data corruption « QuickBooks and Your Business

Short answer: Yes. Here’s what people have said after having sent corrupted QuickBooks files to us.

“Sent them a file from a company that called and needed help on their QuickBooks file. Read a lot of forums and reviews and found you people. On Saturday at noon I uploaded this file. At 2:00 pm I was downloading the fixed file. Nothing was lost and the upgrade to the new version was good. Thanks!” — John Horsley, Computer Medik

“File is much faster and stable now! Thanks!” — Shawn Spears, CFO Network

“I’m more than delighted after I tested my database and knew it was back to normal. Our accounting department is very happy with the outcome and performance of the file.” — JC Marin, Trusteecorps

“Fantastic! Thank you so much for the quick turn-around. Well worth the money for the peace of mind seeing my data again!!!” — Jill St.Aubin King, Monarch Gardens LLC

“Thank you for your help on this! You guys did a great job. Everything looks perfect. I wish I would have used your service first. I will definitely recommend you to others.” — Brett Jensen, CDFA

Of course, the best course of action when a file gets corrupted is to restore yesterday’s backup and move forward. But sometimes good backups aren’t available, or the problem doesn’t become immediately known. In that case, data repair services can be handy.

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looking towards 2013 I’m cautiously optimistic that when Enterprise 13 comes out, it will fix some of the problems that a number of people are finding in Enterprise Series 12. I’ve talked with a number of clients experiencing…

* Problems in inventory: their file will not verify or rebuild
* Problems in sales orders or estimates: they can’t verify the file or make verified backups
* Corruption in the user list: their file fails rebuild
* Failure when they try to condense their file: condense freezes or gives fatal errors

We can repair the vast majority of these files, but it ain’t easy sometimes. Some of these problematic files are 3GB+ or have a kazillion inventory items and/or lots of corrupt assemblies.

Some of the files that clients are sending us to be supercondensed won’t verify and/or rebuild when they are sent in. We have to repair them first to get them healthy enough to work with.

Seems to me that there shouldn’t be this many files with these kinds of problems. We’ve been in the accounting data consulting business for a long time — since the 80s — and have seen and repaired thousands and thousands of sets of damaged accounting data. But it’s been awhile since I’ve seen a version that has clustered so many data integrity issues, many more than we saw under ES 11 or 10. (Actually, old version 6 had a ton of problems too; that was the first version that used the new underlying database system.)

So I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a lucky Enterprise 13, and wishing the best for Intuit’s development and testing teams…

Other consultants and QuickBooks advisors, what do you think? Does ES 12′s stability seem about the same to you as prior versions? Or a bit more problematic?

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Sporadic errors are the trickiest to troubleshoot.

A nice lady in Canada called us this spring, reporting an error when she opened her company snapshot….SOMETIMES. She needed her data file fixed so it wouldn’t do that anymore.

She uploaded her file to us. We could not reproduce the problem, but did address some minor issues in her file and did a deep rebuild on the file. We sent it back to her.

She called us the next day. The error was back. We hadn’t fixed it. Darn! But she wasn’t angry, she was pleased!

“I can wholeheartedly recommend AccountingUsers, Inc. They spoke to me on the phone, which was a nice touch, and it put me at ease. Unfortunately my file was one of the 5% that are not recoverable, but they did give it a heck of a try, and they got my file back to me quickly. My credit card was NOT charged (as promised), so you have nothing to lose with giving this company a try! I hope I never have a Quickbooks data problem again, but if I do, AccountingUsers will be the first call I make.”
— Christine Kok, Always On Call Ltd.

It turns out that her problem started when she had converted from QuickBooks 2011 to 2012. So she did some uninstalling and reinstalling, and restored her pre-converted backup. The problem went away. Not the best solution, but not a catastrophe either.

How do you feel about doing business with “satisfaction guaranteed” companies versus the “pay no matter what” kind?

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Here’s what one QuickBooks user said about their recent data corruption experience:

“After our Quickbooks file became corrupted and we lost our backups, we were in a panic.

I found QuickbooksUsers.com via a web search and contacted them regarding repair. With expedited service our file was repaired within 24 hours (on a Saturday!) and we were back up and running on the next business day.

Fantastic and friendly service that I would use again without hesitation, even though I hope I never need to!” ~ Dillan W., Texas

Thanks, Dillan! Glad we were able to help.

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taipei skyline Until 2010, Taipei 101 was the tallest skyscraper in the world. How do you build a structure like that to be safe in a land of earthquakes and typhoons? You hang a big ball inside the top of it.

Taipei 101 uses a device called a “tuned mass damper” to minimize the motion of the building during adverse conditions. This device is a ball. It weighs 660 tons, is made of steel plates, and hangs by steel cables inside the top of the building.

If, for example, a typhoon came roaring over Taiwan, the gales would push against the skyscraper. The big heavy ball would resist the push and, in effect, push back. It would reduce instability.

I visited Taipei 101 last summer, and bought a ticket to ride the (world’s fastest!) elevator to the observation deck. And by simply walking down a couple flights of stairs from the top, you can behold the big ball. It was painted sparkly gold and almost looked decorative unless you knew of its engineering function.

