What is corruption?
Corruption occurs when your data has become damaged. This normally happens because of environmental influences outside of the software itself. For example, computer crashes, power failure, interference from other software or hardware or network problems. To check for corruption, run the Check Data option.
NOTE: If you need to close the software in an unusual way such as ending it through Task Manager you should always check your data when you open the software again.
How does this affect my data?
Since corruption indicates damaged or even missing information, you must resolve it as quickly as possible. If you restore a backup taken prior to the corruption occurring you must re-enter all the transactions you processed since you took it.
Identify and minimise the risk of corruption
You can minimise data corruption and identify any issues quickly with a few simple steps. Click each option to find out more.
Check your data
Corruption is most easily identified when the Check Data routine returns a list of errors. Running this routine on a regular basis is a vital step in ensuring the integrity of your data.
- File > Maintenance > Check Data.
There are other indicators that your data may be damaged:
- Does the software crash or freeze anywhere?
- When selecting drop-down lists, are the lists blank or do they freeze?
- Do any of the software windows show strange or random characters?
- Are recently posted transactions or new records missing from your data?
If you suspect that your data may be corrupt, you should take a backup and run Check Data immediately.
If you have errors, you should resolve this immediately. Refer to the article A - Z index of Check Data errors, warning and comments.
If you don't have errors, but still suspect corruption we recommend that you run Reindex and Compress on the data in the affected module,
If you can't run a check data or check data freezes, please refer to article Sage 50 Accounts hangs or crashes during Check Data.
With Sage 50 Accounts v26 and above, you can automate your backups and in Sage 50 Accounts v28 and above you can automate the Check Data.
Alternatively, you can take a manual backup.
If you get errors in your data, the first thing you should consider is to restore a backup, as this involves less downtime than sending your data to Sage to be repaired. For example, if you back up on a daily basis, you can restore to the previous day and you would only lose one day's data at the most.
If you are using third party software with your Sage Accounts program, you must contact the third party software provider to confirm that it is fully compatible and tested with your version of Sage Accounts. If it is confirmed as compatible and tested, we recommend that you take a backup and check your data prior to posting anything from your third party software. You should then check your data again after posting to make sure that this hasn't caused any errors.
You should regularly check and install any necessary updates in Help > Check for Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions as required.
If you use a network version of Sage 50 Accounts, or you use Remote Data Access, ensure that you complete this routine on each computer that has Sage 50 Accounts installed. It's important that each computer running Sage 50 Accounts has exactly the same version of the software installed. Check your version number in Help > About.
To see a list of all version numbers and updates required, please refer to www.sage.co.uk/accountsupdates
Check your system specifications
If your computer doesn't meet the recommended requirements for your Sage software this can cause issues with performance and ultimately could cause data corruption. To check the recommended specifications, please refer to this article .
You should also ensure that no other software interferes with your Sage software. For example, your antivirus software may check your Sage data files and therefore may affect the performance. For more information about how to avoid conflicts with your antivirus software.
Fixing corruption
If your data has corruption you must stop processing and follow the steps below. Click each step to find out more.
Backup
Before you restore an error free backup or attempt to fix corruption you should back up the data in it's current state.
Restore a previous error free backup
Fix errors, warnings and comments
If you don't have a suitable error free backup, you should try repairing your data. For help with this, please refer to the following articles:
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