Please help?
After update to OS Mojave I have reinstalled Manager as advised on your website. All is well and the program is running, but all my data is gone. Where can I find my data from the old Manager version?
None of your data is gone. One of two things happened:
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You updated Manager incorrectly. You should not have reinstalled in the sense of deleting an old version and then installing the new. You should have installed the new right over the top of the old, following procedures in this Guide exactly: Install or update desktop edition on macOS | Manager.
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You previously changed the location of your application data from the default and have not done the same for your new installation. This would have required active steps on your part. It would also have required you to delete the default application data folder, which you should never do.
The application data folder location you currently have set is in the Preferences tab. But the folder and its contents are hidden. So you either need to toggle the Finder to show hidden files (press CMD + SHIFT + . simultaneously) or copy the path from the Preferences tab and paste it into the Go to Folder window in the Finder:
When you get there, take a screen shot of the contents and post them here on the forum.
You should also read this Guide for background information: Manage application data folder contents | Manager.
Very interesting. I believe I see what is wrong. Recovery is simpler than it looks in the list of instructions below. Here is what to do. Follow these steps exactly, in the order presented:
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Quit the Manager program if it is open.
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Create a new folder on your desktop named Temp Manager Files. You will move things here until confirming it is safe to delete them.
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Move the first two files in your Manager folder with all the zeroes in their names to Temp Manager Files.
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Move the
sizefile to Temp Manager Files. This file just stores the last window size and will be recreated when the program needs it. -
Looking at the remaining files, you will notice that you basically have pairs with identical names, except one file in each pair includes hyphens in its file name. Move all the files with hyphens in their names to Temp Manager Files. You should be left with 5 files in your Manager folder.
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If you have 5 different business, jump to Step 9 below. If you have fewer than 5, continue with Step 7.
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Double-click on the first file in the folder. It should open a Manager window, showing the hexadecimal file name as the name of the business. If this looks like a real business you previously had, go to Settings > Business Details and determine the name of the business. Make a note of the file name and the real business name. Examine various transactions to determine the last entry date for the business. Understand that the tabs available may not be the same as you are used to, because you are looking at a newer version of the program. Quit the program.
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Open each of the other files in the Manager folder the same way. Makes notes on which businesses they are and the most recent transaction dates. You may have more than one version of the same business, with different cutoff dates. Those with older dates are relics of past data architectures and are never called. Quit the program after each file has been examined in turn. Your goal is to identify the latest version of every actual business.
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Launch Manager in the normal way. Use the Add Business feature to build a new index. Follow the procedures for restoring from backup in this Guide: Backup, restore, import, and transfer businesses | Manager. When browsing for the file(s) to restore, navigate to the Manager folder where we’ve been doing this work. Add the file for the latest version of every business identified in Steps 7 and 8. If you actually have 5 different businesses, add them all. If you discovered you had 5 versions of the same business, only restore the most recent.
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Go to the Businesses tab in the Manager program. You should see a list of the businesses you added. But they will be unintelligible, hexadecimal strings of letters and numbers. Open each business in turn and rename it with its actual name, following this Guide: Name or rename a business | Manager.
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Quit the Manager program. At this point, your Manager folder should have a new index file (all zeroes) and a
sizefile, plus the five hexadecimal file names. Move those you did not import (because they were older) to Temp Manager Files. -
Relaunch Manager. You should see a list of your business(es). And the latest data from before the update problem should be in each business.
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After you have convinced yourself you have recovered everything, delete the Temp Manager Files folder and its contents.
Depending on your confidence level manipulating data folders, this may seem forbidding. Don’t worry. As long as you don’t delete anything, you can recover from any mistake. Just make sure any files you move go to Temp Manager Files. If you have questions, please ask.
Wow, thank you very much for trying to help me. It seems like my technological abilities has their limits. I, carefully, went through each and every step and stopped at Step 8.
It looks like all the files I opened had absolutely not data in it. (I will add a screenshot of one of the “companies” to show you what I mean.
If I remember correctly, I had only 2 businesses. One was MM Design and the other was a personal “account”
None of the files left in the Manager folder contains any data…
Will it be a possibility to find more “backup files” in my Time Machine? I can then maybe try to restore them from there??
Sorry that my abilities is not so sharp… I was even prepared to ask you to maybe use TeamViewer to help me out as you seem a 1000 times more clever than I am with these things…
Well, this is bad news indeed. If all the businesses look like the one you showed when opened, they are all just default “shells.” This is the basic structure of a new business when first added. No transactions have been entered, ever. You can move every business like this to Temp Manager Files for now.
So the question is, where are your actual files? Manager did not spontaneously move them from the Manager folder you have been working in. So at some time in the past, you (or someone else with access to the machine) took actions that resulted in their being somewhere else or permanently deleted. Some possibilities are:
- The application data path was previously changed. In older versions of Manager, this was done under the About Manager tab. In more recent versions, this is done under Preferences. This might have been done to move the files to a cloud storage site, such as DropBox, or to an accessory hard drive.
- The records were moved outside the application data folder to be with other records of the business. There was a time when this was easier, and the files could be renamed with plain-language titles instead of the alphanumeric jumble. But the scheme that included that was later abandoned. Nevertheless, you could have been making entries in a file stored somewhere else. Search for these using the Find command, looking for the
.managerextension. Unfortunately, this will not return hidden files. - Files were moved elsewhere in anticipation of the Mojave update. This used to be common practice, but update installers have become much more sophisticated, so it isn’t necessary any more.
You asked about Time Machine. By all means, try looking back. You should be looking for files with the .manager extension. The default files are usually 28 KB in size, so you should look for files larger than that.
Also, if you were making backups, you can restore from a backup. Hopefully, those were being kept on a different drive. If you had set yourself up to store anything on iCloud, check there.
It is very difficult to go on a treasure hunt remotely. If you can’t find anything, take your machine to a local, reputable Mac repair shop or an Apple store and tell them what you are looking for.
Maybe this URL can help you out:
If not let me know.