Any type of data damage to your QuickBooks company file can cost you several years’ worth of data causing your small business to suffer. A QuickBooks database is not likely to get corrupted as the application has been designed to make it almost bug-free. The risk of file corruption increases gradually as you face intermittent problems of connection interruptions, power blips, or disk crashes. QuickBooks provides a set of utilities for repairing this damage and making your file corruption-free as before. Let us go through all of these built-in tools that you can rely on to fix corrupt QuickBooks files before you upload them to Data Services.
Tools to Fix Corrupt QuickBooks Files
Rebuild Data Utility
If corruption has hit your company file, then QuickBooks ‘Rebuild Data’ utility can be used to repair the damage. The time taken by this tool to make repairs will depend on the severity of the damaged incurred and the length of the QuickBooks database. ‘Rebuild Data’ may not be able to fix everything and you may require seeking outside help or expertise.
To run this tool, you need to log in as an administrator and then switch to the single user mode. Before proceeding further, you should resort all lists and make note of file size, transactions, targets, and links via the Product Information Window. Additionally, click ‘Window’ and then ‘Close All’ to close all the currently opened windows.
- Go to ‘File’, select ‘Utilities’, and then ‘Rebuild Data’.
- If QuickBooks asks you to take a backup, click OK.
- A ‘Create Backup’ window is displayed. Choose ‘Local Backup’.
- Click ‘Options’ and provide a destination path for the backup file.
- Choose ‘Complete verification’ and click ‘OK’. Click ‘Next’.
- Specify a name for the backup file and click ‘Save’.
- Once the backup is finished, QuickBooks will automatically run the ‘Rebuild Data’ utility.
- Click ‘OK’. Close the company file and reopen it.
- Open the Product Information Window and verify what changes have been made to the file.
QuickBooks File Doctor
QuickBooks File Doctor is a diagnostics tool for QuickBooks that can be used to fix data corruption in the company file, Windows setup problems, and network setup problems. This tool has File Repair and Network diagnostics enabled by default. It can be used to fix ‘.QBW’ and ‘.QBA’ files only. Before installing this utility, you should disable User Account Control (UAC) temporarily to be able to perform network tests as well. You can change network options via ‘Advanced Options’ button.
- Start QuickBooks File Doctor.
- Click ‘Browse’ to locate the company file. Select the file to be repaired and click ‘Open’.
- Click ‘Diagnose File’.
- You will be prompted to enter the administrator’s password. Specify the required password and click ‘OK’.
- In the ‘Network Access’ window, select either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and click ‘Next’.
- Once the process is finished, go by the instructions provided.
In case the tool is unable to repair the damage, you should restore from the last backup taken and recreate all transactions that have occurred since then.
QuickBooks Network Diagnostics Tool
QuickBooks Network Diagnostics Tool is capable of fixing issues with the network or with multi-user access. This tool can be used for QuickBooks 2008 and later or QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 8.0 and later. Further, it supports Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP. It presents you with two tabs:
Scan Folders tab
This tab will only show up if you have QuickBooks Database Server installed on your computer. The tool will check and fix the QuickBooks Network Descriptor. It will also correct the permissions required to operate smoothly in a multi-user environment.
Diagnose Connection Tab
This will help you verify the computer’s settings in order to make the company file accessible from this workstation. It also checks firewalls and ports.
In case these built-in utilities are unable to fix corrupt QuickBooks files, use professional QuickBooks file repair tools. These software can work for any level of damage and help you recover every single detail from your corrupt QuickBooks database.
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