Database corrupted overnight - what could have happened?

creeves · ‎November 28, 2018

Hey everybody! I'm aware that this may be a fairly un-answerable question, but I was curious to know if anyone had encountered this and might be able to unravel the mystery. We use Quickbooks Enterprise 18. We have a company file located on a server, shared over the network. There are about 15 people who all use QBs in Multi-User Mode.

tl;dr version: Company file corrupted overnight. We had a scheduled bank transfer scheduled. Could that have failed and corrupted the company file?

I am my company's IT pro, I don't know squat about bookkeeping or really anything about QBs other than how to manage the database and server. At the end of the business day yesterday, I added storage drives to the server on which my QBs company file lives. There were no issues or complications. However, after I brought the server back up, I did NOT test connecting to QBs. I should have!

This morning, nobody was able to login to QBs. Everyone was getting the "Someone opened the dang thing in Single User mode" message, but I checked with every QBs user, and nobody had it open. After some trial and error, I did open it as the administrator in Single User mode. I switched it to Mutli User mode, but everyone was still getting the same error. If they OK'd past that screen and tried again, you'd get an H202 error saying that QBs needed help finding the company file. After a few attempts at logging everyone out, making sure nobody had "Host Multi User Mode" on (one user did, but this wasn't the problem), I ran the Quickbooks Database Server Manager.

The Server Manager verified network communication. On the Database Server tab, the Status said something like "No File". I wish I would have recorded this. the "Currently connected company files and logged-in users" box was blank. It was as if the company file itself could not be found. The next step was to run the File Doctor, which told me that it couldn't fix the file. Oh no!

I restored a backup from 1am, and everyone is back in and happy; something must have happened between 1am and the start of business this morning to corrupt the database. My server maintenance was done by 7pm, so even though I didn't test the application, it had to have been fine up to that 1am backup.

We had set up a scheduled bank transfer to happen overnight, and it appears that this never completed. Could this be the culprit? Could it have failed its transmission and corrupted the database? If anyone is experienced with this feature, how can we safeguard ourselves in the future?

The wildcard here is that we also have some contracted accountants who also login to the company file afterhours and on weekends, but I don't know if they did so last night.

VivienJ · ‎November 28, 2018

Thanks for providing such detailed information, creeves.

I'm glad everything's going well on your end and everybody's back to working again. It's indeed a great investigation and I'm here to share my insights about what happened.

It's possible there's an interruption with the connection between the server and your data which causes damage on the file. Due to the damage detected by the system, the data gets corrupted.

I'd recommend rebuilding the actual company file. This is to make sure that there are no more underlying damages which can trigger the issue to reoccur. To do so:

Choose File at the top menu bar.
Select Utilities, then Rebuild Data.

For additional reference, you can check out the article below. It has all the steps needed to ensure that the connection between the server and your workstations are 100 percent accurate.

I can imagine how big of an impact it is for your company if they don't have an IT Expert like you. Please know that you're not alone in here.

The Community is the perfect place to share your QuickBooks concerns and connect with other users and accountants. Don't hesitate to visit us again and I'll get right back up.

TJCJr · ‎April 30, 2019

I have a similar issue where we have been having some intermittent issues with some of our users logging in when they switch from their remote desktop then to the office desktop, so in trouble shooting I tried the file Dr. and it stated we had a corrupt file and the next time I tried it I received an error that the admin password was incorrect but the admin password would open quickbooks with no issues. I have since spent many hours with quickbooks support with nothing but frustration with their processes and not being able to be connected with a higher level tech that has any knowledge of the system. I have tried to rebuilding the data and did receive errors that could not be fixed one was error 310, the others did not have numbers.

I also tried rebuilding from back ups as far as 16 days ago but with the same issues.

Has anyone seen this issue where the file doctor will now run, it keeps coming back with error that the admin user name or password is incorrect.

Thank You

HoneyLynn_G · ‎April 30, 2019

Thanks for joining this conversation, @TJCJr.

I appreciate you providing information about the troubleshooting steps you've tried.

Unusual behaviors with logins are most likely caused by data integrity issues within the program. Running the Verify/Rebuild tool should help QuickBooks to self-identify the cause of the issue and apply the necessary countermeasures to resolve the error.

Since you've already tried the recommendations and still unable to surpass the error codes, I'd advise to call us again.

If you have a case number, that would help streamline the process. Your case number has the previous agent's notes according to what happened to your issue. This way, you won't be repeating yourself. You can also ask for a higher lever or manager by providing the case number.

Keep me posted on how the call went, @TJCJr. I want to ensure that this is resolved. If you have other questions, just leave a comment for me.

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Database corrupted overnight - what could have happened?