Orphaned Profiles

[MTZDetroit]

PC 11.1 ML 5-28-2014

We have a little over 29,000 individual profiles (we do not delete ANYBODY) in our database.

Recently, when adding a new household immediately after saving the record it is no where to be found. It cannot be located either by household or by personal profile.

If I re-index Membership files then search by Personal Profile the person can be located but the link to the family says '.NULL'.

I have to re-create the household, move the profile to the new household and let the system figure out there are no other members of this household and then select Yes to delete the household.

This happens quite often for the last several months. It has reached a point that I am afraid we are losing records.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Michael Sanchez
PC User 8 years
Clarkston, Michigan.

[NeilZ]

PC 11.1 ML 5-28-2014

We have a little over 29,000 individual profiles (we do not delete ANYBODY) in our database.

Recently, when adding a new household immediately after saving the record it is no where to be found. It cannot be located either by household or by personal profile.

If I re-index Membership files then search by Personal Profile the person can be located but the link to the family says '.NULL'.

I have to re-create the household, move the profile to the new household and let the system figure out there are no other members of this household and then select Yes to delete the household.

This happens quite often for the last several months. It has reached a point that I am afraid we are losing records.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Michael Sanchez
PC User 8 years
Clarkston, Michigan.

Honestly, you really need to prune that database. If you have visitors who have given, but 5 years ago, prune them out, as you really don't need to maintain more than 4 years back.
I'm not saying that the Foxpro database engine can't handle the number of records, but you're taking up disk space for no reason, and it forces the system to do a lot of scanning if you're looking for a data item that not in the index.

That said, how are you adding the new household? Are you using the Add Family Assistant ??

[MTZDetroit]

Neil, thank you for the reply.

I personally add any new families and I follow a process that checks for existing records therefore I do not use the Family Assistant. The record count is AFTER several years of purging duplicates.

While I admit we need to purge, I also know the mindset is we do not want to lose any historical data such as baptisms and class completions.

Is there any efficient manner to mass delete other than going one record at a time?

Thanks.

[NeilZ]

Neil, thank you for the reply.

I personally add any new families and I follow a process that checks for existing records therefore I do not use the Family Assistant. The record count is AFTER several years of purging duplicates.

Suggestion, check for duplicates, then use the Family Assistant, as it will create all the proper entries (Mailing List and Personal Profiles) with the proper indexed connections.

While I admit we need to purge, I also know the mindset is we do not want to lose any historical data such as baptisms and class completions.

Is there any efficient manner to mass delete other than going one record at a time?

Thanks.

I take it that your church does not keep a set of membership books where you permanently record that data. What I would do is do a backup before you do any purging, and take that backup and store it on CD or network permanent storage. Then start clearing the records, then do this every year at the same time: backup, purge .. so you won't lose anything, you'd just have to go back to the older database version to open it up. Its actually quite easy once you set it up.

As far as a mass delete for Membership information, I'm not sure there is one. This is something I would contact Powerchurch support about via phone, they may have some advice on a quick way to clear out the database.