I do not know whether the posts wrt the above are still open. I also do not want to hijack anybody’s post.
My problem is as follow: -
I was forced to install another hard drive into my computer during this week. I have Windows10 Enterprise.
I re-installed manager.io from a previous file. When I wanted to import my data file from the backup It gave the error “This business file is not valid”.
I did read various threads wrt this topic. I uninstalled Manager and installed an older version but It still did not read the data file.
I re-installed the latest version, now I am getting the “Invalid File Format” error.
@Patch I can not remember the version on the old Hard Disk. The Hard Drive crashed. The only info I have is that the Data File was backed up on 09.08.2021. I can only assume that it should have been a version during that date.
The version installed now is 21.11.95. I did check Github, but it only give the version numbers and not the dates and therefore I am unable to match a version on Github with the date 09.08.2021.
if you used to update Manager weekly or monthly, then you could try installing a version of the particular period.
as an example for version 21.11.95, manager version number folows the below rule.
21 → year
11 → month
95 → update version
this is only an approximate because the latest version has 21.11.xx even when we are in December.
so I suggest you try the last update from Github available for july month. version 21.7.xx
@sharpdrivetek@Patch Thank you I did not know that. I found a manager.io on 09.08.21. I will re-install and then work my way down the earlier versions and see what comes up. I will keep you posted.
@sharpdrivetek@Patch A copy of my backup file is on another drive which I am using to store backup information. The backup file should not get corrupted, but I get what you are saying.
I should rather import a fresh copy of the backup file each time I install a version of Manager. This makes sense, because I have noticed that it keeps on giving the error even after I have installed a few versions of the month of August. I would rather do it over again with a new imported file with each version I am testing. I am also going to put the crashed drive back again. I might by luck get the version I was using. It might save a lot of time.
I will do that. I am also trying to look at my last posts in forum. this could indicate a month although manager could have updated after my last posts. It appears to be around May 2021.
I will probably have to stick to the first option. Try and recover the version via the program or the version.txt file as you have suggested.
If you had updated Manager within the last 1-2 years then the basic file structure is unchanged (uses SQLite) and relatively minor file structure changes have occurred.
@Patch@sharpdrivetek Seems it does not want to work. Doesn’t matter which manager file I am downloading. It does not want to load the data file without an error.
I am trying to recover the manager.io or the version.txt files with recoverit (Demo) as well as easus
Maybe I could be fortunate and be able to recover one or both of of these files.
KB or MB ? unless it is the latter I am afraid you do not have a valid backup file.
even a newly created business file would have a file size close to 100KB.
@sharpdrivetek@Patch I think my digit is incorrect. I should not have used “.”. I should have rather used “,” This file is 1,112kb which is actually 1.114 mb. Sorry about that.
@lubos@Patch@sharpdrivetek
Firstly it appears that this file would never have worked. It was checked by @lubos and the file is not a data file.
I did manage to recover a copy of the file (as per @lubos suggestion). Although I did not have another backup copy, I managed to recover a deleted copy with EaseUS. It is opening perfectly and all my data is intact.
Thank you everybody for your efforts in assisting me.
