Backup Your Data
- Backup Identity
- Backup an individual mail folder
- Backup an individual email
- Backup Contacts
- New Backup Options for Entourage 2004
- Scripts to backup (uses FileMakerPro as runtime or your own version)
- Create cron job to backup
- Move my data to a new computer
- Use third party software to backup
- Location of preference files to backup
- AutoArchive Exchange Account to "On My Computer"
- Archive your data
- Tip to Organize Your Backups Chronologically
- Using Third Party Applications
- Tutorial: create a time-machine-like backup (can be used by Tiger and Leopard users)
- Optional method- backup Entourage with Time Machine
Sync Services were added to Entourage 2004 with update 11.2.3. More info on Sync Services here.
Keys to a good backup:
Just like any data that's important, backup is key to good computing practices. Find an easy solution for your backup needs and DO IT! I suggest reading the Take Control of Mac OS X Backups for general backup of your Mac. Just make sure you backup regularly. Set a Task to remind you. You can also use Automator and iCal to automate the process. See tutorial.
As a general rule you should shut down all Office programs (including Office Notifications) before any Entourage backups. However, users have reported that as long as the database is not being used during backup there is no problem. Note; For this reason Time Machine is not recommended to backup your database since it will be in use. If you want to use Time Machine see this alternative.
If the database gets written during the backup you can either (1) lose some data or (2) have a corrupt backup file. If you are not writing anything...e.g., no automatic Send & Receive All schedule...you can back up without quitting anything. To be absolutely safe, you should quit Entourage before backup.
It's possible not to discover corruption and you could be backing up a corrupt file. This is why you should keep an archive and/or snapshot of older backups just in case.
Snapshot: This is most useful when you have inadvertently backed up a file that is damaged or unreadable, but say two weeks ago was fine. With the snapshot feature you can go back in time to a session where the file is undamaged and replace it.
- Duplicate your Identity folder. Set a recurring task to remind you. Location of Identity
- Create an Entourage archive (.rge) See video
- Use a script that will automate the process
- Create a simple cron job to back up your Entourage data folders.
- See Tutorial for easy backup (uses Automator and iCal)
Backup an individual mail folder:
Drag a folder to the desktop. This creates an MBOX file that can later be dragged back into Entourage or opened with a text editor. You will need to drage each subfolder individually. Tip: use the script "Export Folders". It includes subfolders.
Tip: drag your MBOX files into a new Identity, then switch Identities to search old mail. This keeps your regular database lean and more responsive.
See Video: MBOX files
Drag an individual message out of Entourage to your desktop to create individual (.eml) file.
Your contacts can be exported for backup. File-> Export Contacts.
In Entourage 2004 you can select to Export as an Entourage archive. Just check Local Contacts.
Exporting groups cannot be done with Entourage File-> Export, but you can export groups using scripts:
- Group Stuff to backup Entourage 2001
- Export-Import Entourage for Entourage X, 2004, 2008
New Backup Options starting with Entourage 2004
Entourage can export items such as mail messages, tasks, contacts, notes, and calendar events to an Entourage archive(.rge extension. These files are much smaller than duplicates of Entourage data files.
What *doesn't* an entourage archive preserve?
Archives are stored in non-proprietary, "industry standard" data formats. That means that the information that can be preserved is essentially "lowest common denominator" attributes that any application would have. What is not preserved are any Entourage specific meta-data: message history (what you have forwarded, replied to, etc), accounts, categories, projects, links etc.
Third Party Applications for Backup
Be sure to quit Entourage and the Microsoft Database daemon, or your backup could be corrupted.
One free option is to use eMessage Archiver. It uses a free runtime version of FileMaker. Another option that backs up to FileMaker is Mail to FileMaker Importer. Both are $15.
Retrospect warning: You might experence this error:
Can't read file "Database", error -54 (file is busy/locked), path: "Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities/Main Identity/Database".
Be sure to quit Entourage before backing up. You may find that there are other processes which still have the database open, specifically the "Microsoft Database Daemon". Entourage uses the Daemon as a centralized DB engine. If you use Retrospect's facility to run an Applescript prior to a backup, both Entourage and the Daemon can be shutdown, albeit with some annoying caveats.
Entourage X and 2004: A free but less thorough archiving program than eMessage Archiver is the adaptation of Dan Crevier's Filemaker package (Transfer to Archive E ), available on Allen Watson's script web site.
Entourage 2001 back up script can be found here.
AutoArchive Exchange Account to "On My Computer"
Part 5 of Learning the Terminal series by Chris Stone outlines how to create a simple cron job to back up your Entourage data folders regularly and automatically.
Tip to Organize Your Backups Chronologically
See tutorial on using this option to create an automatic backup of your data.
Use FolderOrgX (freeware) to organize your backup files info folder by date. FolderOrg is an AppleScript Folder Action that organizes files and folders by moving them into dated subfolders. This is helpful in keeping files and folders organized by the day they were added, not created or modified.
Entourage exports your data as " Main.rge". Adding additional archive files to the same folder presents a naming problem. Using FolderOrgX will organize your data into a folder with date they were added.
This is especially helpful when you remove old backups. Just remember to keep a snapshot on a regular basis. I like to keep at least, one backup archive per month.
This little Folder Action is easy to use and indispensable IMHO. I use this for my downloads folder, archive folder and my screen shots folder. This is crucial for my downloads folder. If you are like me you download way more than you have time to install. Having the downloads in a dated folder tells me that if I haven't installed and it's really old I must not need it. I delete the folder and clear up space for more downloads. :-)
Installation
- Drag "FolderOrg X" file into folder "/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/"
- Turn Folder Actions on with Folder Actions Switch
How to Attach FolderOrg X to a Folder: Use contextual menu to add to any folder.
What could be easier?