Lost businesses or recent data after upgrading

1

If you are updating your Desktop Edition from a version between 17.4.0 and 17.5.8 then you may experience missing businesses upon opening Manager or missing recent dated data upon opening a business - this is due to Manager reverting back to the pre 17.4.0 application structure.

Most importantly, no business or data is lost.
a) If you have no Business names listed then that means you had deleted the previously (old) named15 character alpha numeric files - which is ok.

b) If you have business names listed but are missing recent data then that means that the previous 15 character alpha numeric files (pre 17.4.0) are opening instead of your latest files. In this case rename those business by adding (old) to the end before proceeding.

To find your latest business file(s do the following:

  1. search your hard drive for .manager files (note the dot)
  2. note down the location path of those that have proper business name files (not alpha numeric)
  3. open Manager and click on Add Business
  4. click on Import Business
  5. navigate to the noted location and select the required business file with the “latest” date

When you do a search you should see results similar to this:

987×80 14.9 KB

The 2nd file is the one you are looking for - the latest with a proper name - note also how it is larger.
The 1st file even though more recently dated is actually a pre 17.4.0 file which has been re-activated by the current update - note (b) above. It also matches the size of the backup taken at the time.

Repeat these steps if you have other businesses to re-establish.

If you did a backup immediately prior to doing the update then you could reload that backup:

  1. open Manager and click on Add Business
  2. click on Import Business
  3. navigate to the backup location and select the required business file with the “latest” date
  4. to remove the date stamp from the business name - click rename

Notes:

  1. This reverting means that a business name has returned to the 15 character alpha numeric file name format and NOT proper names which had been introduced.

  2. All .manager files need to be maintained together in the one folder, but that folder can be located wherever you want to put it.

  3. At the base of the business screen you can now see the file name that relates to that business

5

Different instructions for same issue Also reported in this topic

Edit by Brucanna - have incorporated the points from the “different instruction for same issue” topic into the above solution. Thanks

6

I’m afraid this issue will keep popping up for many months to come. I’m categorizing this under Troubleshooting category so it will be published on the website in troubleshooting section where people might be looking too.

https://www.manager.io/guides/troubleshooting/lost-businesses-or-recent-data-after-upgrading

I don’t like this topic pinned at the top though. A lot of new users are looking at the forum and the first topic being about losing accounting data merely after an upgrade is just too scary.

If someone has this issue and can’t figure out the solution, let’s just point them to troubleshooting page.

Anyway, I’m still kicking myself over version 17.4.0. Definitely a lesson learned for me right there.

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