"ACT! has encountered an error. Please shutdown the application." pops up when I click on COMPANY

[emsbigfoot1]

I get the following error when I click on COMPANIES "ACT! has encountered an error. Please shutdown the application." It is normally closely followed with the 2 messages below:

Cannot assign type ACT.Framework.Contacts.Contact from Act.Framework.Companies.Company

and sometimes

Error occured while starting synch: annot assign type ACT.Framework.Contacts.Contact from Act.Framework.Companies.Company Parameter name item

It only does it in this database not the demo or my other one's.

I have run evry fix in Actdiag and it still does it.

Any suggestions? Please help!

I running ACT! by Sage Premium 2010 Version 12.1.181.0, Hot Fix 1 on a Windows 7 Ultimate quad core with 8G of RAM

[gmartin]

Since you have narrowed it down to a single database having the issue, you can test if it is the structure of the database or the data by creating an Empty Copy of the database and test it.

To do this:

- open your 'problem' database

- select File > select Save Copy As

- choose the option for creating and 'Empty copy' and give this new database a name

- once it is complete > open this new database and test

If the Empty Copy tests successfully, the next step would be to import the data from the original database into the new one.  The idea here is that the import will rewrite the corrupted data.  For instructions on importing a database, review this article: Best Practices for Importing an Act! Database

[emsbigfoot1]

Creating the empty database did not seem to solve the problem. When I click on companies, it gives me the same error. Next idea?

Thanks

David 

[gmartin]

Just to make sure - all of the databases you have tried are physically stored on the same machine - is that correct?  

Unfortunately the situation points to a corrupted database structure.  To resolve that would require creating a new database (File > New Database), creating your custom fields in the new database, then importing the old database into the new one. 

Another option would be to contact our Database Services group to see if they can resolve it.  They are a fee based service.

[emsbigfoot1]

It is actually happening on all of the machines (server and remotes) since I added some new fields to the layout last week.

[ghollister]

Are any of these fields Contact fields that are linked to Company fields?

[emsbigfoot1]

Yes, numerous

[gmartin]

Since it began with the fields being added, the next step is to go through and 'unlink' these new Contact fields from the Company fields and then test going to the Company screen.  If you are able to get to the Companies at that point the problem is probably linked fields that are incompatible.  You can then review and re-link fields and test intermittently to isolate the problem fields. 

[gregf]

The cause of this error is attempting to copy layout elements from another entity (usually Contacts) to a Company layout.  If you remove the fields that were copied from a non-Company layout, the problem will go away.