Filemaker constantly crashes

[Hubbs]

First off, I am using Filemaker Server 5.5 for my server machine, and Filemaker Unlimited 5.5 for my client which is running on a G4 w/ Panther. I am having huge problem with Filemaker crashing at strange times. It will happen when the databases are performing finds, and when they are adding records, but I cannot figure out the exact problem. I have been told to move my client machine to a PC and this could fix the problem, that Macs are unstable for Client machines. Does anyone know anything about this or have had similar problems? Also, what is the best way to find out the problem? I really want to keep using FM because it is so wonderful, but I am tempted to switch because it crashes at least once a day, please help!

[Wim Decorte]

I have been told to move my client machine to a PC and this could fix the problem, that Macs are unstable for Client machines.

I'm a bigger Windows user than a Mac user, but that answer is baloney. I suspect the reason for crashing is corruption in either the structure of your file or the data.

Could be a corrupted object on a layout, data with strange high/low ASCII characters ...

Things to try:

- download Character Sieve from Protolight (do a google for it) to look at the data.

- try to make the crashing occur at will whenever you perform a certain action. That will likely focus your search on either a layout/script/calc or a certain record.

When the file crashes: do not reuse the file. Go back to a good backup and import the data. If you keep using the file or worse recover it then you're making the problem worse.

[CyborgSam]

{rant}

Before considering a switch to another database, I strongly suggest you consider upgrading your FileMaker to a newer version. It's unusual for any complex application that's three major revisions old to work flawlessly on a more current OS. So much of the core Mac OS has changed since FileMaker 5.5 was released. The newer versions have NEVER crashed my Macs (or my PC).

{/rant}

Have you installed all the FileMaker 5.5 updates for both the client and server? Does Panther have all available updates installed? Does the server's OS have all available updates installed (BTW what OS is the server on)?

Are the server and client on the same local network? Does the server perform other functions?

Will the Mac crash when FileMaker is the only application run immediately after a restart (nice clean environment)? Have you tried adding a new user to Mac OS X, logged in as that user, and immediately run only FileMaker?

[CyborgSam]

{rant}

Before considering a switch to another database, I strongly suggest you consider upgrading your FileMaker to a newer version. It's unusual for any complex application that's three major revisions old to work flawlessly on a more current OS. So much of the core Mac OS has changed since FileMaker 5.5 was released. The newer versions have NEVER crashed my Macs (or my PC).

{/rant}

Have you installed all the FileMaker 5.5 updates for both the client and server? Does Panther have all available updates installed? Does the server's OS have all available updates installed (BTW what OS is the server on)?

Are the server and client on the same local network? Does the server perform other functions?

Will the Mac crash when FileMaker is the only application run immediately after a restart (nice clean environment)? Have you tried adding a new user to Mac OS X, logged in as that user, and immediately run only FileMaker?

[Hubbs]

Here is some more info to add to my post. First, are there some updates for Server and Unlimited 5.5? Panther has all the available updates on the client machine, but the server machine needs some updating, would that cause a crash on the client? Server is running on Panther also. The client and the server are on the same network, sitting right next to each other in our server room. The server performs no other funtions but to serve the databases to the client. I had this problem before when I was using Jaguar, I did a clean install to Panther and the problem continued, so I do not think it is the OS. I would like to try to create a new user and see how FM would run with that. Also, how can I easily migrate my data into a new clean database? I want to see if one of my databases might be corrupt. Most of the databases are large and complex, but most of the functions that were built into them are no longer being used...thanks for all the help!

Correction: Server is running Jaguar, Client is running Panther.

Edited October 2, 2005 by Guest

[stanley]

Hubbs:

Welcome to the Forums.

I'll second what Wim and Sam have said - chances are you've got a corrupt file, which is causing the crashes. I've got several clients running Server 5.5 on OSX machines with no problems at all, so there is no inherent problem there. Whoever told you that Macs make unstable client boxes is out of their mind.

There were indeed updates to the 5.5 series, but I don't know if you can still get them from FMI - you could look on FileMaker's site, or on Versiontracker to see what's available. Otherwise, I'd advise upgrading the server box to Panther as well, and make sure that both of them are running 10.3.9, the last Panther update.

Having said that, it's probably a corruption issue (the big clue is that your crashes happen during finds & new record creation), in which case you would hopefully have followed the FMI Best Practices white paper, meaning that you would have a known clean copy of your solution stored somewhere. If so, you can import your data from the current system into the copy/clone, and see how it goes. If not, you should see if you have a backup from before the crashing began, and import your data into that.

As a test, you could build a new database file from scratch & host it on the server to see if that crashes the system.

Good luck.

-Stanley

[CyborgSam]

Hubbs->

FileMaker has updates for 5.5 versions at http://www.filemaker.com/support/downloads/index.html

The server should be updated. The fact that the client had issues with 2 versions of OS X indicates that it may be a server issue. There have been many minor networking issues with OS X, it's possible an update will have cured one that's causing your ills. If you're reticent to update right when they're relased, read http://www.macintouch.com and http://www.macfixit.com to see if there are major issues with new updates.

And do try adding a fresh user to the client machine. I use this method to diagnose problems on my Mac whenever an application is crashing.

Also: try deleting FileMaker's preferences.

[mlindal]

The switch to windows rumor was one posted here about 18 months ago and we followed that advice with our FM 5.5 unlimited solution. It worked fine, but then after a security patch on Windows - it started losing connection to the server, so that Web clients could not access the files. We have recently updated to 6.04 unlimited with the Web companion 6.03 and it still dies on us once a day.

As for corruption, we were worried about that and imported all data into new 100% clean files and it still dies once a day.

We are moving the solution to PHP in hopes of ending this problem as we are stumped and in 2 years have not been able to get it working perfectly.

And of course our IT people are not big FM fans and mocking us with shouts of "if this was Oracle it wouldn't happen".

So we are focussing on a few things.

1. Do we have enough RAM (256MB right now)

2. On the Server machine, our IT folks insist on Macafee virus checking... could this be a problem and what can be done to tweak it.

3. Our 6.04 unlimited is running on Windows 2000 server at the insistance of our IT staff. I know it doesn't need to, but can this be a problem?

The good news is that our PHP solution is coming along nicely and is very stable so far.

Edited October 25, 2005 by Guest