Help

Maintaining and recovering FileMaker Pro databases
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 1203
Checking file consistency
FileMaker Pro verifies the consistency of a database file, if needed, when the file is opened.
You can also have FileMaker Pro verify consistency if you suspect that a file is damaged. A
consistency check reads every block in the file and verifies that:
• the internal structure of the block is valid
• the block is properly linked to other blocks in the file
The consistency check does not read all the data within each block or check the schema or higher-
level structures in the file. Those higher-level checks are performed only by the Recover command.
To check file consistency:
1. Choose File menu > Recover.
2. In the Select Damaged File dialog box, select the file you want to check, and click Check
Consistency.
3. If you see the Open Encrypted Database dialog box, type the encryption password, then
click OK.
If you don’t know the encryption password, see your database administrator.
FileMaker Pro checks the consistency of the selected file and displays a summary of the file’s
status, including the total number of blocks checked, total number of blocks processed, and
number of bad blocks found.
4. To see a log of the file consistency check, click Open Log File.
The Recover.log file displays in a separate window, in tab-delimited format. From left to right the
columns show the date, time, and time zone in which the consistency check took place, the
filename, error number, and description of the consistency check event. You can save or print
this file for further examination. Then close the window.
The most recent data is added to any existing Recover.log file information, so you may need to
scroll to the end of the file to see the results of the latest consistency check.
5. In the status dialog box, click OK.
The Select Damaged file dialog box remains open. If the consistency check indicated that the
file was damaged, try saving a compacted copy of the file before attempting to recover it (see
Recovering files). If the consistency check revealed no damage, click Cancel.
Note It might take longer to open a file on which FileMaker Pro is performing a consistency check.
Recovering files
If a file appears to be damaged, first try saving a compacted copy, which copies all the data and
rebuilds the tree structure of the database (see
Saving a compacted copy). Even if the file can’t be
opened, you can use the Advanced Recovery Options dialog box (described below) to make a
compacted copy. If a file is too damaged to open or use, you can use the Recover command to have
FileMaker
Pro salvage as much information as it can and create a new, recovered file.
Note FileMaker Pro Advanced: Runtime applications do not support advanced file recovery
features.
To recover a damaged file:
1. Choose File menu > Recover.
2. Select the file to recover, and click Select.