QuickBooks Company File Repair – All There is to Know

Last updated on: November 1st, 2024 7 Min Read

Suppose you’ve been working with QuickBooks for a long time. In that case, you already know Intuit develops it as a business accounting software for small and medium-sized organizations and their target audience. The owners of small businesses and entrepreneurs are highly dependent on QuickBooks for managing their accounts. QuickBooks offers existing accounting and cloud-based accounting to simplify business payment, tax management and payment, and payroll functions. For professionals and small entrepreneurs, QuickBooks has rightly become a product for easy financial management. And what makes such a solid performance possible? Of course, a reliable database!

The Intuit database is quite capable of dealing with business pressures and the growing requirements behind QuickBooks. But like another database, it suffers from problems every time. The corruption issue is very common for users in the QuickBooks company file. If your QBW file is corrupted, it cannot be opened and used until you fix it.

How to Identify Corruption in QuickBooks Company file?

If you are interested in knowing when to repair a QBW file, it is important to identify the corruption in your files.

We have mentioned some of the problems that can occur due to corruption in the QuickBooks company file; let’s read these issues listed below carefully:

  • Errors like “A data problem prevents QuickBooks from continuing” in the Verify Data Utility or “Verify Target: Values in minor do not match major” on your screen or in the Qbwin.log file.
  • Sudden shutdown of QuickBooks when trying to save or delete a transaction.
  • Faulty reports like Balance Sheets where the total assets don’t match the total liabilities and equity.
  • Missing transactions and entries from Lists.
  • Account names were preceded by an asterisk (*), which QuickBooks created because the original accounts were missing.
  • QuickBooks are running slow; operations are taking longer than normal.
  • Paid bills and invoices showing as unpaid
  • Transaction History shows a negative balance.
  • On opening the Send Feedback Online > Bug Report window, you see an HTML code.

Data corruption in QuickBooks occurs in many circumstances, but the most important thing to note is that anything that makes the data weird can be a sign of QuickBooks corruption. Don’t worry if you notice such possible data issues or do the research and suspect data damage. Keep reading this blog to know the perfect solutions to fix these data issues with your company file.

Reasons Behind QuickBooks Company Data File Corruption

Database corruption is any damage to a database that slows down its integrity or weakens its functioning; it also contains errors in the data storage structure used in the database. Corruption does not limit only the fields, rows, columns, or even individual tables within a database; corruption can exist across a wide range of databases. However, as you now know how you can detect corruption in your QuickBooks database. Our next logical step would be to investigate what could cause corruption in our QuickBooks data. This can help QuickBooks repair company files.

Some Common Reasons for QuickBooks File Corruption:

  • The QuickBooks file is corrupted if the size is exceeded the limit of 200 MB (for QuickBooks Pro) or 450 MB (for QuickBooks Enterprise).
  • Lack of resources can lead to corruption such as RAM, virtual memory, network interface cards, routers, network cables, etc.
  • If the power momentarily goes out in your office, it can change data and corrupt the QuickBooks database.
  • Sudden shutdown of the system due to technical or other reasons may result in corruption of the QuickBooks database.
  • Malware, Spyware, Viruses, Worms, etc., if your computer gets sick, it can affect QuickBooks.
  • If a bad sector develops on the hard drive where all the data are stored, you may lose your data.

Even after extensively discussing all the reasons in the above section, it is important to remember that many other unknown reasons can cause corruption in your QuickBooks database apart from these reasons.

How to Fix Corruption in QuickBooks Company File?

Now we finally reach the method of fixing corruption in the QuickBooks company file. So we want to tell you that we have two plans available, one is manual, and the other one is Professional QuickBooks Company File Repair Tool. You can choose anyone from both for repairing corrupt QuickBooks files. However, we will explain both methods briefly in the upcoming section so that which way will prove to be very useful for you from both when choosing to complete this repair work.

Method 1 – Manual Method to Repair QuickBooks Company File 

You can use the manual technique to repair your QuickBooks file using Verify & Rebuild Data utility. The Rebuild Data tool is built-in to QuickBooks Desktop and automatically fixes minor company file data issues. Follow the steps one by one given below:

  1. Visit the File menu, hover over Utilities and then select Rebuild Data.
  2. In the QuickBooks info window, select OK. Follow the onscreen steps to save a backup.
  3. Let the tool repair your file. It may take some time. QuickBooks may seem intuitive, but before you can move the mouse, the tool works.
  4. Once the tool finishes the repair process, click on the OK button.
  5. Visit the File menu, then Utilities and after that, select Verify Data.
  6. Let the tool check your files for data problems.

If QuickBooks does not find any problem in your file, select OK. You can continue to use your company file. You do not have any damages to your data. But in case, If QuickBooks finds an issue with your company file, you are required to select Rebuild Now.

If you still have data problems after repairing your company file, try again. If the first Rebuild took more than two hours, contact support.

Method 2 – Free Tools 

This manual method is simple, but its execution often requires time to complete the task. A better solution might be to use a free QuickBooks company file repair tool. Here are some popular and widely used QBW file repair tools:

  1. Reboot.bat
  2. Install QuickBooks Diagnostic Tool
  3. Repair QuickBooks Component Tool
  4. QuickBooks File Doctor

Method 3 – QuickBooks Company File Repair Software

Even free tools cannot fix all problems; that’s why we suggest the users use this Softmagnat QuickBooks Recovery tool, the most reliable and efficient software, to repair & restore QuickBooks company file corruption issues within a short period. It is a highly advanced utility designed to repair/recover every piece of information from a corrupt QuickBooks file without compromising the quality of data contents. The major benefit is that it acts as a comprehensive QBW recovery solution and supports the recovery of multiple currencies. All the recoverable components can be previewed with the help of software before the actual repair.

Steps to Repair Corrupt QuickBooks® Company File 

  • Download and install Softmagnat Repair for QuickBooks® Software
  • Select the File option in the tool main interface window to select the corrupt company file you want to repair, and then click Scan File
  • After scanning the selected file, follow the instructions to preview your company file data.
  • Save the file by clicking on the Repair option.
  • Save File window will appear, do the following:
  1. Click the browse button to select a new blank file location that contains the repaired file data.
  2. Select the QuickBooks version and then click Start to start the saving process

A message will appear as ‘Repair process completed successfully, click OK to finish the task.

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I am a Technical Writer at SoftMagnat Software and having experience around 8 years, focused on creating clear and user-friendly documentation for software products. I simplify complex concepts into easy-to-understand guides, manuals, and tutorials.