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showskier
Level 1

Quickbooks data file stored on server

System info-

Mac OS 10.15.7 (Catalina)

Quickbooks Mac 2021 (V20.0.3 R4)

 

The Quickbooks data file is stored on a drive on a central server (running Mac OS 10.15.7).

When running Quickbooks on another client machine (running Mac OS 10.15.7) after a few minutes

I get the the following error dialog.

QuickBooks could not update your company file! Your system may be low on disk space.

The volume that contains your company is inaccessible and may be low on space. QuickBooks still has an updated copy of your company file that can be saved to a new location. Please choose a different location to save your company file.

 

The network volume has over 2TB of free space.

 

If I click ok in the dialog it pops up a new dialog to navigate to a new folder to save the file to.

I can successfully save the file to a different folder on the server.

 

Then after a few minutes I get the same error dialog about the file in the new location.

 

My thoughts -

This seems like a bug in quickbooks.

It seems that quickbooks works for a few minutes and then stops being able to save onto the central server.

I had been previously running quickbooks 2016 (on Mac OS High Sierra) for several years without a problem.

So I'm sure the network (gigabit wired) is fine.

We just updated everything to Catalina a few days ago due to some other software requiring a newer version of the OS.  Which forced us to upgrade quickbooks.

 

I found this thread that describes something similar - https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/other-questions/bug-with-file-on-remote-server/00/...

 

I am running the single user version of quickbooks, just storing the file on a server.

If I run quickbooks on the central server machine I do not have any trouble with the file.

It only happens when I'm trying to remotely access the quickbooks data file.

 

Also note that quickbooks is set to backup every time you exit.  It can and does successfully save the backups to the central server.

 

Also I have tried saving a copy to the local desktop and then moved that file to the server.

When I open up that file on the server I get the same error.

 

Also anyone that suggests I just manually copy the data file between machines will be ignored.

That's not a solution in our networked world.

This is obviously a problem.

 

 

 

Solved
Best answer February 08, 2021

Best Answers
IntuitBrooks
Level 9

Quickbooks data file stored on server

When you are accessing files on a network mounted drive you are using an networking protocol (AFP, SMB, maybe something else if the OS on the mounted drive machine is not macOS). These aren't fully supported by Apple's CoreData which is used as the underlying data base engine for QuickBooks Mac. It comes down to file locking protocols on the network OS which vary and have latency issues.

 

The safe and approved way to do this is to run the QuickBooks Server application on the machine with the file and then have the clients access that over the network using the Multiuser connection built into QuickBooks. The server application ships with QuickBooks.  Just run that on the server machine, open the file, then have the QuickBooks client machines connect to the hosted file in Multiuser mode.

 

Even if you only have one license of QuickBooks Mac you can do this by quitting QuickBooks client on one machine before launching it on another.  The server stays running. 

 

Y

View solution in original post

7 Comments 7
IntuitBrooks
Level 9

Quickbooks data file stored on server

When you are accessing files on a network mounted drive you are using an networking protocol (AFP, SMB, maybe something else if the OS on the mounted drive machine is not macOS). These aren't fully supported by Apple's CoreData which is used as the underlying data base engine for QuickBooks Mac. It comes down to file locking protocols on the network OS which vary and have latency issues.

 

The safe and approved way to do this is to run the QuickBooks Server application on the machine with the file and then have the clients access that over the network using the Multiuser connection built into QuickBooks. The server application ships with QuickBooks.  Just run that on the server machine, open the file, then have the QuickBooks client machines connect to the hosted file in Multiuser mode.

 

Even if you only have one license of QuickBooks Mac you can do this by quitting QuickBooks client on one machine before launching it on another.  The server stays running. 

 

Y

IntuitBrooks
Level 9

Quickbooks data file stored on server

Also using it as you are now if both copies of QuickBooks happen to access the file at the same time the results are "undefined".  It might hose the file.

showskier
Level 1

Quickbooks data file stored on server

OK I tested out using the Quickbooks server application today.

That seems to be working ok, almost like I used to work with QB2016.

 

Thanks for pointing me at this solution.

Much appreciated.

 

I don't know why QB2021 works differently than every version I have previously used (for the past 12 or 13 years) where I could just open the file up directly from the server.  But using the server application I can continue to work

as we need to, so I guess it doesn't matter.

 

DivinaMercy_N
Moderator

Quickbooks data file stored on server

Thank you for getting back here, showskier.

 

I'm glad to know that the provided solution has worked. For further information about the QuickBooks Server, please proceed to page 25 of this user guide: QuickBooks for Mac user's guide. 

 

Also, I encourage you to visit our QuickBooks Help page, so you can browse articles or even questions of other QuickBooks users that were answered by QuickBooks experts. This will help you earn more QuickBooks knowledge that can help you with your accounting tasks. 

 

I'm just a reply away if you have any other questions. I'd be pleased to help. Thanks for coming, and stay safe!

IntuitBrooks
Level 9

Quickbooks data file stored on server

What versions did you use before that worked with his networked storage? I'm guessing they were older than 2019? 

showskier
Level 1

Quickbooks data file stored on server

Yes, the one I was using before upgrading to 2021 was 2016.

I'd still be using it if it wasn't for OS compatibility issues.

showskier
Level 1

Quickbooks data file stored on server

Actually there was file locking.  And quickbooks would only allow 1 copy of the software access to the file until  you quit out of that copy before it could be opened on a different machine.

 

We "bumped" into each other numerous times without any issues.

 

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