> I just did an Advanced Rebuild of my E2001 user data, and now all of my
> folders which had a Category assigned are defaulted back to None. Also, all
> sub-folders in those folders have had Category data removed.
>
> I don't see any reference to this in the Help info.
>
> My contacts have not been affected, and the messages inside the folders that
> were defaulted to None have not been affected.
>
> It seems as if that is a bug, not to mention a huge hassle now that I have
> to go back and set all of those folders and their subfolders to the
> categories they were previously set to.
>
> Also, all of my category-dependent custom views (many) are now broken, which
> is hours upon hours of work.
It's not a bug, and you're clearly advised NOT to do an Advanced Rebuild unless you really need to. It's very true that the Help for Entourage 2001 says far too little about it. But it does say this, in the only place you would have found any info for Advanced Rebuild:
? To fix corrupted data and reduce the size of the Entourage database, click Advanced Rebuild."Caution: some of your data might be lost"
Caution Some of your data might be lost if you choose the Advanced Rebuild option. You should use this option only if you are experiencing problems starting Entourage or storing data.
At the MacTopia website, is an excellent article, with easy links from the Office 2001 site:
And it's also particularly strong on advising you NOT to do an Advanced unless you really need to, and when you might really need to. Check it out.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/library/feature_articles/ent/t_rebuild_database.asp
If you determine that the best rebuild method for your needs is an Advanced Rebuild, note that you will also have to do the following:
* Add pictures to individual contacts again, if you previously stored a picture in a contact.
* Re-create links between items, if you previously linked items to one another.
* Re-download the messages that you have received from an IMAP, Hotmail, or news account.
* Reset column preferences for IMAP, Hotmail, and news message folders.
* Reenter settings for schedules that send and receive messages from IMAP, Hotmail, and news accounts.
* Reenter settings for rules that copy or move messages to folders on an IMAP or Hotmail server.
If you're not sure which type of rebuild you should perform, it's a good idea to start with a Typical Rebuild and then determine whether your problems are still occurring.
The whole point about an Advanced rebuild it that it removes corruption by getting rid of object ID numbers and the links between items, which have become corrupted. That's actually what corruption is, more or less. It reverts to basic raw data, which is not corrupt, and builds the database from scratch again. So you lose all the links between items, as you have discovered. Those links are always by ID to allow you to change item names and move things around. Otherwise people would be losing links every day.
Anyway, it is a good idea to check out MacTopia. And the Help has been much improved in Entourage X.
--
Paul Berkowitz
