Field content disappears

[VickyNesbitt]

We have a field in our fm6 (we're in the process of converting files at the moment) customer database at work which shows the salesperson for that customer. Recently this field started emptying itself...

This field is unmodifiable in all layouts except in a duped layout for finding and another where certain users can edit the value and are forced through a process where a script is triggered creating a record in a separate report file noting what changes were made, by who and when.

So all of a sudden this field keeps showing up with no data in it. But only for some records and not the same ones each time. My colleague and I searched every single script for any reference to this field on a number of occasions and we cannot for the life of us recreate the problem...

I know for a fact that in the past this file has been improperly closed and also recovered a number of times (before I worked here might I add!) so there is a possibility of corruption in the database. Is this behaviour something that could be caused by corruption or am I missing something? Any suggestions?!

Anyone else had this problem?

Help please!

Vicky x

[Lee Smith]

Have you tried turning off indexing for the field, exit the Manage >>Database and then going back in to Manage Database and turning on Indexing?

[VickyNesbitt]

Have you tried turning off indexing for the field, exit the Manage >>Database and then going back in to Manage Database and turning on Indexing?

Thanks for your response Lee, I will try this tonight - as I'm sure you're well aware I cannot get into database definitions at all during 9-5:30 as I have to boot everyone out of the system. I will let you know if I have any luck...

x

[VickyNesbitt]

Ok so messing around with indexing didn't work.... Any other suggestions aside from hurrying up with upgrading to fm11!?! x

[Lee Smith]

Ok so messing around with indexing didn't work.... Any other suggestions aside from hurrying up with upgrading to fm11!?! x

You might try saving a copy as "Compressed Copy (smaller), but it sounds like you have corruption in this file. Although FileMaker 6 was probably the most stablest of the fp5 file structures, It would sometimes fail for no obvious reasons.

I just did a search in Google for filemaker corruption and got a ton of hits. I spotted a couple that sound like help for you.

Also, do an Advance search of FM Forums for Keywords +corruption +index and you will get 36 hits. Advance Search is the Gear Icon located at the top Right of the page.

HTH

Lee