Data Entry Disappearing?

[danx337]

Hi, I have took over IT on this company that uses filemaker as their main databases. Server 2003 has filemaker 9 server running. Other 8 work stations were using filemaker 5 and 6. In order for me to host fp5 databases, I had them upgrade all to filemaker 7. Database conversion went well. But ran into little problem. No passwords were given to anyone. Basically they were logging in as guests. I do not know how previous IT guy set the privileges up, I know he did not do good job. So I had to purchase passware's filemaker key to retrieve the password and gave them usernames and passwords. Previous IT guy gave all guest full access before. So I have set the guests users to be having read-only rights only.

After limiting the guests users. All entries made by guests users are gone! I have backed up the database file before I made any changes. I restored the old data back, still those entries were gone.

I have ran, filemaker 7's recover options, as well as recovery for filemaker application, same thing.

Is it possible if I delete or limit the user, all entries made by that users could be disappearing?

This is one weird experience. Any advice and help will be appreciated.

Also other change I have made is renaming. Filename remains the same. I just switch everything small letters to all capital letters. I don't think filename issues are concerned in Windows environment, as long as they are identical.

I am pretty newbie when it comes to the filemaker program. Please help!! Thank you so much for reading.

[bcooney]

Some ideas:

1. The records aren't gone, they are somehow filtered so that the user logged in only sees the records that they've created. Check in the Access Privs section for a limited view privilege.

2. When you say you've deleted users, do you mean that there was a User table, and that you've deleted records in it? If so, then there might have been a relationship btw a user record and any records created by that user. This relationship might have had the setting for "Delete Record if Parent is Deleted" a cascading delete.

I can only imagine the mess that you're dealing with. Usually, an upgrade from pre-7 is a rewrite. Your relationship graph must be something to see!

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Oh my.

First, the Passware likely damaged the files when you ran it on them.

Second, a converted file will have the Account name AND the password be the same as the password in the .fp5 file. So you may be able to open them that way.

Third, recovery is rarely a good option. And you should not contimue to use recovered files.

You might want to locate a certified FMP developer in your area for more assistance. Also there are some Tech Briefs on Server and Security on the FMI web site that will help you.

Steven