Most of our databases, most of the time, perform well day after day. But problems do occur. Polytrope's database solutions - like just about all the software released by Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, etc. - do have bugs, and if you find one or suspect a bug, we would really like to hear about it. If it's our bug, we can fix it!
But not every problem that our users encounter is due to a bug in our database. In fact, the vast majority of the serious problems that our users have encountered over the years are not our fault at all. As a database user, you (or your office computer expert) have some responsibilities of your own. This page describes a few of the problems that we have seen repeatedly. These are problems that we didn't cause and can't fix. We list them here to help you identify them and figure out how to fix them for yourself.
Our databases run inside FileMaker Pro. All of our programming and design work operates at what programmer's call a very "high" level, where "high" means something like superficial. Our databases never have the kind of bugs that can cause your computer to crash. We simply do not have the low-level access to your hard drive or your computer's memory needed to cause the computer to crash.
If your computer is crashing while you use one of our databases, you need to try at your end to figure out what's causing the crash. A crash or freeze on a workstation that's running a database is a bad thing. Databases are very finicky about housekeeping chores. When the computer freezes and the database is closed unexpectedly, important data may not get put back where it belongs, and this can cause problems when you reopen the file. The worst result is damage to the database files themselves. And the worst thing about damage is that it's not always visible. If the computer crashes, most of the time, the database will open right back up without an obvious problem. You might briefly see an alert saying that the database was not closed properly, but 95% of the time, that's all you'll see. Occasionally however you'll be warned that the database is seriously damaged and needs to be recovered. Even more rarely, when you reopen the database, something will obviously be wrong - things may simply not LOOK right on screen, or the database might report that you have -9457 records in a table (not possible!), or something like that.
The best thing is to prevent crashes by installing your databases properly and keeping your computers healthy. How to prevent your computer from crashing is a big subject. Ask your office computer expert for help. Here are a few things to consider.
These problems are sort of like getting the flu. It's not exactly your fault, but you still have to go to the doctor.
There are other problems that are, well, more or less your fault. These problems are kind of like the health problems caused by voluntary unhealthy behaviors. These are things that you do have some control over. Here in our help library you will find articles on correct installation of FileMaker Pro databases, and an article on the proper setup for sharing. The majority of the problems we see come from one of these causes.
As a human being with a body, you are going to get sick, and some day you are going to die. And your databases, over time, will also get "sick". This is inevitable. For this reason, it is crucially important that you backup your data regularly. Read the article on backing up, here in the support library. This is your responsibility. If your database is damaged beyond repair by a serious crash, and you don't have a backup, well, there is nothing we can do to help you.