Syncing A Disconnected Database?

[Sucia]

We recently experienced an operating system disk failure on the server which hosts ACT for our team. In resolving the issue, we had to reinstall Act and create a new database file which is subsequently been rolled out to four of the five members of our team. The fifth member of our team is remote about 98% of the time, and will likely have changes to their database which we would like to include in our current database file. However, after the disk failure the database which created their remote database no longer is active so there's nothing for them to sync with.

Is there anyway we can manually synchronize this older database with newly disconnected database so we do not lose the interim work performed by our mostly remote user? Or are the changes they made simply lost for good?

[JonTaylor]

Hi Sucia,

Getting data from the old remote database into your new main database shouldn't be too difficult. You're right that the remote won't synchronize now, but what you can do is import the data.

To do this, you'll first need to move the remote database on to the same machine as the main database. We recommend doing this by creating a backup file (File > Backup > Database) from the remote, moving this file onto the main machine and restoring (File > Restore > Database > Restore As...).

Once the databases are on the same machine you can run through a Database to Database import.

[Note: We strongly recommend backing up your main database before going any further] 

You'll find more information on doing this in our KnowledgeBase article on the subject, but I'll provide a brief summary of the steps below:

1. On the main database you are importing into, go to File > Import...
2. Click "Next" to start the wizard, select "Act! Database" as the import file type and browse to the location of your restored remote database.
3. You'll need to enter the log on details of an administrator user of the remote, now click "Next"
4. Select what types of data you want to import (Company/Contact/Group/Opportunity) and click "Next"
5. Now you'll see a list of fields that exist in the remote database, ensure that these all map correctly to the corresponding fields in your main database, click next once you're happy that they do.
6. Specify the merge options (what will happen if the system detects that the same record exists in both databases) - then click "Next"
7. Glance over the import summary, and once you're happy, click "Import" to start the import process.

The import could take some time depending on the amount of data, once it completes I'd recommend checking through your database to make sure everything has imported correctly.

Hope this helps!

[ch1p]

I agree with Jon but an alternative is to merge the old and new databases on the laptop if you only want to capture updated contact records from the old database. This will also update linked notes, history and Activity.

Open the old database, lookup the edit date and select since the last successful sync. Now use the export option for just the contacts into the new database using current lookup option. Select merge option on the left and add option on the right if new contacts have been created on the old database.

As Jon stated you need to log on to both databases with ACT admin rights.

[Sucia]

Thanks. I'll give this a try soon.

[Sucia]

Thanks. I appreciate the reply!