Urgent Password Recovery

[Sheridan Designs]

It's been many years since i used this forum but it proved very fruitful last time so I'm hoping someone can help me again!

I use filemaker 6 on a mac os x leopard. In the last few days its been crashing when i open certain files, i've recovered those files in question. They open when i select 'no' to agreeing to sync dates and times, otherwise the program crashes. It's so unstable at the moment. I have everything backed up and i have also reinstalled FM6 but it still keeps happening.

I also have filemaker pro 8 and have installed it hoping to convert my database to 8. It wants my password...i have no idea what i set as my password. I've tried Admin and no password but that doesn't work.

I've looked online and found some FM password recovery software. Is this reliable? Which one is the best one download?

I'm at the end of my tether as this database is my whole business and i can't function fully without it.

Any help would be so appreciated.

I look forward ot hearing from someone. Last time Carey Beal came to my rescue but i'm not sure if he's still on this forum.

Many thanks

[agutleben]

Have you checked your Keychain (Applications > Utilities > Keychain.app)? If you stored the password, you may be able to find it there.

As for the recovery tools, they can all do the job. The only difference I have found is that some will work with multiple versions of FileMaker files, while others only work on files that are FileMaker 6 or lower in version. It's not recommended to use the files once you have put them through a password recovery process however. In addition, if you have run FileMaker 6 recover process on your files, those files are not considered healthy files anymore either and there is no guarantee that they will operate error-free. Using the FileMaker recovery process is really to facilitate you getting your data out of the corrupted file and imported into a fresh new cloned copy (if you have one).

I'd start by checking your keychain. I'd also look at converting your database files to the current version as soon as you can. FileMaker 6 is no longer supported by FileMaker and is also not guaranteed to run on any current OS.

Edited December 4, 2009 by Guest

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Well you can't recover a password from .fp7 files because passwords are no longer stored in the file.

If you have converted a .fp5 file to .fp7 format, when the password dialog appears, put your old .fp5 password in both the Account Name and the password boxes. See if that helps.

Steven

[BrentHedden]

There is password recovery software available. I don't like discussing it over a forum like this, but just know that it does work.

If it's a FM 6 file, then it should recover the password. If it's a FM 7+ file, then it'll strip the password out (can't be recovered), for reasons the 'old man' mentioned.