User Support Forum

Can anyone tell me which files contain the user profile data, i.e., pw's in particular. I have a need to restore all files but the user profiles. By user profile, I mean the users of the system.

The problem is that one of our people has a local copy of Power Church installed on his laptop where he has complete control over user of all user rights.

I noticed that in the knowledge base these files are not identified.

Please help.

RevWJones wrote:Can anyone tell me which files contain the user profile data, i.e., pw's in particular. I have a need to restore all files but the user profiles. By user profile, I mean the users of the system.

The problem is that one of our people has a local copy of Power Church installed on his laptop where he has complete control over user of all user rights.

I noticed that in the knowledge base these files are not identified.

Please help.

Unfortunately, you cannot run the program without that file, it determines what permissions all users have on the system, and the system won't run without it.

Now, as far as the person having access to the data, that's easily fixed by changing the System Admin password, and then editing the person's profile to remove any access to 'System Admin' functions.

You can do this on any networked computer, then when the database is backed up and restored on the laptop, these permissions will go with them and he will no longer have access. That said, a local copy cannot affect any networked copy of Powerchurch unless that copy is backed up and restored on the network.

However, if you no longer have access to the System Admin password, and only this person does, you will have to call Powerchurch directly, and they will assist you in fixing this. However, they will require you to provide some authentication. They do this to prevent unauthorized access to the System Admin account.

As to how this person got access to the System Admin password/profile that is an issue for your church board to figure out. If this person is not supposed to have such access, this is a case where the board needs to exert some church discipline.

I may have misrepresented my need.

All I want to do is to know which data files contain user profiles so that I can select those files to restore.

Thanks,

A follow-up question is this: I have two backups; one with pictures and one without pictures (data files only).

I need to do a restore. The latest backup is the one without the pictures. If I restore just the data-only files, will my pictures stay in place? In other words does a restore of data only files destroy my pictures?

If not, can I restore the pictures from the other backup?

Thanks,

RevWJones wrote:A follow-up question is this: I have two backups; one with pictures and one without pictures (data files only).

I need to do a restore. The latest backup is the one without the pictures. If I restore just the data-only files, will my pictures stay in place? In other words does a restore of data only files destroy my pictures?

If not, can I restore the pictures from the other backup?

Thanks,

Powerchurch backups are specifically created to backup certain areas of files. When you select the backup, the system then selects a script which pulls the files into the backup ZIP file. You should NOT try to randomly restore certain files, as you may not restore other files that are needed.

Again, you talk about 'user files' ... exactly what are you trying to do.

As far as restoring 'data only' backups, exactly how did you backup this data? Was it a Powerchurch backup ?? If so, then restoring from a Powerchurch data files only backup will not overwrite or delete your picture directory.

What it sounds like you should do is first restore the backup that you have that contains the pictures, then restore the data only backup.

Again, I wouldn't try 'unzipping' the backup then pulling files from there to copy to the data directory, you may miss a required file and mess up your data.

Thanks, Neil. I'll try your suggestion on my non-production machine. I am running PC v. 11.55. I only use PC's utilities to backup/restore. After I select the restore option, PC gives me two choices:

1. Restore all files from backup
2. Restore selected files from backup

Choosing the selected restore option, I am presented with many files to which to restore. I can choose to restore one photo if needed to.

The problem we experienced is that an account was deleted under our building fund. The latest backup did not contain the pictures. A full backup was done about 15 hours earlier on Monday. If I restored the backup that contained NO pictures, and chose restore option 1, would my pictures be left intact? In other words, does the "Restore all files from backup" option assumes that all previous files are to be overwritten? In a normal case wouldn't this be the case? Why would the PC developers assume anything different and not give the option? It's been a while since I've done a restore but there is a warning that comes up but I don't recall an option other than proceed or cancel.

Again, thanks for your help.

That's my latter question.

