error 18000 during outlook 2011 rebuild

Hi Rob I write you since I have a lot of troubles using the "find" tools with microsoft outlook on my macbook pro.

Every time I use the "find" tool, while scrolling the list of e-mails found by the tool, it happens that I receive an error message "An error occurred with the Office database. To use the database you have to rebuild it using the Database Utility - In order to keep using it click on REBUILD and after the process is over, close the Database Utility. Once the process is completed the Database will be again available to be used by Office applications."

After clicking on REBUILD the process starts with 5 steps:

"step 1 of 5: scanning........"

"step 2 of 5: checking........"

"step 3 of 5": copying records on the new database......"

"step 4 of 5": recovering data......"

"Database rebuilding process is not possible: (-18000).

Can you please help me?

There are two different ways you can recover your data. The first way is basically following the instructions at http://www.officeformachelp.com/2012/05/how-to-recover-your-data-when-rebuilding -restoring-and-upgrading-fails/, however, with the following modification.

Do NOT copy the folder “FOLDERS”, but copy “CATEGORIES” instead.

This will result in you being able to recover all of your data, but you would lose all you folder names and hierarchical structure. (Eg. I had 10 folders at the top of my hierarchy, with loads of subfolders inside subfolders inside subfolders etc… In total the number of folders I have is 558). When my data was recovered in this manner, I had 558 folders at the top level all named “Recovered Folder 1″, “Recovered Folder 2″, “Recovered Folder 3″, etc… Obviously, it would be a nightmare to try and rebuild that hierarchical structure again. In fact, in my case, it would almost be impossible. If you don’t share my problem of having to recover the folders named and organised and sorted, and you just need your messages back, then this first solution would be easier for you.

One thing to keep in mind though, before I start explaining the second recovery method, is that memory is the key to recovery. My database is 12.7GB and I had 120GB of free space on my hard drive, but that failed to recover. It even failed to rebuild a non-corrupted identity. And so I freed up some space and tried again with 200GB of free space on my hard drive, but that failed too. I freed up even more space and tried again with 310GB of free space on my hard drive, and that succeeded to build. (WIERD BUT VERY TRUE) I also did notice that during the rebuild, my computer was using about 6.8GB of RAM. So, I would recommend that you make sure you have at least 300GB of free space on your hard disk and at least 8GB of RAM installed. Otherwise, you would just be wasting your valuable time. By the way, these memory constraints apply to both of the recovery procedures; the one described above and the other one described below.

If you wish to rescue your folder structure, read the steps below very carefully and try to follow them precisely and hopefully you will be able to recover your data.

1. Make a duplicate copy of your data to work with and keep your original corrupted identity safe in case this method of recovery doesn’t work for you.
2. Use the instructions at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2398768 to completely remove all Microsoft Office from your system.
3. Restart your computer.
4. Install the original Office 2011 14.0.0 onto your computer, and make sure it is activated.
5. Open a blank document in Microsoft Word, and allow it to fully load up. Then quit Word.
6. Launch Microsoft Auto Update and upgrade Office to SP1 14.1.0. Make sure that you do not install any later updates than that.
7. Open a blank document in Microsoft Word, and allow it to fully load up. Then quit Word.
8. Manually download and intsall update 14.1.4 from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28405.
9. Disconnect your computer from the Internet and do NOT reconnect it again until you have completed the recovery.
10. Open the Microsoft Database Utility, and delete all the existing identities. There should only be one. Your corrupted identity should not appear in there. DO NOT DELETE IT if it is there (you must have done something wrong….start over).
11. Now that there are no identities in the list, create a new blank identity. It will automatically be named “Identity 1″.
12. Quit the database utility.
13. In the duplicate of your corrupted identity (created in step 1), delete the database file. Then navigate to the “Data Records” folder and delete the “Database Headers” folder.
14. Now copy the “Database Headers” folder from “/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/Indentity 1/Data Records” and paste it inside the “Data Records” folder of the duplicate of your corrupted identity. What you have done now, is copy a clean “Database Headers” folder that has database headers in version 14.1.4. What you intend to do here, is trick the database utility v14.1.4 to think that your SP2 identity conforms to its own version and will then attempt to rebuild it.
15. Delete “Identity 1″ from the location mentioned in the previous step (you won’t need it anymore) and then move the duplicate of your corrupted identity in its place.
16. Now launch the database utility, and you should only see that duplicate of your corrupted identity. Nothing else should be listed there. Now click Rebuild and keep your fingers crossed (that’s of course only if you have enough memory as explained earlier. Otherwise, it would just be a waste of your time because the rebuild will probable fail).
17. You should receive a message saying that your database was rebuilt successfully. Now, quit the database utility.
18. While you are still disconnected from the internet, start Microsoft Outlook. (and there you go, all your data back in front of your eyes….with all the folder structures maintained)……BUT HOLD ON, you’re not done yet.
19. Follow steps 1,2,3, and 4 from http://www.officeformachelp.com/2012/05/how-to-move-your-data-to-a-new-identity/
20. Once you have quit Outlook in step 4 at that link in the previous step, start Microsoft AutoUpdate and install all available updates until you Office is updated to 14.2.4.
21. Now go back to http://www.officeformachelp.com/2012/05/how-to-move-your-data-to-a-new-identity/ and skip step 5. Go to Step 6 and continue to the end of that document.
22. You should now have your Outlook looking exactly as it did the day your identity got corrupted, hopefully with no data lost at all.

