Appendix D: Troubleshooting

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MainBoss will issue an error message during operation that fails due to some unexpected condition. This section does not provide an exhaustive list of all possible error messages, but should help in diagnosing many common problems.

A MainBoss error will usually appear as a dialog box:

A Windows Example

The amount of information displayed in the error dialog depends on the type of error.

The following list gives a number of common error messages and their causes. Note that the database directory is the directory that contains the MainBoss database files and the program directory is the directory that contains the MainBoss program files.

Directory is not a MainBoss database directory

Actual Cause: MainBoss identifies the database directory by the presence of a file named SESSION.LOK. The above message occurs if MainBoss can't find SESSION.LOK.

Remedy:

Make sure the shortcut that starts MainBoss is using the proper name for the directory that holds the MainBoss database files. (If you can't find such a directory, search your disk for SESSION.LOK.)
Make sure the user has write permissions on the MainBoss database directory. As a quick test to see if the user has write permission in the directory, try to create a new file in the directory from that user's account on the user's system. If the user doesn't have write permission, Windows will display an error message indicating the file can't be created. (Note that the user may be able to create a new file, but still may not have write permissions on individual database files. To determine this, check the properties on each file.)
If the user can't create a new file, check the network share permissions on the disk and the file system security on the directories involved.
In rare cases, we have found that SESSION.LOK may get deleted by accident. If so, create a writable file named SESSION.LOK in the appropriate directory.

No MainBoss Database found

Actual Cause: MainBoss can't find the database files.

Remedy:

Make sure the shortcut that starts MainBoss is using the proper name for the directory that holds the MainBoss database files.
Make sure the user has write permissions on the MainBoss database directory. (See above for more information.)
Make sure both a SESSION.LOK and an EXCLUDE.LOK file exist in the database directory. If they do not, create new writable files with those names.

Unlicensed Database

Actual Cause: MainBoss tells you that your database is unlicensed, even though you have already entered a license key.

Remedy:

This might happen if there was an interruption (e.g. power outage) while a new version of MainBoss is updating the database. To fix the problem, start MainBoss program in "License Key Only" mode and enter your current license keys. For information on "License Key Only" mode, see License Key Entry Only.

The system cannot find the file specified

Actual Cause: The file does not exist in the specified location.

Remedy:

Make sure the file exists, and does not have the READONLY attribute set.

session.lok: Access is denied

Actual Cause: The SESSION.LOK file exists, but cannot be opened for write permissions.

Remedy:

Check that the SESSION.LOK file does not have the READONLY attribute on it.
Make sure the user has write permissions on the MainBoss database directory. (See above for more information.)

Cannot lock the MainBoss database for exclusive use. Some user is most likely still using MainBoss.

Actual Cause: The SESSION.LOK file exists, but cannot be opened for exclusive access. This usually occurs if you are trying to use Administration —> Database —> Re-Index to reindex the database, but some other user is still using MainBoss.

Remedy:

Check that all users have exited all MainBoss programs, then retry the operation. (Also make sure that no one is running other programs that access the MainBoss database files.)
If a large number of users are running WRNotifier simultaneously, it may be possible that the notifier programs keep the database tied up so it can't be reindexed, especially if notifier programs check the database frequently. Reduce the number of notifier programs that are active, or reduce the frequency with which they check for requests.

MainBoss database is locked for exclusive use. This usually means the database is being reindexed at this time.

Actual Cause: The SESSION.LOK file exists, but cannot be opened for exclusive access.

Remedy:

Check that this user has write permissions on the SESSION.LOK file. (See above for more information.)
Check than someone else isn't using Administration —> Database —> Re-Index to reindex the database.

Opening File Status -60 90071 FILENAME The system cannot find the path specified.

Actual Cause: The file does not exist, or the user has no permission to read or write the file.

Remedy:

Check to see if the given file actually exists in the database directory.
Make sure user has read permissions.

Writing to File Status -120 80050 TABLENAME

Actual Cause: The file exists, but the user does not have permission to write to the file. TABLENAME refers to the MainBoss internal table name. In most cases this translates to TABLENAME.DBF in the MainBoss database directory.

Remedy:

Check the associated database file has write permission, and doesn't have the READONLY attribute set.