I was working a new database on LO 5.0.5. for Mac. After having created a lot of tables and inserted some data, all of a sudden, the odb file which had been created and saved tactically, opened a blank page for writing and I can’t find anything from all the work I’ve been doing. Any help?
Pardon me for asking a dumb question, but why don’t you have any backups?
Furtermore, your question is to generic. It could crash for a million reasons. Also you should probably have a few more tags, like on for Mac and your OS, and one for you version.
Bud. Its not uncommon. I suppose you were using the built in database, HSQL? Its very rarely fixable. Believe me, I have tried on numerous occasions. Your base file is a zip file in reality and if you change the extension to zip you can sneek a peek at what is going on underneath and possibly save some of your data. Other than that, I don’t think there is much you can do. (I hope I am wrong.)
Try looking at ways of connecting base to SQLite or MySQL via ODBC. Another headache, but at least it will be more stable if succesfull.
It is true this problem occurs at times with embedded Base files. It is due to compressing/uncompressing the .odb file within Base. You can help avoid data loss by splitting the database out of the compressed file. Please see: Split Embedded.
Also, the HSQL database which is packaged with Base is an abbreviated version. It does not contain all functions but works well in a majority of situations. You can choose to install the full version (or choose a variety of other DB’s) which essentially keep data out of the .odb file. I still use embedded files for forum samples, but for all others a variety of split, HSQLDB full version, MySQL and an occasional connection to Access. After 18+ months, no problem with data loss.