04-18-2012, 10:46 PM

Help! I updated Microsoft Office & had an issue. Kept getting a message that the database had to be rebuilt. Then I'd get a message saying the db I'd selected was older.. So I created a new one and rebuilt that. Outlook opened & I thought I was good to go. But ALL my email data is gone.

The old identity db is still in the Office 2011 Identities folder. Is there a way to re-connect to it? Or a way to restore from Time Machine (Backed up yesterday)?

Thanks for any help! If I can't restore I'd lose 6 years of emails.

Edit- I should clarify that if I simply re-connect to the old db through the Microsoft Database Management Utility, I get thrown back to the original error message that I need to rebuild the db... So it's not as simple as that. Can I add the old db as a sort of sub-db, like importing data from an older version of Outlook?

04-19-2012, 12:08 AM

Tried restoring via Time Machine. For some reason the newly restored identity (original one) is not working.

I tried moving the files from the restored identity into the folder for the new identity. Immediately got a message that the new identity needed to be rebuilt. Tried doing that and it got me back to my original error message, saying the db cannot be rebuilt.

I also restored the App folder with Time Machine, which I thought would solve everything right away.

So restoring apps & documents didn't work. What am I missing here?

04-19-2012, 12:32 AM

Deleted Microsoft Office file from Mac & restored via Time Machine.
The Deleted Identities folder & restored via Time Machine.
Rebuilt original identity & tried to use it. Got an error message saying it needed to be rebuilt (again?), which is usually caused by restoring with Time Machine. Okaaaaaaaaaay, so I rebuilt again.

VOILA. Old emails all returned! Figured I'd leave this up in case anyone else has the same problem, since I see many guests viewing this.

Thanks for taking the last 4 hours of my life Microslough.