Recovering files

Contents > Maintaining and recovering FileMaker Pro databases > About recovering FileMaker Pro files > Recovering files

Recovering files

If a file is too damaged to open or use, you can salvage as much information as FileMaker Pro can reconstruct.

To recover a damaged file:

1.	Choose File menu > Recover.

2.	Select the file to recover, and click Open.

FileMaker Pro attempts to recover the file and displays a recovery report.

Results of a recover

After you recover a file, FileMaker Pro displays a dialog box showing:

the number of bytes copied from the damaged database into the new database

the number of records that had to be skipped (deleted) from the recovered database

the number of field values that had to be skipped (deleted) from the database

the number of field definitions that had to be recreated

If any of the values shown, other than the number of bytes copied, is greater than zero, you should check the file for consistent content. For example, if field definitions are recreated, you can create a new layout with the "recovered" fields and search for records where the field values are not empty. Based on the contents of each field, you might decide to delete the field again.

In many cases, a successfully recovered database is larger than the original database. This is caused by new disk blocks being allocated as the database is recovered. For example, rebuilding the index field by field and record by record can cause data distribution that is different (and possibly larger) than the original file.

A newly recovered database will also take longer to open than a database that was closed properly the last time it was used. This happens only the first time a recovered database is opened and is the result of rebuilding various internal structures that were deleted during recovery.

Contents > Maintaining and recovering FileMaker Pro databases > About recovering FileMaker Pro files > Recovering files