I've got a database that underwent a Recovery, and I have a bunch of text fields left over (Recovered 1, Recovered 2, etc.) I'm pretty sure they're empty. Would it be a good idea to re-use these for a new purpose as opposed to creating new fields?

My motivation stems from the fact that I would have to kick all the database users just to define fields, so if I could re-use an existing field and rename it later, that would be best for me.

You should NOT be using the recovered file at all. The purpose of the recover command is to get the file into sufficiently good shape to get the data out of it. Then import that data into a clean clone. Recover will sacrifice any other element to attempt to save the data. The fact that you have "left-over" fields is indicative of extreme corruption. What had happened to these files?

Old Advance Man

Arrgghhh.... I've heard this before.

I wasn't at work the day the file was corrupted. I think what was going on was that the databases were being temporarily hosted off on iMac, and it crashed. I don't have the message reporting the status of the recovery, BUT the new file seems perfectly workable and shows no obvious sign of corruption. I haven't really looked, but the only evidence that it's had problems are the 13 recovered fields.

Even my FileMaker manual says: "If the recovery process was successful, you should be able to open the newly recovered file. If the file opens successfully, you should close it and rename it to match the name of the original file (to preserve any predefined relationships and external scripts).

Unfortunately the manual is wrong about that. Recovered files should not be used. It is precisely the point that you make that they may ***seem*** to be OK that causes the problem. You are likely to arrive at work one day and poof they'll be toast.

Old Advance Man