Many QuickBooks issues and errors can arise due to corruption or inaccessible QBW files. The damage in the QuickBooks company file is not uncommon. It can easily get damaged due to sudden system shut-downs, power failures, etc. As a result of corruption in QBW, sometimes, you may fail to open your company file in QuickBooks. Since all data in QB is stored in QBW files. Due to the issue in QBW file can end up in loss of crucial data. It hampers the productivity of your business. To prevent such scenarios and to save your data in such cases, you can get numerous techniques available in QuickBooks itself to help you to recover your company file data. In this article we will discuss some of the important techniques and top-most third-party s for recovering damaged QuickBooks company file.
Techniques To Recover Corrupted QBW File
1. Restore Backup File
If you have an updated and healthy backup copy of the backup (.QBB) file, then you can easily restore it. Following are the step-wise instructions you can follow to restore the QuickBooks Backup file:
Note: Before restoring the backup file, If your .bak file is on an external device like a USB or a hosting service like Box, move it to your local hard drive on your computer.
- Open your QuickBooks, click the File option, and then click Open or Restore Company.
- Click Restore a backup copy and then Next.
- Click on Local Backup and then Next.
- Browse your computer to search for the backup file. It should look like this: [Your company name].qbb.
- Choose a folder to decide where to save your restored company file. Then click Open.
Note: If you open the backup in the same folder as your existing company file, you may overwrite the data.
- To avoid overwriting anything in the backup file, you can consider renaming the backup to make names unique. Or you can save the company file backup in a completely new folder.
- Once it is ready to go, click on the Save button.
Sometimes, you may get the Restore Failed error when restoring the backup in QuickBooks due to a lot of reasons like corruption in the company (QBW) file, the issue with the backup file, special or invalid characters in the name of the company file, your backup file is not compatible with your QuickBooks version, etc.
Make sure you check the backup file location and name of the company file to prevent the “restore failed” error in QuickBooks.
2. Use ADR feature in QuickBooks
You can use the QuickBooks Auto Data Recovery (ADR) feature to recover lost or corrupted company file data. You can recover all the recent transactions using the original Transaction log file and the ADR version of the company file. Here are the instructions you need to follow:
- Create a new folder on your system and give it any name (e.g. QBTesting1).
- Next, locate the folder where the company file is saved.
- In the company file’s folder, search for the .tlg file, which has the same name as the company file.
- Next, copy the .tlg file of your company file and paste it to the new folder (QBTesting1) you created previously.
- Now, from the same company file folder, open the QuickBooksAutoDataRecovery folder. Copy and paste the .QBW.adr file (from the folder) to the QBTest folder.
- Now, your QBTesting1 folder contains two files – .TLG and .QBW.adr.
- Right-click on one of QBW.adr file and click Rename to rename it.
- Delete .adr at the end of the .QBW.adr file.
- Next, open your QuickBooks application and then open the company (QBW) file that is located in the new (QBTest) folder.
- Now verify all the transactions by using your Account register.
- You can even verify the data integrity of the recovered file. For this, choose File > Utilities > Verify Data.
- If the copy of the company file is good to go, then you can move the corrupted company file to a different location and transfer the copy of the company file from QBTesting1 to the original location.
Note: The ADR feature in QuickBooks requires a backup file (QBB) to perform data recovery. QuickBooks will not generate an ADR file if the backup file is greater than 1.5 GB. Also, the Auto Data Recovery feature is only available in QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise solutions for Windows.
If you have no backup file, then you need to take the help of professional QuickBooks repair tools to recover damaged QuickBooks company files. Some of them are below:
1- QuickBooks File Doctor
It is a reliable tool recommended by Intuit, to repair company files. To use and launch it, you need to download the latest version of QuickBooks Tool Hub and Install it. It can easily resolve common and maximum issues with the company file and network connections. The tool is compatible with all versions of QuickBooks Desktop, like Pro, Premier, and Enterprise. To use this tool you need to type the QuickBooks Admin credentials. Also, it may not resolve the complex QBW file issues.
2- Use a Professional QuickBooks Repair tool
To resolve complex company file issues, you can use Stellar Repair for QuickBooks. It is considered to be the best QBW repair software because it has a simple user interface to repair QBW file with complete integrity. Its Repair feature allows you to recover all the data from the problematic/corrupt company file with 100% precision. The tool is compatible with all QuickBooks editions, including QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise solutions.
Conclusion
If you want to recover the damaged QBW files then you can restore the QBB file or use Auto Data Recovery feature in QuickBooks. However, to use the ADR feature, you need a QBB file that should not be over 1.5 GB. If you have no backup file of your company file or your company file is too large or severely corrupt, then you can use a reliable QuickBooks repair tool like Stellar Repair for QuickBooks. It can repair severely damaged QBW files and recover every bit of data from the corrupt company file without any data loss. The tool can easily repair company files of QuickBooks 2021, 2019, and earlier versions.
