How to rebuild your identity database in Entourage 2008

Whenever you create an Entourage information store. the space is allocated in the hard disk. When you update messages, tasks, notes, appointments, etc can increase wasted space. Due to this, inconsistencies may take place.

In order to start the Database Utility in all versions of Entourage, hold the Option key on the keyboard and start the Entourage file repair tool. You will get the option in the Database Utility to select the database which you want to manage.

Also read: Fixing “ERROR[16003;””]” in Microsoft Entourage

How to determine when to use the Rebuild feature

Following are some of the problems through which you can easily determine when to use the Rebuild feature:

• Entourage contact entries are not displayed correctly.
• Entourage doesn't open, stops responding, or quits unexpectedly.
• You can't find information that you added to Entourage, like calendar event or a contact.
• Blank lines appear in the Entourage message list or in Entourage contacts.
• When you perform a search in Entourage, the search results don't match the criteria that you set.

How to rebuild

Step 1: Quit all applications:
Firstly you have to quit all applications. To do this, click <application name> menu on the toolbar, then select Quit. Now close the window.

Step 2: Determine your identity:

Before performing any procedure, you should have atleast three times as much hard disk space available as the current size of your Outlook identity.

1. In the Finder, click Go, and then click Home.
2. Open the Microsoft User Data folder.
3. Open the Office 2011 Identities folder.
4. Click the Identity folder.
5. On the File menu, click Get Info, and then click Get Information.

Step 3: Backup your identity:

1. In the Finder, click Go, and then click Home. Open the Documents folder.
2. Open the Microsoft User Data folder.
3. Open Office 2008 Identifies
4. Control-click on the “Main Identity” folder, then select Duplicate. A copy of the folder is created.

Step 4: Rebuild the database:

1. Quit all applications.
2. Hold down the Options (alt) key, and then start Entourage 2008.
3. In the Database Utility window, select the database, click Rebuild database then click Continue.
4. The Rebuilding Main Identify window will open and show the progress. When the operation is completed, you will receive the message "Your database was successfully rebuilt."
5. Click Done. Click Quit then start Entourage. If the problem is not resolved, proceed to the next step.

Step 5: Create a new identity:

1. Exit all Office applications.
2. Locate the following folder, copy this folder to your desktop, to an external hard disk, or to a network location:  HD/Users/USER_NAME/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities/IDENTITY_NAME
3. Start Entourage. If you use multiple identities, click Switch Identity on the Entourage menu.
4. To create a new identity, click New, and then type a name in the Identity name box.
5. Exit Entourage.
6. Locate the following folder, and then rename the database file to a new name:  HD/Users/USER_NAME/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities/NEW_IDENTITY_NAME
7. Copy the database file from the IDENTITY_NAME folder that you copied in step 2 to the NEW_IDENTITY_NAME folder that you created in step 4.

In this way, it will resolve the issue.