Permissions or something really screwy?

[wasted]

First of all, I was hired to my job to do the website. Somehow they got me doing building their new database and maintaining the old one along with all their other tech support/printer crap and the rest. Funny thing is they actually ended hiring someone else to do the website when I didn't have enough time because of everything else. Anyways, I've been getting decent with fm7 but I don't know a thing about the servers and such.

Onto the problem: The old database is filemaker 5 running on filemaker server 5 ( I think-I'm writing this from home) on a mac. Today, when the customer service reps downstairs tried going to a related file, filemaker really starts to weird out. It tries to open another file, claims it's been closed improperly says it's doing a check, and then tells me I don't have permission to do anything to that file and then the database doesn't work.

I can't for the life of me figure out what's going on or why it started happening. It was working earlier in the day, but after the girls closed down their systems and left for lunch, they came back started up again, and nothing worked. I never shut down the server. I didn't even touch it. The only thing I even did on that machine was change some folder permissions on a different volume. I did have some trouble with OS X's "copy these permssions to enclosed folders" button. I tried changing the permissions on the database's files to make them open to everyone, but that didn't help.

I guess what I'm trying to say here, is I'm completely out of my league, and I desperately need some advice.

Thanks.

[transpower]

Check your file references.

[wasted]

I have to admit it. I'm totally confused now. When I just use filemker to open up the database ( not through the server ) everything works perfectly fine. When I try to open it when it's being hosted on FM server, when it goes to a different file, filemaker is trying to reopen files that are already open. Why is it different when it's hosted? I even tried hosting the files from a copy of Filemaker, and I had the same problem. How do I check my file references? How do I fix them? I tried reselecting the files from the define relationship dialog, that did nothing. I restored backup files from a few days ago, and that did nothing. I feel like shoving an icepick up my nose.

Well, I'm going to be here at work on my day off for as long as it takes to figure out and fix this. If you have any ideas at all, (even if they include scathing insults about my ignorance) please post. I'm also going to be on MSN Messenger all day. Email address: [email protected]

Thanks again.

[wasted]

Alrighty then. Found a work-around. Copied all the files and put them onto a PC. Ran a copy of filemaker, opened the files and hosted them. It now works. I have to assume the problem is the Mac itself. I must have screwed up permissions somewhere, because when I tried running filemaker from a PC opening the files from a shared folder on the mac and hosting them that way, it didn't work. Being out of the Mac filesystem has temporarily alleviated my problems. Not that it's a good solution. Right now is our slow season, and there are only 3 people max on the database, but that'll get bigger in a couple months, but I hope to have it fixed by then. If anyone can think of what setting I screwed up on the Mac, I'd love to hear about it, but right now, I'm going home to nap.

Thankyou transpower for your comment, for some reason it actually set me to thinking.

-wasted_druid

[kbata]

I've had similar problems with 5.5 on both the Mac and on PC's. Sometimes Filemaker's file referances get screwed up and instead of opening the corect file it tries to open a copy on the local disk. The only sure way to avoid the problem is to never have uncompressed copies of the database on you local computer.

[QuinTech]

Also, any hosted FM files should not be visible through OS-level file sharing. They should only be seen on the network using FM's hosting capabilities. Anything else is asking for trouble.

J

[kyleknapp]

I'm having this problem too, in Windows XP, and can't seem to lick it. The files are located in a folder called "boutique". To get them to automatically load when I boot up, I put a shortcut to the "boutique" folder in the "Program FilesFilemakerFilemaker Server 5.5" folder. As far as I can tell, this is the only copy of these files anywhere on the network.

Because I can browse to these files through Windows Explorer, I flagged the folder as "hidden" (now I can't "see" them). The problem persists.

Any more ideas?

Thanks