I have 7 related databases that are used to keep track of audio recordings (and orders for those recordings), for a church community. I've been using them for about a year on this machine, 2 yrs total - without any major problems. Yesterday, when I tried to open the main database, "Orders", FM "unexpectedly quit". So I recovered Orders and tried again, same thing. Next I recovered all 7 dbs, tried again, same thing. Tried to open the other 6 dbs, and 4 opened fine, 2 more unexpectedly quit (I'm guessing that maybe only one of the 3 that unexpectedly quit may have a problem, but since the default layouts may instantly call up the other 2, any of the 3 will cause the crash.) No new installs of any software that might be accountable.

Here's where it gets weird. Booted into OS9, db opens fine.

Called filemaker. After several minutes on hold at $3/min, they have no idea - sounds strange - never heard of it - maybe some kind of extension conflict (in OSX?-me). Suggest repairing permissions and running disk utility to verify the disk.

So, here's a list of my specs, and the things I've tried to correct the problem:

Dual GHz G4 running 10.2.5, dual booting into 9.2(.2? I think).

FMP5.5v2

Also tried all this with the same results on my iBook G3 700 running 10.2.8 and 9.2(.x don't remember) Meaning, it worked fine in 9, crashed instantly in X on the ibook, too.

Things I've tried:

Did use disk utility to verify the disk - it was fine.

Had already repaired permissions, cleared caches, etc using Cocktail, but repaired permissions again using disk utility.

Uninstalled filemaker (trashed the folder, did a search for "filemaker" in my home directory, trashed the prefs it found)

Reinstalled 5.5v1

Tried opening the problemed db before upgrading to 5.5v2 - crashed

Upgraded to 5.5v2, tried opening - crashed

I booted back into OS9, recovered all 7 dbs, made clones of the newly recovered copies

Booted back into OSX, tried to open the clone, still crashed filemaker instantly.

One other note, when I tried opening on the ibook, I did briefly see the message that "this file was not closed properly". Maybe this goes by on the G4 too fast to see, but I haven't seen it there.

I thought making the clones would help to determine if the problem is with the db or a record within, if so, seems to be the db.

Any suggestions will be most welcome at this point. If not how to fix the db, maybe how to proceed. Is there a better way than rebuilding the db from scratch? It seems very frightening (not to mention a pain) to just start using the db in OS9.

Thanks in advance!

I have the same problem with a db that opens in OS 9 (with FMP 5.5) fine but will not open in FMP 6 on OS 10.3.2. I've done everything you've done and I'm in the same boat. I should also mention the file was originally created in FMP 5.0.

I get the unexpectedly quit error. Right now I'm just using Classic to open the file but I'd like to use File Maker on OSX exclusively.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

So aftar a little troubleshooting... I moved the FMP db onto a windows pc (Dell running windows XP and FMP 6) and opened it and used "recover" i put it back on the mac and it opens fine in OS 10.3.2. Go figure.

If you have access to a windows computer with FMP, I would try this.