Someone recently wrote in asking how to recover email from a corrupt Entourage Database file and then how to get the email into a new version of Entourage. Specifically, the asker had a file that Entourage 2008 could not import or upgrade from an earlier version, and he had tried all the various methods of rebuilding that Entourage provides. Here is my answer to him, which I thought others would find useful too:
Hi B.,
It sounds like there are a couple questions here, so let me try to address them one at a time.
Regarding corrupt Entourage database files: Emailchemy can still extract messages from generally corrupt databases, but depending on how the file is damaged, it may not get everything out. So, there are a couple of other things you can try.
- Convert the Entourage database file as if it were an Outlook Express 5 for Mac file. You’ll have to do this using Emailchemy’s advanced interface. Doing this will lose all the folders, but it has a good chance of getting more messages out. This works with Database files created by Entourage versions prior to Entourage 2004
- If you have the machine where the old Entourage was running, you can try to grab the cache files that Entourage generates. Emailchemy now has a Entourage Cache conversion wizard that should be able to help.
Regarding how to get the mail into Entourage 2008, there are a few different methods listed in the manual:
- Convert to an Entourage RGE file and then have Entourage import it. This is probably the easiest way.
- Convert to mbox files and then have Entourage import them. It works as well as the first method, but you have to each mbox one at a time (you’ll get an mbox file for each original email folder).
- Convert to IMAP ImportServer format and download the messages into Entourage using an IMAP account that connects to Emailchemy’s IMAP server. This is a fallback that you usually only need for importing into Outlook, but it’s there as an option.
Let me know if this helps, or if you have any more questions.
Thanks,
Matt