GOOD LUCK!!

I too am facing this problem and have yet to properly recover my Outlook database but I accidentally found that I could regain use of most of my Outlook program and folders in the following manner:

1. In Finder, I located one of my Signature Files in the (~/Office 2011 Identities/Main Identity/Data Records/Signatures/0T/0B/0M/) directory

2. I have several signature files but they all looked something like: "x33_22530.olk14Signature"

3. Open the signature file using Outlook (I know, you're think this won't work but . . .)

4. Immediately a new blank "compose email" window opens up followed shortly by full working Outlook Window. Recent emails started to download normally and Outlook appeared to function properly.

5. I was able to send and receive emails without any difficulty. However:

6. Some folders are definitely corrupted. So far I've identified 9 folders (out of about 230 folders) that are unuasable. Any attempt to access, or apply a rule that involves one of the corrupted folders causes the program to shut down.

I know this is not a proper fix but it did get me up and running for the time being. I don't know if using Outlook in this manner for a prolonged period of time will further complicate a more complete recovery process so take this information for what it's worth. It's possible that in my particular case, the database was corrupted in a manner that allowed this sort of partial "recovery" so it may not be helpful to some but should still be worth trying.

Rob 88 just wanted to thank you, this saved my day after 6 hours of pure frustration 😉

I went with the easiest approach, hence copying everything but the 'Folders' folder and it worked perfectly, even though I only had 50GB of free HDD (though 16GB of RAM, tbh dunno if it helped..). Btw, my identity was 21GB.

I've tried several approaches, though in the end what made it work for me was leaving the 'Folders' folder out of the newly created identity and it rebuilt the DB perfectly, with the only drawback being that I now have a lot of folders called 'Recovered Folder X' 😮

This was also very helpful:

http://www.officeformachelp.com/2012/05/how-to-recover-your-data-when-rebuilding -restoring-and-upgrading-fails/

Cheers

Thanks a ton Rob 88. Your advise helped me recover four years of work emails.

Rob88 you are a huge lifesaver! Thank you so much for detialing this, nothing else worked for me except your solution of copying categories instead of folders.

Rob, ( and any body else who can help!!)

I have a few questions for you. I have a macbook pro with Microsoft office 2011 also loaded and I use outlook for my mail . Not able to identify which version of Microsoft 2011 and I do not re-call if I have updated to 14.1.2 or later and I am not able to identify that either ( bit of a novice!)

I have had 2 problems over the last 1 week a) mails duplicating constanting by downloading the same emails repeatedly from the server. b) constant messages stating server connection failed . While reading various several blogs / posts etc I did realise that this was possibly due to a check in the "prevent app nap" and "hopefully" that has stopped now. I had recently updgraded to Mavericks, incidentally.

"Hopefully" because I do not know as yet, due to the new problem I have had since this morning.... when i tried to open my outlook, i got the message about needing to rebuild my data, and just like everybody else has mentioned in the above posts, it fails to rebuild after the 4th step. Is this problem due to the latest update of Microsoft 2011 ?

while i was going to try your method, ( by copying categories instead of folders), I came across the below 2 links and hence wanted to check with you on the same, before I proceed with any method.

a) the 1st link, infact has been attributed to your brilliance and infacts talks about recovering the data back into the original folder format as below:

http://www.officeformachelp.com/2012/11/outlook-rebuild-results-in-folders-named -recovered/

this seems to be posted in Nov 2012 by Diana Ross.

b)the second link , seems quite simple and seems to be an article from Microsoft Support directly , and infact has a review dated Sept 2013 (Article ID: 2360509 - Last Review: September 3, 2013 - Revision: 12.0).

The link is as below : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2360509

since the second one is more recent wanted to check with you, if it makes sense to use this method, since it is over a year later, and it is probable that Microsoft could have fixed the " bug"

do let me know. desperately looking for help!!

Zorro,

The method in the first link is in fact the same as this one I posted here on this page. I have given Diana Ross permission to publish my procedure on her site.

The second link, "the microsoft solution", has always been there and never worked. I understand that it may have a later revision date than my post, however, its content has effectively not changed since this time last year when I had the problem. You can give it a try if you think it's easier, but I think you'd probably be wasting your time; more likely than not, Microsoft haven't fixed anything.

If you don't feel comfortable following the steps above, or you think it's too technical, you may get in touch with Diana Ross (I can provide you with contact details) who can fix your problem for you for a reasonable fee. My time is very limited for one-on-one support and she would probably give you a better rate.

I suggest you google "how do i find my version number" and try and take it from there and follow my steps in this article above. They are quite clear, and I'm also willing to provide further clarifications if anything isn't clear. If that's too complicated for you, then you should probably just pay an expert to do it for you.

