Crate Pro Support

Applies to your active or production files

ISSUE:
Antivirus software may cause file corruption.

RESOLUTION:
Please set the antivirus software so that it does NOT scan the Databases folder (and subfolders), or any location FileMaker Server/FileMaker Pro is opening the databases from. In addition, do not allow anti-virus software to scan the folders that contain files for container fields that store data externally.

The antivirus software should instead scan the backup destination folder, if scanning of the files is necessary.  Please schedule the antivirus software so that it does NOT scan during the time FileMaker Server is backing up the database files.  It is preferable to scan the database files after the files have been backed up completely.

EXPLANATION:
An antivirus program could lock bytes within a file while it is scanning the file for viruses. Such a lock could cause the operating system to return an error when FileMaker Server tries to write data to the file, resulting in the file being closed as damaged.

Note that this also applies to files that FileMaker Server is performing a backup to. If the antivirus software is scanning a backup file when the backup schedule occurs, the open database may not be backed up because the destination file is locked which may result in the loss of data.

The same issue applies if FileMaker Pro has the database open and it is not shared and the antivirus software tries to scan the file.

NOTE: With real-time scanning, the virus scanner may spend large amounts of time scanning the database files. This scanning places a heavy load on the server’s disk, memory, and processor.

Answer Number: 000023249