Loosing data

[janehelp]

Hi

Something very strange happened today. We are 2 working on powerchurch... No network... We kinda take turns. I work on memberships and he does accounting and contributions...

Today, I realize that the work I have done for the last 2 weeks is no longer there... But his work is all there.

How can this be... We both do backups after we finish working and that's how I found out that my work is gone

Please explain

Thank you

Jane

[NeilZ]

Hi

Something very strange happened today. We are 2 working on powerchurch... No network... We kinda take turns. I work on memberships and he does accounting and contributions...

Today, I realize that the work I have done for the last 2 weeks is no longer there... But his work is all there.

How can this be... We both do backups after we finish working and that's how I found out that my work is gone

Please explain

Thank you

Jane

The most obvious answer would be that he restored a full backup that was taken before you did your updates.

What I would suggest is that he do a separate backup Accounting area. Then you do FULL backups of the entire system daily or weekly. Then if he needs to restore to a previous Accounting backup, he can do so without overwriting anything in Contributions or Membership.

In many cases, its much easier to fix things in the Contributions area than it is in the Accounting area. As Accounting has no direct links to the membership database, he can restore Accounting to his heart's content.

[janehelp]

OK... I lost all the work I did from mid sept to early oct.


"The most obvious answer would be that he restored a full backup that was taken before you did your updates."

If this is the case, shouldn't he loose the work he did in accounting of the same time?

[NeilZ]

OK... I lost all the work I did from mid sept to early oct.


"The most obvious answer would be that he restored a full backup that was taken before you did your updates."

If this is the case, shouldn't he lose the work he did in accounting of the same time?

Probably, but that may be what he wanted in order to re-enter data that he may have Posted and could not change.

[janehelp]

OK... So this is what I don't understand... I lost my work (membership updates) and he didn't loose any of his work.

We just upgraded to ver 11 just about when I lost my work.. could it be in the upgrade?

Sorry if I am insisting on finding out what happened.... I don't want this problem to occur another time. it's taking me forever to find and re-do the work I did. It was the beginning of sunday school classes and I had lots of changes.

Thank you

Jane

[NeilZ]

OK... So this is what I don't understand... I lost my work (membership updates) and he didn't loose any of his work.

We just upgraded to ver 11 just about when I lost my work.. could it be in the upgrade?

Sorry if I am insisting on finding out what happened.... I don't want this problem to occur another time. it's taking me forever to find and re-do the work I did. It was the beginning of sunday school classes and I had lots of changes.

Thank you

Jane

FWIW ... the upgrade would not cause you to lose data, in fact, you would still have that data in the Version 10 data files which would still be located on the computer.

All I can say is find out if he did a database restore. If he did, then he used a database backup that did not have your changes. Since you say he didn't lose any of his updates, its also possible that he may have needed to correct some entries and thus re-entered his data.

Again, in order for this not to happen again, you must coordinate your backups. If he is doing Accounting work, then realizes that he has to restore a backup due to a posting error, then he should NOT be doing full backups. He should only do backups of the Accounting area and only restoring that data.

Finally, make sure that no one else is doing a full computer backup, then restoring that backup. That can also cause you to 'lose' data, as their backup could have been done before you did your changes.

In any case, in using the program for over 11 years, I've not seen such a problem unless an older backup is restored.

[janehelp]

I am having a nightmare trying to figure out how can I loose my work and he doesn't?

I think I am getting something here... I looked at the backup log and I see he's been restoring backups (full data)... I don't understand why he would restore. We backup just to make sure if ever data is lost or deleted (wiped out) for any reason, so we have copies. But that's not the problem.

i found a restore done:

Sept 30th... At the bottom, it says it's a backup of Oct 2nd... How can this be? Is there a bug with reporting dates?

Please help me

Thank you

jane

[NeilZ]

I am having a nightmare trying to figure out how can I loose my work and he doesn't?

I think I am getting something here... I looked at the backup log and I see he's been restoring backups (full data)... I don't understand why he would restore. We backup just to make sure if ever data is lost or deleted (wiped out) for any reason, so we have copies. But that's not the problem.

Jane, I submit, that it is the problem. If he's doing full restores, then he's overwriting YOUR data too.

i found a restore done:

Sept 30th... At the bottom, it says it's a backup of Oct 2nd... How can this be? Is there a bug with reporting dates?

No, I suspect that he may be changing the SYSTEM date in Windows, then starting PCPlus. Windows is telling the program that it is a certain date, if he does a backup, PCPlus will use that date.

He then resets the system date to the correct date, then does a restore for some reason.

Or it could be the other way around. He does a backup on Oct 2, then sets the Windows date to Sept 30th, and then restarts Powerchurch.

Bottom Line: for whatever reason he is doing the restores, he is overwriting your data as well as his, and having him only do backups for Accounting will fix this issue.

[janehelp]

thank you very much for your patience in taking time to answer my emails...

I was convinced he's been restoring even before I started asking in forum.. but insisted he's not restoring... I thought there was another way of me loosing my work and he's not.

Thank you

jane

[Zorak]

In Versions 9 and higher, there is a System Audit Log that will tell you if and when a backup was restored. It was added specifically for this purpose.

Go to Utilities > View System Audit Log. In the Event column, there should be an entry that says Backup Restored. If you select that row, you will see the full details of what type of backup was restored and when that backup was created, listed in a gray text box below the grid.

In the off-chance that a backup wasn't restored that caused this, go back and take a look in Version 10, if you still have access to it. There is a good chance the information that is missing from Version 11 was actually added into Version 10 after the conversion was done.

[janehelp]

I was actually looking at the system audit log. that's when I found out the restore of oct 2nd done sept 30th...
Strange.

what does the system audit log records?

example... If i do a backup from pc 1... do a restore on pc 2... work a bit with pc 2 and doing a few backups and restores... finally, i do a backup from pc 2 and restore to pc 1... will all the restores i did on pc 2 show in my system audit log when i finally restore to pc1?

i know it's a bit tricky but maybe that's why i am seeing lots of restores where i shouldn't be seeing any at all

thank you for replying

jane

[NeilZ]

I was actually looking at the system audit log. that's when I found out the restore of oct 2nd done sept 30th...
Strange.

what does the system audit log records?

example... If i do a backup from pc 1... do a restore on pc 2... work a bit with pc 2 and doing a few backups and restores... finally, i do a backup from pc 2 and restore to pc 1... will all the restores i did on pc 2 show in my system audit log when i finally restore to pc1?

i know it's a bit tricky but maybe that's why i am seeing lots of restores where i shouldn't be seeing any at all

thank you for replying

jane

Its a possibility ... however, if an audit log is to do any good, it should be the one file that should not backed up or restored.

[janehelp]

Thanks a lot.

i am done with this topic

I have a clear idea now of what he did.

Bottom line... I should block him from doing any restores

Thank you

Jane

[Zorak]

I should block him from doing any restores

...which you can do in the user permissions!

[NeilZ]

Jane,

glad you got it all figured out