There was a second aspect of the tuned mass damper that impressed me. It was how they used the big ball to brand their skyscraper.

Damper Baby, or Taipei 101 — Damper Baby in front of Taipei 101's Tuned Mass Damper

Truly! They had designed a ball-bellied character to represent the tuned mass damper. They call it “Damper Baby” and it’s all over Taipei 101. It’s kind of the building’s mascot. In the skyscraper’s gift shop, they sell Damper Baby calendars, fridge magnets, wind-up toys.

To the left is a picture of “Damper Baby”, and behind it you can see just part (it’s big) of the real damper. The pistons you see are part of the “push back” system.

Why am I telling you all this on a QuickBooks-oriented blog? Because we want to be, in effect, like a Damper Baby for your QuickBooks. That’s right.

There are lots of things that push against the stability of your QuickBooks data file: the data traffic on your network, your electrical system in your office, your computer hard drives, Windows, your security and firewall settings…lots of things can influence how QuickBooks performs.

There are two ways we can help “push back” if one of those elements goes awry. One is to reduce your file’s size to a level that will make it more stable. The other is to repair or reconstruct your file if it somehow gets corrupted. We’d be glad to help in either case; just give us a ring.

So…anyone else been up to the top of Taipei 101? What did you think?

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Since we specialize in accounting database consulting, we’ve seen tens of thousands of data problem cases over the years. You can boil them down to three categories:

1. Lurking data problems. In these situations, everything looks OK to the user in their daily use of QuickBooks. They can enter bills, run reports, do payroll, and backup their company without incident.

But there is a hidden data corruption problem lurking in their database. It won’t be uncovered until a process is attempted that systematically accesses their whole file; in particular, when they try to upgrade to a newer version. That’s when it fails — when QuickBooks basically touches every piece of data in the file.

Running verify and rebuild can detect many of these kinds of problems in the file. When rebuild cannot fix the corruption, most of the time the file can still be repaired.

2. Function-specific data problems. In this scenario, there is one part of QuickBooks that fails, and it fails every time you try it. For example, there was some data we repaired recently where if you accessed one particular invoice, QuickBooks would crash. (It turned out to be a problem with an “inventory loop” in the data and there would have been other ways to crash the file, but the user hadn’t encountered them).

Some people think that they can limp by in this scenario and they basically try not to provoke QuickBooks into crashing; they avoid the problem area. That is living a bit dangerously, I think. Better to either restore a backup made prior to the problem occurring (sometimes difficult to do) or else get the data repaired.

3. In-your-face data problems. These are obvious. You cannot open your file. Or you open it and as soon as you try to enter any kind of new transaction, it errors out and closes the program. Or your customer or vendor list simply vanishes.

This situation usually results in a crisis if there are no good current backups available. And this often (it seems) happens at the worst possible time — when payroll is supposed to be run, for example. Nothing like a bunch of employees coming by your desk to pick up non-existent paychecks to get your adrenaline going!

If you have a good current backup in that situation, you can restore it and go on with your business.

Have you encountered any of these three kinds of data situations?

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So you are getting a fatal error in QuickBooks…

* Error -6000
* QuickBooks reports “Connection to database lost”
* Your file is “not a QuickBooks data file, or is damaged…”
* Customers or vendors are missing or scrambled
* Your file fails one of these: Backup, restore, upgrade, verify, or rebuild

How can you repair these situations?

If you have a current backup made before the problem occured, you can simply restore your backup.

But if you don’t have a current backup, you still have options:

1. Run the Rebuild command on your company file (if you can open the file). Click File / Utilities / Rebuild Data. Some people claim that running the Rebuild command several times can fix problems that running it once cannot. I don’t know why that would be, but it wouldn’t hurt to try it if the first rebuild doesn’t solve your problems.

2. Create, and then restore, a portable file (File / Create Copy / Portable Company File) . This is a known fix for certain kinds of problems in the customer, vendor, or account lists. When you restore a portable file, it recreates some of the indexes in the file, and that can solve certain problems.

3. Run the Verify command (File / Utilities / Verify Data) and then examine the QBWIN.LOG file. To access the QBWIN.LOG file, open your QuickBooks company, press the F2 key, then press the F3 key. Click the Open File tab, select QBWIN.LOG, and click Open File. Scroll down towards the bottom of the log. See if you can locate the transactions that are causing it to fail. Edit or delete those problematic transactions if you can. This method doesn’t work as well in 2006+ versions of QuickBooks as pre-2006, but it still might be worth a try.

4. If the above don’t fix the problem, contact us at 1-800-999-9209 for guaranteed data repair services. In 95% of the cases, we can recover 100% of the data.

p.s. If we can’t repair the file either (which occasionally happens if the original file is full of garbage and there is no good TLG file), there is one last recourse: check with your CPA to see if they have a more recent good copy of your data than you do. Better to rekey two or three months’ worth of data than to have to start over from scratch.

