QuickBooks is a business accounting software developed by Intuit. Several small and medium-sized organizations use this software to manage and pay their bills. QuickBooks provides on-premise and cloud-based accounting services and makes payroll functions easier. QuickBooks manage all the financial activities of professionals and small-time entrepreneurs with ease.
Instances may occur when your QuickBooks file gets corrupted. It is important to repair such corrupt QuickBooks files as soon as possible. You will be unable to open a corrupt QBW file until it is repaired. There are several methods as well as third-party software available for repairing such QuickBooks files. Here, in this post, we have mentioned quick steps to repair corrupt QuickBooks files using Stellar Repair for QuickBooks software.
How to Detect Corruption in QuickBooks File?
Before you know how to repair QuickBooks files, it is important to identify corruption in the file. Given below are some problems that cause corruption in QuickBooks File:
- Error messages like “A data problem prevents QuickBooks from continuing” appears on the screen or in the Qbwin.log file.
- Sudden shutdown of QuickBooks while saving or deleting a transaction.
- Faulty or damaged reports like Balance Sheets don’t match the total equity and liabilities.
- Account names starting with an asterisk (*), which were created by QuickBooks as the original accounts were missing.
- QuickBooks starts running slow and operations take longer than normal.
- Transaction History displays a negative balance.
Data damage in QuickBooks can occur in multiple forms and scenarios. Even if none of the above problems has occurred, a strange data look is also a sign of QuickBooks corruption.
What Corrupts QuickBooks Company Data File?
Now that you are familiar with the indications of corruption in your QuickBooks database, it’s time to know what causes QuickBooks data corruption. Some common reasons that damage or corrupt your data in QuickBooks include:
- The QuickBooks database file size expands beyond its limit of 200 MB and 450 MB for QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Enterprise respectively.
- Insufficient resources like Virtual Memory, RAM, routers, and network interface cards, network cables, etc.
- Sudden power shut down or drop can trash your entire hard drive if you don’t have a proper UPS.
- Some technical reasons cause improper system shutdown and lead to QuickBooks database corruption.
- Bad sectors on the hard drive corrupt the database stored in it.
These are some important reasons for QuickBooks database corruption, there can be some other unknown reasons for the same.
How do I Repair Data Damage on your QuickBooks Desktop File?
It’s time to learn various methods that will help you in knowing how to repair QuickBooks files
. You can even use any QuickBooks database repair software to fix minor data issues with your QB file.
Method 01: Use the Rebuild Data tool
QuickBooks Desktop has a built-in Rebuild Data tool that automatically fixes minor file issues. All you have to do is:
- Launch the application and go to the File menu. Go to Utilities and choose Rebuild Data.
- Select OK from the QuickBooks Information window. Go through the onscreen instructions to save a backup.
- The tool will start automatically repairing your file. The whole process takes some time. QuickBooks may seem stuck but keep moving your mouse to ensure that the tool is working.
- Once the tool finishes the repairing process, select OK.
- Navigate to the File menu and select “Verify Data” from Utilities.
If QuickBooks fails to detect any problem, select OK. In this case, keep using your file as it doesn’t have any data damage.
However, if this method finds any issue with your file, choose Rebuild Now to fix it.
Method 02: Manually Repair your File
If you still have data issues, then you can manually fix your errors, you can find the errors you can fix from the Verify Results window. Before you get started, make sure to back up your company file. Follow the steps given below to manually fix data errors:
- Open the File menu and then select Verify Data from Utilities.
- Now, the tool will start checking your file for data issues.
- Select ‘Expand All’ from the Verify Results screen to see the errors.
- The ‘Verify’ process will take some time that varies on the basis of the file size. If the process is taking too long, follow the below-given steps to complete the rebuild process:
- Create a local copy of the data file from the server.
- Turn ON temporary hosting on the machine from where you have copied it. Open the file and login as administrator.
- Go to File > Utilities > Rebuild Data.
- Once the rebuild is successfully completed, save the copy of the repaired QBW file on both the local machine and the server.
Method 03: Use the Stellar Repair for QuickBooks Software
There are several third-party software that you can use to fix QuickBooks Company Data File corruption. One of the popular QuickBooks database repair software is Stellar Repair for QuickBooks® Software.
Stellar Repair For QuickBooks software is recommended by ProAdvisors and Consultants. It can repair a corrupted QuickBooks file (QBW) and its components. It also recovers from the QuickBooks backup file (QBB). It supports recovery for QuickBooks Enterprise Solution, Premier, and Pro editions.
Why Stellar Repair for QuickBooks?
Some amazing features that make this tool best among other QuickBooks file repair software are:
- Recovers QuickBooks data from backup files (QBB)
- Generates Log Report that contains information about the start and end-time of the repair process.
- Supports international editions of countries, like the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, and South Africa.
- Previews the recoverable QBW file data before saving it.
- Fixes all types of QuickBooks data file errors, including ‘-6000, -80,’ ‘-6150, 0,’ ‘H202’ etc.
How does Stellar Repair for QuickBooks Work?
Follow the below-given steps to repair corrupt QuickBooks files using Stellar Repair for QuickBooks software:
Step 1: Launch the software, and click the “Browse” or “Find” button. Choose a QBB file and click Next.
Step 2: Review the selected QBW and QBB file, and QB versions & click Scan.
Step 3: Once the scan details appear on the screen, click OK.
Step 4: Check the recoverable company file.
Step 5: Navigate to the Customers tab to preview its recoverable data.
Step 6: Go to the Vendors tab to preview its recoverable data.
Step 7: Click the Employees tab to check its data. Click Save.
Step 8: Click the Browse button to select a new QBW file and then tap the Save button.
Step 9: Once done, click the OK button to complete the process.
Final Verdict
I Hope, these methods help you to know how to repair QuickBooks files. Once you fix the QuickBooks file corruption issue, you cannot be sure that it won’t happen again. You can also use Stellar Repair for QuickBooks software to repair corruption in a company file and recover all its components. The software also supports the recovery of the QB data from the backup file. If the issue keeps occurring even after the mentioned methods, you can contact the technical support team of QuickBooks.
