slow, depending on how large individual directories are.

If you simply pull them from the server, you can still search them with Spotlight locally. That may or may not give you the functionality you need.

for some reason Spotlight finds a lot of emails that don't exist - they come up in a search window but when I click on them it says "this item has been deleted or cannot be found" or something like that. How to clear them out of the Spotlight database?

Well here's how to reset your Spotlight database:
http://www.geekology.co.za/blog/200...eset-spotlight-data-cache-reindex-hard-drive/

But how are you searching with Spotlight with Entourage? Once you have everything in Mail, I find using the Search feature in Mail (powered by Spotlight) is the best way to go. Someone else may have a better answer to this.

I have a lot of the old emails in local folders. So I drag them to desktop so they become .mbox files and then import into Mail? will it keep the dates fields correct etc.?

Correct, that's definitely the best way. Mail actually supports migrating directly from an Entourage database, but I have moved a few people from Entourage to Mail, and it never worked properly due to issues with Entourage's database. Either move them in as .mbox or let them be pulled down from the server.