lost containers…

[fmwannabe]

Oh, gosh. Let's say you are a beginner, and that during a spate of cleaning up several external drives that were filling up you relocated remote external container files and you have no clue where they were before you started mucking about because you didn't realize how fussy FileMaker Pro is about paths and such, and, well, suppose your FileMaker Pro solution now can't find any of 10,000+ images stored in the aforementioned container fields. Oh. And you also move the FileMaker Pro file, too.

 

And say you tried all manner of combinations with Manage/Containers and options/Open storage, none of which provide joy. And say you searched this forum where you found quite a bit about external container locations but not able to parse what's needed, and you looked at several support pieces from FMI, all of which assume that a user would not be so boneheaded and thus wouldn't need the elementary level of support needed.

 

And say you presumed that when FileMaker Pro says "[database location]" you presume it means the location of the DB file but even that seems sketchy as you can't figure out the correct combination of paths and folder locations that will set everything aright.

 

So, you come over here to the Den of Experts hoping for help…what to do?

 

 

[fmwannabe]

More info: Mac Mavericks, FileMaker Pro 13 Advanced

 

here's a screen shot showing Manage containers, and also showing the setup in the directory (Finder). The directory is called Copy (a service akin to DropBox); need everything in that folder:

 

[Wim Decorte]

First of all: was this a hosted file or a local file?

 

One thing that I would do: go back to a your last backup of the file and solution, restore it to some location so you can inspect the folder structure and recreate it...

[fmwannabe]

Ah, sorry, did not see your reply until today.

 

I should have said that I am using FMP Advanced 13 on Mac Mavericks, all updated to current, and that no, it's not hosted. And I should say that while the db file is backed up the container contents [photos] are not. And there's a good reason: all of the photos [the container contents] also exist in an Aperture file, and the photos are in some sense 'beta', meaning we are using them for now but once the data collection is complete I must go through all of the records to verify photos, ownership, and the like. So I've not lost data, just created a bit of a PITA for myself.

 

Some questions that would help me sort things out and learn more about FileMaker Pro:

 

1. As I work through this I'm wondering  question: when FMP says "[database location]", it means the folder containing the db file, correct? 

 

2. One cannot alter the external container path after the fact? By which I mean manually move the external files in the Finder, making the appropriate changes in Manage Containers or in Field Options, and expect FileMaker Pro to use the altered path and find the container contents? 

[Wim Decorte]

1) correct

 

2) you should never touch remote container data; it's there for FM to manage.  If you want to change the location, do it from inside FM and FM will update/move the remote container data files

[fmwannabe]

on #2, yes, I found that out the hard way. Still: is there a way to reconstruct the path to external container data in a way that FileMaker Pro will understand? otherwise I'll repopulate- lengthy but better than wasting time.

[Wim Decorte]

Create a new record and add something to the container, then see where FM has put it.  Then reconstruct the old files accordingly and hopefully FM will now "see" the old data again.

[comment]

is there a way to reconstruct the path to external container data in a way that FileMaker Pro will understand?

 

Have you looked at the result of =

GetAsText ( YourContainerField )

?

[fmwannabe]

Got it, and thanks. Well, I think so; some records are seeing the photos while others are not; flip through the records and they load here and there. I imagine this is just a matter of time as FileMaker Pro rebuilds the links as the paths are now correct. I tried defining the locations as a calculation rather than specifying it, thinking this would make FileMaker Pro build the path, but it didn't. For now I'll see what happens over a day or so.

 

I did what Wim suggested (actually did that before but for whatever reason was not successful). and then using the calc helped as well. 

 

Thanks.