Merging contacts udf's in error on new records

Hi,

It sounds like the Maximizer data files contain orphans. ie records that no longer point to a contact. When you create a new contact they suddenly reappear as the new contact looks like (internally) the one they used to belong to. Possibly this could have happened if you restored some maximizer files from an old backup (rather than a complete set).

Are you using max exchange? if so the correction of this problem may be more complicated and certainly requires considerable care.

I suggest you create a new database (File/New) and copy the structure of the current database. Then make a list of all the clients and individuals in the current database select them and transfer all of these to the new one (File/Transfer).

This should leave the orphans behind. You could work with the new database transferring across the doc templates etc. but you can't transfer you favourite/saved lists. As this may be a problem, the alternative is to copy the file MXZD.MAX from the folder with the new database back over the damaged file in the old database.

Keep a backup copy of your data before your start to play!

We've recently written btrieve based clean up program that can remove certain types of orphans that cause UDFs with no name to appear on contacts. If you can't solve the problem we may be able to write something similiar to sort out your problem.

Regards,

Ian Wallace
CABC, Newbury

Hi Ian,

I have tried what you suggested with transferring the entries into a new addressbook. The client has just called and said that it has merged records again. Please help!!

Oh dear...

We may be able to help but I'd need to see the data to be sure I've understood the problem correctly. How big are the clients MXZC,MXZD and MXZX files?

Ian

The MXZC is 4.3mb, MXZD is 16mb and the MZXZ is 111kb, how would you like me to get the data to you?

Hi Ian,

The database was indeed restored from an old backup. The client tried restoring with the latest backup but had corruption on the stiffy, they then went back to an old backup and restored. It is since then that they are experiencing this problem. The file sizes you asked are as follows:
MXZC = 4.3MB
MXZD = 16MB
MXZX = 111KB
Can I e-mail you a backup copy of the data? If need be I could also zip it and send in smaller packets.

Any help would be appreciated as the client is loosing hair and sleep.

Regards

Chris

If you go to 'help/about' what series does it say you are running? There have been a couple of service releases for Enterprise 4 and both corrected certain odd behaviour with the 'add new contact' function (Particularly if it is created via the drag'n'drop method)
This patch is kinda hard to find these days but I have a copy I could email you if you would like? Email me at:
john@dragonbait.co.uk


[This message has been edited by Dragonbait (edited 07 November 2000).]