Deleteing a Database

[bryan.mills]

Act! Premium (Web) Version: 19.1.17.0

I need to delete and re-upload an entire database, but seem to be unable to do so. I have a list of >1000 contacts with a lot of duplicates, and I am only able to merge or delete one record at a time. I followed the manual instructions Tools > Database Maintenance > Delete Database, but the delete option is not present, only Lock/unlock. Is there another way to do this?

[bryan.mills · Accepted solution]

Ok, I was able to find the answer. I created a lookup, and then selected a single contact from the lookup, then used the "Delete" key instead of navigating to Contacts > Delete Contact or Tools. I was then presented with a dialog box that contained the options "Delete contact", "Delete lookup", or "Cancel". The "Delete lookup" function was able to clear the database. 

[juancarlosoterogarc…]

Make sure you have a backup before any procedure

File Menu - Back Up - Database  (Define a folder in your documents folder to back up the database)

If you are not a database administrator, you must request support to your system administrator

1.  If you want, you can restore the database with another name or with a small variation of the name.

With ACTDIAG you can check the location of the database files (only in case you do not know)

 

2.  Another way is to detach the database (With the same ACTDIAG) , then move the database files to a temporary folder and restore the database with the same name again.

[bryan.mills]

I do have administrator access, but I get an error every time I try to access diagnostics. 

[Roy_Laudenslager]

The easy way to delete a database is to open the database in ACT! and goto Tools \ Database Maintenance and use the Delete database option.

[bryan.mills]

Unfortunately, that does not appear to be an option for me..

[bryan.mills · Accepted solution]

Ok, I was able to find the answer. I created a lookup, and then selected a single contact from the lookup, then used the "Delete" key instead of navigating to Contacts > Delete Contact or Tools. I was then presented with a dialog box that contained the options "Delete contact", "Delete lookup", or "Cancel". The "Delete lookup" function was able to clear the database. 

[Gary W]

Hi Bryan,

The delete database option is only present on the desktop Act! application. If you are using a hosted version of Act! over the web, like Act! Premium Cloud, then this option is not available to you. You can request your database be deleted, and reuploaded by opening a ticket with your database host, or here for Act! Premium Cloud customers.