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I’ll bet QuickBooks is a mission-critical application for your office. What would happen to your business if QuickBooks went down? Here are 7 ways to avoid that:

1. Maintain your network. Actually, get your IT guy or girl to do it. Nothing can take down QuickBooks like a flaky network.

Keep your server defragged and your whole network optimized for speed. Use the highest-performing server you can afford. Use the same kind of routers and connectors across your network. Have plenty of memory on every workstation accessing QuickBooks.

2. Be careful with your imports. Importing bank or other transactions into QuickBooks is a tremendous time saver. Except when they’re messed up. If you are getting ready to import transactions from a new source, make sure you’re well backed up first. After you import, check the results immediately. If there’s a problem, restore your backup. Otherwise, it can be really difficult to undo the effects of badly imported transactions, especially if there are hundreds of them.

3. Back up often and effectively. Global Data Vault is a great online backup service. Many small businesses have been greatly inconvenienced because their backups weren’t what they assumed.

4. Verify/Rebuild. Run these commands periodically to get early warning on data problems.

5. Schedule data work for weekends. Sending your data off to be supercondensed, repaired, recreated, or something else? Schedule it for a weekend so the wheels don’t stop turning at your office on weekdays.

6. Send Accountant’s Copies. Taking advantage of this QuickBooks feature lets you get your data to your accountant for corrections without you having to pause in the use of QuickBooks — you can keep working at the same time your CPA is reviewing your file.

7. If down, get up. If your file becomes unopenable or has fatal errors, get overnight data repair services to be up and running by the next morning.

Do you have another suggestion to avoid QuickBooks downtime?

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The Verify/Rebuild functions in QuickBooks are great at identifying and repairing a lot of different kinds of problems in a QuickBooks file.

But one problem they can’t fix is problems in your company’s list tables. Your lists are things like your chart of accounts, customers, vendors, items, sales reps, etc.

If list data gets corrupted in a QuickBooks file, you notice that all or most of your vendors or customers don’t appear where they should. Or invoices or payments get associated with the wrong accounts. Not good!

If you find yourself in this situation, you have three options:

1. Try making and then restoring a portable backup. The indexes and links are rebuilt when you restore a QuickBooks portable file and this sometimes clears up data problems.

2. Restore the last good backup you made before the data got corrupted. Make sure you don’t overwrite your current file with your backup, in case you end up needing that current file.

3. Get your data professionally repaired. Although list damage repair is more difficult than some other kinds of data repair, it is possible to do most of the time. A customer just wrote this note and told us we could share it:

AccountingUsers was a great company to work with. Our Lists in Enterprise became corrupted and we were not able to work with our previous back-ups. They received the file at the end of one business day and the repaired file was ready to go early the next morning. THANK YOU for your polite, quick, and expert service. We hope we don’t need you again, but we are sure glad to know you are there if we do.”

- Ken Bostrom, Universal Accounting

Thanks, Ken! Glad we could help.

Have you ever run into list damage in your QuickBooks file? What symptoms did you see?

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When my family camped in Yellowstone National Park last month, we were camping in bear country.

Yellowstone grizzly bear — A clover-eating grizzly I photographed on the shore of Lake Yellowstone

Unfortunately, there have been some bad bear incidents in Yellowstone this summer.

A friend of mine let me borrow his bear spray for our trip. Bear spray is like personal-defense pepper spray, except it’s grizzly bear strength. I took the spray and packed it when we were on remote trails.

A warning on the can’s label almost made me laugh: “Don’t intentionally provoke a bear”. I could just visualize some nut feeling confident with his can of bear spray and chasing a bear down in order to confront it, spray it, and earn some kind of moronic bragging rights.

To avoid bear problems, you are supposed to be careful to not leave food out, not to smell like food, not to surprise a bear, not to run away from a bear…the list goes on.

Bear spray is designed to be the last line of defense against bears.

My company provides data repair services for QuickBooks users, and those services could be considered the last line of defense against QuickBooks data problems. But they are not the only defense.

There are lots of things you can do to minimize the chance of having QuickBooks data problems in the first place:

Have battery backups on your server, your routers, and all your workstations
Have internet security software installed on all your computers
Keep Windows up to date on all your computers
Keep QuickBooks updated on your system
Use the same kind of networking equipment on all your workstations
Make regular backups to a location off of your server

If you do these things, you greatly minimize the chance of encountering data problems in QuickBooks in the first place. But we’ll be your bear spray if somehow it ever gets to that point.

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QuickBooks and Your Business

an independent blog by AccountingUsers, Inc.

Tag Archives: data corruption

Is It Possible for a Corrupted QuickBooks File to Be Recovered?

Problems with Enterprise 12, Looking to 13

Solution Failed; Client Pleased

In Their Own Words: QuickBooks User with a Corrupted File

Taipei 101, Stability, and QuickBooks

Understanding the Three Kinds of QuickBooks Data Problems

How to Repair QuickBooks Files

7 Ways to Avoid QuickBooks Downtime

Solving List Damage Issues in QuickBooks Files

Bear spray, QuickBooks, and your computer