Database error

[wapfinator]

Greetings Wilson,

On trying to open one of my PGO4 databases, I get this error message:
"This file is an archive of exported data. To use it, import its contents into a database using the Import function"

I had to wonder what went bad and why.  Just prior to this error, I was printing a digest in that same database..., then closed it. The appearance of the error doesn't make sense to me...

Is there a way to undo this problem? 

I'd rather not do as the error message instructs - to create a new database to import into - because all my group settings (such as pathnames to group files) would have to be re-entered manually.

Thanks for any insight.

[Wilson Logan]

Hi Debbie,

For the sake of completeness and for the assistance of others I will share here that Bruce Pappas solved this problem by creating a new database and re-downloading his messages.


I would recommend however that you create a new database e.g.

  "my-groups-new"  where your old database was "my-groups"


then use your old database as the source for an import using File--> Import from Folder.

Then if that works you can delete the old database and rename the new one to the now deleted old one.

Regarding the path info, I think that's stored with the database. Certainly the attachments folder is.

If you need to re-specify your Photos & Files folders that's likely to be a lot less work than re-downloading all the groups in your database.


One thing you should check first however is that you are in fact trying to open a database and not archive file.

Databases end with ".db3" and archives end with ".pg4".


Cheers,

Wilson.

[wapfinator]

Hi Wilson,

I would recommend however that you create a new database e.g.
"my-groups-new"  where your old database was "my-groups"
then use your old database as the source for an import using File--> Import from Folder.
Then if that works you can delete the old database and rename the new one to the now deleted old one.

OK, I've done the above.

Regarding the path info, I think that's stored with the database. Certainly the attachments folder is.
If you need to re-specify your Photos & Files folders that's likely to be a lot less work than
re-downloading all the groups in your database.

Re the path info, for some reason none of it was transferred over from "my-groups" to "my-groups-new" via the import process. All 4 pathname fields (that is, Attachments, Files, Photos, and Links) in "my-groups-new" are empty for each group .

One thing you should check first however is that you are in fact trying to open a database and not archive file.
Databases end with ".db3" and archives end with ".pg4".

Yes, the database is .db3. It's puzzling that it became "an archive of exported data" which is a .pg4 file, yet its file extension is .db3.  I'm just curious as to what could have happened, if this makes sense to you, and  I wonder how to avoid it happening again. Unfortunately my Event Log wasn't on when this happened.   Thanks!

(12/6 re-edited message for brevity)

[Wilson Logan]

Sorry about the path info.

I guess that should really be stored with the database.  I'm very surprised its not.

I can't really comment on what happened to make your .db3 behave like a .pg4

Can you zip it up and put it somewhere (e.g. Dropbox) I could download it?

I can share my Dropbox folder with you & you could upload to there.

Cheers,

Wilson.

[Wilson Logan]

I have sent you a Dropbox share invite.