Troubleshooting

Locked Out of Your Database

What can I do if I lose the master password for my database file?

If you lost the master password to your database with earlier versions of FileMaker Pro, it was possible to send your database file to FileMaker, Inc. and have them recover the password for you. That's no longer even technically possible with FileMaker Pro 7. The reason is that the new password encryption methodology renders passwords stored in FileMaker (as opposed to passwords authenticated by an external server) unrecoverable.

That means that you need to be much more careful about ensuring access to your database files than in years past. You need to make sure that a single employee isn't the only person who knows the login information required to get full access to a file. It's not unheard of for a disgruntled employee to leave a company and take the file access information with him or her. It also happens that a developer will work on a database system and then forget to pass on the full access information. She might give that information to someone who misplaces it.

Such mistakes will prevent you from ever modifying your file again with FileMaker Pro 7. You need to take precautions so that you always know who has the full access login information. It's a good idea to have at least two people who know that information so if one person leaves , the information isn't lost. That access should also be tested from time to time so that if someone changes the full access login (intentionally or unintentionally), it can be detected quickly.

Can't Access Database Hosted by FileMaker Server

For some reason I can't access the database hosted by FileMaker Server, even though I have a Full Access account.

Sometimes a person can create a database, set up user accounts properly, move the database to FileMaker Server, and then can't even see the database over the network. One common mistake is not enabling the file for network access. It's possible to use FileMaker Server to host files exclusively for Web or ODBC access. If you forget to enable network file sharing, you can't access the file with FileMaker Pro.

If you can see the file, but your full access account doesn't log you in, that means that you forgot to grant the fmapp extended privilege to the [Full Access] privilege set. People often get so caught up in configuring new privilege sets that they forget to grant the appropriate extended privileges to the [Full Access] privilege set.

Can't Delete Last FileMaker Account

I want all accounts to use an external server, but I can't delete the last FileMaker account.

FileMaker Pro must have at least one account that's a FileMaker account, so although you can delete FileMaker accounts, even the Admin account, you need to leave one account authenticated by FileMaker. It may be your company policy to have all accounts authenticated by a authentication server, but if that server went down and all accounts were externally authenticated, the FileMaker database would be impossible to access by any means. With at least one account that's authenticated by FileMaker, you're always assured of at least one means of access should the authentication server fail.