Scheduled Back Up File Name / Length

[TZAL]

Is there any way to reduce the length of the filename of  a scheduled database backup?

We are using Office 365 and the automatically produced file names are too long and so are not being stored on the cloud.

Apart from manually changing filenames, any suggestions?

[JonTaylor]

In the Act Scheduler, you can edit the backup task and choose the 'stem' of the name on the 3rd page of the edit task wizard - by default it will be something like "Act! <database name>.zip" - this then gets the date appended to it.

You can change this to anything you like - so long as it's a valid file name.

[TZAL]

Thanks Jon

I saw that however it saves with a lot of other characters & time e.g.

Act! DATABASE_NAME da7e2fced85a422eb31fda7a92f7b740 2017-11-21 15-18-01

hence it's too long.

[JonTaylor]

I've not seen the backup generate those random characters before - though I know Act! sometimes does this if you try to save a file twice with the same name (usually templates etc).

I wouldn't expect to see that here since each database should be uniquely named due to the time-stamp.

Could you try doing a backup from the file menu, rather than the scheduler, and see if the name still has these generated characters?

[TZAL]

That is OK:

Act! DATABASE_NAME 2017-11-21 

i.e. no spurious characters and no time.

Any suggestions for a fix?

[Carl Mag]

To me, the long name looks like a hard drive backup from Carbonite Backup services or the like...

[TZAL]

No, not using Carbonite or any other backup services apart from Office 365 Onedrive. But it;s ACT that creates the file.

I deleted the old ACT scheduled backup, deleted the old backup files and also moved the save location. But it still generates the random extra characters & adds a time.

As such, backup files aren't getting saved to the Onedrive cloud - which defeats the objective.

[JonTaylor]

It's strange behaviour - is the backup being taken from the same machine that hosts the database?

There's a few things to try - first of all try completely recreating the backup task, Remove the existing one and recreate it - I'd recommend trying a different backup location too, see if you get the same issue saving the files to a different directory.

If you still get the issue, try scheduling a backup for the demo database - this will give us a clue as to if it's an install issue, or if it's your database specifically.

[TZAL]

As per last post, I did try completely recreating the backup task, I removed the existing one and recreate it - using a different backup location too. This gave the same error.

The same issue happens with a demo database.

This is a very recent re-install and a new (re-created fresh database) following issues regards: https://community.act.com/t5/Act/Error-The-INSERT-statement-conflicted-with-the-FOREIGN-KEY/td-p/340...

However, I have 2 other recurring issues with ACT!:

https://community.act.com/t5/Act/Personal-amp-Vacation-Activity-Durantions-Keep-Getting-Changed/m-p/...

https://community.act.com/t5/Act/Act-Integration-has-stopped-working-when-sync-Outlook-Contacts/m-p/...

Do all these issues point to a fix?

[JonTaylor]

I can't think of any reason these issues would be related, unfortunately.

However, it may be that they all stem from the same source - something like a permissions issue with Windows for example.

If you're getting the same issue on multiple databases then we know that the issue is not database specific. And if the issue has not been resolved by a reinstall then we know that it's not a 'faulty' install causing the problem.

This only really leaves user permissions or PC environment (third party software, antivirus etc). If possible I'd probably recommend creating a new windows user on your PC with administrator rights, installing Act! and testing these issues (backups, calendar issues and contact sync).