error 18000 during outlook 2011 rebuild
My outlook for Mac 2011 asked for a database identity rebuild.
During the course of the rebuild, at step 4 it came up with an error 18000 and stopped.
What is the meaning of this rather cryptic error message and what is the way round it?
Regards
Carl
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Answer
www.needhelp4mac.com/services/
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Answer
Outlook rebuild results in folders named Recovered
Other users with the -18000 error were able to successfully rebuild when it failed even with enough free space using this new option.
www.needhelp4mac.com/services/
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- Quit all applications.
- Hold down the Option key on the keyboard, and then click the Outlook icon in the dock. The Microsoft Database Utility will open.
Note You can also access the Microsoft Database Utility by opening the Application folder and then opening the Microsoft Office 2011 folder. Open the Office folder, and then double-click Microsoft Database Utility.app.
- Click the plus [+] sign to add a new identity, and then type a name for the new identity. For example, type New identity.

- Set the newly create identity as the default. To do this, select the newly created identity, click the Action button, and then select Set as Default.

- Quit the Microsoft Database Utility, and then restart Outlook and see whether the problem is resolved.
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Hi Cody,
Thanks for the reply.
The error message is "Your database could not be rebuilt. [-18000]". This error is at Step 4 of 5: Recovering Data...
I have several mail accounts in this outlook setup.
Two are exchange, two pop accounts and one imap.
Regards
Carl
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How to move your data to a new Identity
Rebuild Basics:
- Do Not Rebuild Identities with Exchange and IMAP accounts. Delete the accounts (this deletes the cache files in Outlook). Do the rebuild then add back accounts. Better yet start over in a new Identity. If the rebuild does not work then you could sync unwanted changes or deletions to your server and lose data.
- Make sure you have plenty of free space on your drive. Make sure that you have at least three times as much hard disk space available as the current size of your Outlook identity PLUS 10% free for virtual memory.
- Rebuilding does not fix all issues. It can make some problems worse. Even though the Database Utility will make a backup, I advise making a copy in the Finder first.
- You can delete the rebuild version after you are satisfied with the results. This copy will be named like this: Main Identity [Backed up 1-21-2012 13.35]
Tip: If your Identity will open, before you rebuild, check "On My Computer"Inbox and Sent folders to be sure they are under the 2GB limit. Generally this is less than 10,000 messages but with large attachments could be less. Make subfolders e.g. Inbox 2011, Inbox 2010, Sent 2011, Sent 2010 etc to help reduce the number of messages in a folder. (Check for any large archive folders you might have in addition to Inbox and Sent).
www.needhelp4mac.com/services/
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Hello Diane,
Thanks for your response.
First of all, I have more than enough free space. The challenge I believe is that the identity would not open and that means that I do not have access to remove some accounts and carry out the rebuild process.
Is there any other step to follow to rebuild the identity?
Regards
Carl
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Answer
www.needhelp4mac.com/services/
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Abuse history
www.needhelp4mac.com/services/
Abuse history
Answer
Outlook rebuild results in folders named Recovered
Other users with the -18000 error were able to successfully rebuild when it failed even with enough free space using this new option.
www.needhelp4mac.com/services/
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hi Diane, after reading your topic, i got the same problem my identity crash and refuse to be rebuilt error 18000
my problem is my mac book air have a ssd drive of 128 go
what to do in my case? my identity (database anddata records) is around 8.3go
thank you
william
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