Hope this helps!! Good Luck.

Hi Rob,

thanks for your email.

really helps , since I was in a dilemma on whether to use your method or the microsoft solution.

Would be happy to use Diana's help, though I am not sure about her rates. I have totally about 73.4 GB of mails since march 2013 and some sub folders that were available in the same identity of about 96 GB - which are emails from 2009 onwards.

i shifted to this macbook pro in march this year, and hence current emails are all saved under the standard location of documents/ microsoft user data /office 2011 identies/ etc, ( 73 .4 GB) , while the older emails were manually saved under the mac drive under a seperate folder called mails , along with similar folders for applications, library , system etc. ( this was done by the IT guy in my office earlier).( 96 GB )

do you have any idea how much she would charge to restore all of this....or does she actually review my files with me and give me an estimate? and if she works over the weekend

i have a really busy week ahead and would like to get all sorted out asap

i am in india. happy to pay an advance, and as we as long as the overall cost is reasonable!!

regards

seema

Hi Seema,

She charges on a "per-hour" basis. She will review your files first and then give you an estimate. Unfortunately, I can't disclose her charge rate. However, if you go to "the first link" in your first message above and write a comment asking for one-on-one help, she will email you straight away. If you really want to get a rough idea of the price, I wouldn't imagine she would charge more than US$70 for that kind of recovery if everything goes smoothly, but you need to wait and see how much she quotes you, it could be less...or it could be more... it depends on the state of your data.. Her time zone is PST and she does work weekends (in her daytime of course).

I know how frustrating it feels to "not know" whether your data is safe or not or recoverable or not. Hopefully, you'll get it sorted mate. Good luck!

Thanks Rob.

much appreciated.

Have reached out to her.

will hope for the best!

regards

seema

Hi Rob,

Have not seen any reply from diane and hence still anxious.

do have a other general questions in the meantime

a) now that I have the new back up drive, (Seagate Backup Plus - 1TB portable drive) is it better to get started on time machine back up - to save a copy for use in the outlook re-build , or is it better to use the new drive solely for the re-build first and once that is over and successful, use the new drive for time machine back ups, after erasing all the data from the re-build?

b) in general , can i partition the seagate drive as 2, one for time machine back ups and one data from another external drive I have ( work data)

i noticed on several posts that this was possible, but not sure, because that external drive is fairly old and is infact MS-DOS (FAT 32) because i used to run it on a windows machine originally. even if it cant be done via time machine, can i manually copy and paste it into the second partition as a back up.

thanks in advance for your help.

Hi Rob,

Have not seen any reply from diane and hence still anxious. Apologies for nagging you on this, but I am unable to sleep.

do have a few general questions in the meantime, and the last question on the Outlook re-build below.

a) now that I have the new back up drive, (Seagate Backup Plus - 1TB portable drive) is it better to get started on time machine back up - to save a copy for use in the outlook re-build ,

or

is it better to use the new drive solely for the re-build first and once that is over and successful, use the new drive for time machine back ups, after erasing all the data from the re-build?

b) in general , can i partition the seagate drive as 2, one for time machine back ups and one data from another external drive I have ( work data)

i noticed on several posts that this was possible, but not sure, because that external drive is fairly old and is infact MS-DOS (FAT 32) because i used to run it on a windows machine originally. even if it cant be done via time machine, can i manually copy and paste it into the second partition as a back up.

C) Lastly incase she does not revert, I am still a little confused on what to do. Since i want the folder structures intact, do i follow the second option that you have given in the above post of nov 9th 2012 and is that completely successful ( since you have mentioned that hopefully the data will be re-covered ) or should I follow Diane's link http://www.officeformachelp.com/2012/11/outlook-rebuild-results-in-folders-named -recovered/#comment-15893

the steps seem a little different and being a novice I am really worried about doing anything , till I am sure. Please help.

was really looking forward to Diane's reply . could you help me with her number?

going to take a quick nap ( its 2:00 am in india) and hopefully wake up to a repply from either one of you!

regards

thanks in advance for your help

I was pointed to your excellent post as being a likely solution to my persistent 18000 error during OL 2011 rebuilds. I got stuck in but it failed [18000] and I wanted to draw your attention (and perhaps others who follow) that it might be obsolete by virtue of the versions of OL today.

Office 365 was my chosen means of getting Outlook [Office] and having got the gist of your instructions I got to para 6 which (mea culpa, I should have been more diligent) talks about upgrading Office to 14.1.0. Which is fine except that my installation put up version 14.3.8 from the outset. There is an upgrade to 14.4.3 but that is academic at this point. It might be worth pointing out that my OS X is 10.9.4 too.

Would it be fair to assume that the swift march of version numbers is responsible for the ongoing 18000 error with my installation? What do you think?

Plan B (tomorrow) is to do the Categories substitution for Folders. Sigh.

Good thing my brand new $2700 mac book pro comes with disc drive so I can reinstall my software. Sheesh. The backup should have worked, now I have to wait for more hardware to arrive and pay for it on top of the regular price of a computer.