My first question is a bit complicated. The same person runs an offline copy of PC on his laptop. I do not share the Sys Admin PW of our production PC with him. When he need to work on a financial issue, he takes a backup (data-only) and performs a restore to his laptop. Here is the problem: I assisted him with the initial installation of PC on his laptop. Before I release the laptop to him, I allow him to change the PW on his offline version (laptop version). He takes it home (far from the church) and that's where he works from solving problems and testing all he wants. While home, he never logs onto his offline version with the SysAdmin account, he uses his own User account. Whenever he need to work on a new problem, he grab new data and restore it to his laptop. Since he knows the SysAdmin PW that he set, PC allows him to do the log on the SysAdmin account and do the restore once. However, the next time he needs to refresh the data and attempt to restore, he can't even logon as SysAdmin because the previous restore set the PW back to what's on the production copy. Remember, I can't give him the production PW; too risky.

Two options, since I never know when he'll need to grab new data, I can't make a backup for him that includes his SysAdmin PW. This would be very laborious for me and may not be timely enough for him. The other options is that I am able to log into his laptop remotely and enter the SysAdmin PW, allowing him to do the restore but, again, he stated he usually does this type of work in the wee-hours of the morning.

Now the question of doing a selected restore and since the only files he need are the financial files, why can't he just restore those? So if I knew which ones those were he could unselect all other files, but he might need to restore new membership and contribution files also (I don't know). If we knew which files were the system user files, then unselecting them would solve this problem, unless the SysAdmin account is not contained in them.

Really sorry about this long version. . .

Again, thanks so much.

OK ... if you restore from the backup without the pictures, your pictures WILL NOT be overwritten or deleted.

Yes, the system gives you the option to restore selected files, but it is NOT recommended. In fact you will get a message with a big red X that says:

Many of the files in PowerChurch are interrelated. Use this option to restore selected files only if you know you are restoring all related files. By not restoring all of the related files together, you may lose some data. If you are unsure of which specific related files to restore, it is best to restore a complete backup.

In other words, its not a very good idea.

RevWJones wrote:
My first question is a bit complicated. The same person runs an offline copy of PC on his laptop. I do not share the Sys Admin PW of our production PC with him. When he need to work on a financial issue, he takes a backup (data-only) and performs a restore to his laptop. Here is the problem: I assisted him with the initial installation of PC on his laptop. Before I release the laptop to him, I allow him to change the PW on his offline version (laptop version). He takes it home (far from the church) and that's where he works from solving problems and testing all he wants. While home, he never logs onto his offline version with the SysAdmin account, he uses his own User account. Whenever he need to work on a new problem, he grab new data and restore it to his laptop. Since he knows the SysAdmin PW that he set, PC allows him to do the log on the SysAdmin account and do the restore once. However, the next time he needs to refresh the data and attempt to restore, he can't even logon as SysAdmin because the previous restore set the PW back to what's on the production copy. Remember, I can't give him the production PW; too risky.

Two options, since I never know when he'll need to grab new data, I can't make a backup for him that includes his SysAdmin PW. This would be very laborious for me and may not be timely enough for him. The other options is that I am able to log into his laptop remotely and enter the SysAdmin PW, allowing him to do the restore but, again, he stated he usually does this type of work in the wee-hours of the morning.

Nothing says that he NEEDS the System Admin password to do restores or backups for that matter, give him backup & restore permission on his UserID. Make a full backup with that permission set, and have that restored to the laptop. Then remove the restore permission from his UserID on the live system.

Now the question of doing a selected restore and since the only files he need are the financial files, why can't he just restore those? So if I knew which ones those were he could unselect all other files, but he might need to restore new membership and contribution files also (I don't know). If we knew which files were the system user files, then unselecting them would solve this problem, unless the SysAdmin account is not contained in them.

Really sorry about this long version. . .

Again, thanks so much.

I take it that he's only working on Accounting ?? You have the option to only backup Accounting files. I'm fairly sure that the Accounting Backup does not include the UserID/Permissions database file, so his restore permission will not be overwritten. In this manner, he can backup Accounting files from the live system without having to ask for a backup. With the restore permission on the laptop, he can restore without issues.

Thank, Neil. I'll give your suggestions a try.