Corrupted file?

[John Chamberlain]

I have a file that is "sort of corrupted". Strange behavior, specifically merge fields failing to print, has me puzzled. I have tried recovering the file, but that does not help. I then tried creating a clone and importing the records from the old file into the clone - also did not work. are there any other steps that I can take to cure this problem?

 

TIA

[LaRetta]

Hi John,

 

We do not have enough information.  We will probably need to see the file.

 

BTW, you should never use a file after you have ran Recover on it.  Recover is used only to retrieve the data for import into a new clean, undamaged clone.  The Recover process can damage the file in its recovery attempt.

[John Chamberlain]

Hi LaRetta

 

Thanks for your interest. I have attached the file. I should also mention that I have had some trouble getting the file to open. There is no password needed to open the file.

 

John

CPC Cats.zip

[LaRetta]

I'm still unable to open the file, John.  It is requiring login.

[Lee Smith]

Automatic message

This topic has been moved from "FileMaker Pro 11" to "Damaged / Corrupt File Problems".

 

The General topics are reserved for questions about the New Tools, Functions and Features that were released in that version of FileMaker. 

 

If you have any questions about this action, please contact me by Private Message.

 

Lee

[John Chamberlain]

LaRetta

 

You should be able to just hit return as the password is a blank.

 

John

[LaRetta]

Have you tried opening it?  I tried all combinations, John.  Nada.  What is the account name?

[John Chamberlain]

The sign in name is John, and the password is null - just hit return and it should open - if this doesn't work I will have to figure out how to disable the sign in altogether.

[LaRetta]

All I needed was the account name.  Remember that, when opening a file, it inserts the current user and not you.  :-)

 

Can you tell me where to look and what to look for?  

[John Chamberlain]

OK, the account name is John.

 

The first problem is the merge items on the layout called "MONTHLY REPORT ABBREVIATED" - if you go to the end of the report, where it says "SPAY - NEUTER", there are two merge fields following that section, they should show values of zero for each, but they do not. I have seen similar behavior in some of the other merge fields.

 

Second thing is I sometimes get a message box, when trying to open the file, stating that FMP "cannot open this file".

 

This file is the beginning of what I envision as a much larger application, but I don't want to build on this if it is truly corrupted.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

John

[LaRetta]

John,

 

Well, your other merge field begin with <<zero>> and those last fields don't?

 

I have no idea why you are using globals instead of summaries.  They won't update without script and it could all be automatic for you if you use summaries.

[LaRetta]

Are there other examples which make you suspect corruption, John?

[John Chamberlain]

Three other symptoms;

1. When in Layout mode, if I use the scroll wheel on my mouse to scroll up (not down) the display exhibits a symptom much like an old television when the horizontal hold went out. When this happens, I have to go back into Browse and then back int Layout to settle it down.

2. The page orientation resets itself to landscape without any input from me.

3. Before I rebuilt the file the first time, the Print menu item was grayed out.

Yes, the other fields do display zeros when that is the value. Also, zeroa are the correct values for the month of June, but if you change the dates to 5/1 to 5/31, it will not display the correct values of 0 and 7; and if you use 4/1 to 4/30 it should show 2 and 8.

I used Globals because the calculations in the MONTHLY REPORT script contain the calculations, and they will not calculate properly without Globals. Moreover, when I tried to change one of the fields to Summary, I got a message box saying that it could not be done because it created a circular definition.

Please bear with me, this is only my second venture into post FMP 6 territory. The way the thing stands presently I could have created this in FMP 6, but I need the FMP 7 and up structure for the expansions I will be creating down the line.

[Vaughan]

The scrolling issue sounds like software problems rather than file corruption. What version FMP are you using? If is anything less than FMP 10 then it's probably not compatible with your OS.

[John Chamberlain]

I am using FMP 11 Advanced, so that is not an issue.

[LaRetta]

1. When in Layout mode, if I use the scroll wheel on my mouse to scroll up (not down) the display exhibits a symptom much like an old television when the horizontal hold went out. When this happens, I have to go back into Browse and then back int Layout to settle it down.

You have created your report as a single full-page text box.  It is probably attempting to redraw (and flash) when you scroll up and since it is a single block, every movement forces redraw and it will jump.
2. The page orientation resets itself to landscape without any input from me.

I show Page Setup on portrait but you have not provided enough information.  Which layout?  Is this when you print?  
3. Before I rebuilt the file the first time, the Print menu item was grayed out.

Not enough information, I'm afraid.  There were probably reasons at the time.  What do you mean you 'rebuilt' it - did you create a brand new file?  If so, that problem wouldn't be in this file anyway, right?  

 

When you have an issue, post immediately with that specific issue and provide details like you did above in post #13, John.  Your posts tend to lack enough detail and we must become dentists to extract each bit of information and it wastes time and effort.  

 

Is it a corrupt file?  Recover shows no issues but that does not mean there aren't any.  I hope you have not continued to use a file after Recover.  RARELY is it a bug or corruption; usually it is *ignorance of FM behaviours and we can explain them when asked.  We will always be happy to help you pin down the reasons for various behaviours if we have time.  Hang in there.

 

* ignorance is NOT stupidity ... we ALL are ignorant of many things in FileMaker and that's why we are here ... to compare notes, to ask questions (even us regulars ask questions; me particularly) and to learn from each other.

[Vaughan]

Do you have window zoom set to something other than 100%?

[John Chamberlain]

LaRetta

 

Please excuse the delay in responding, when you are fighting cancer you have a LOT of doctor's appointments.

No I didn't use the old file after I had recovered it. I trashed the old one then renamed the recovered file with the original name. I asume that's what you meant, because when I did another recover three days ago, the subsequent message box said that it was "safe to use".

 

I have since done a new recover, created a clone from the recovered file and imported the data from an older copy of the file (one I garnered from using a three week old Time Machine copy). The Print and Page Orientation problems seem to have gone away (fingers crossed).

 



As for the scrolling problem, this behavior is exhibited on all layouts, and persists even after the rebuild I described above. I even used a blank layout, and it does the same thing. Also, this issue is exclusive to this file as I tried to reproduce it on two other FMP files, but they are OK. At most this is just an annoyance anyway.

 

The failure to display (or print) some of the merge fields seems to be gone, so maybe the rebuild did the trick (again, fingers crossed).

 

 

Thanks for your comments - I hope not to bother you again.

 

[Rick Whitelaw]

John, I believe the advice you've been given is to never use the file generated by Recover. You seem to have done the opposite. Recover doesn't do anything to the original file, but the Recovered file should normally not be used.

RW.