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Microsoft's Mac OS X Exchange client, Entourage, operates in a syncing cached mode where it downloads server-side data, stores it locally, and occasionally synchronizes that data with Exchange. This setup in effect provides a local backup of your Exchange data that you can read when offline. At the university for which I provide computer support, I have seen more than one case where server-side issues have made the local backup of contacts and calendar items look very useful. Unfortunately, Microsoft does not provide any way to export or restore from cached Exchange data in Entourage.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, here's a workaround that takes advantage of Entourage's integration with Apple's Sync Services:

This method is for use when a user has an Entourage identity with an Exchange account that contains locally cached contact/calendar data that differs from and is preferable to the server-side Exchange data. This method will restore the locally cached Exchange contacts and calendar to overwrite the server-side Exchange data.

1. Log into the user's account in Outlook or Entourage and delete all of his contacts and calendar items. This step is optional, but it speeds up things later.
2. Now on his Mac, disconnect all network connections
3. Backup all data that the user has stored in Apple Address Book and iCal (using the Back Up... option from their File menus)
4. Create a copy of the user's Entourage identity that contains the good data
5. Switch into that identity
6. Open Entourage Preferences and enable the Contacts and Events/Tasks components of Sync Services
7. When confirming the sync settings, select to "Replace Sync Services items with Entourage items"
8. Allow the sync to occur in the background while still disconnected from the network
9. When the sync is completed, verify that the good set of contacts and events are now in Address Book and iCal
10. Disable Sync Services in Entourage Preferences and Quit Entourage
11. Reconnect to the network and open the copied Entourage identity to synchronize with Exchange (it should be relatively quick with little data to download if everything was deleted in step 1)
12. Open Entourage Preferences and enable Contacts and Events/Tasks Sync Services again
13. This time choose to "Replace Entourage items with Sync Services items" to bring the Address Book and iCal data back into Entourage and Exchange
14. Wait for this to complete and verify that calendar data is correct in both Entourage and OWA/Exchange
15. After synchronization, disable Sync Services in Entourage Preferences (if desired)
16. Restore the user's former Address Book and iCal data
17. Delete any extraneous Entourage identities that are no longer needed

Note: This procedure was tested on Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard with the latest versions of Entourage 2004 and 2008.