It happened again. It’s not uncommon for us to go into a company that has been managing their own ACT! database and find an enormous ACT! backup file greater than 3Gigs. The latest is a company with under 20,000 contacts and not a significant number of attachments. So what’s the deal?

There are several situations that can cause the backup of an ACT! database to grow in rapid proportion to the size that it should be:
Scenario 1: The administrator is saving other data in the backup folder and it is pulled into future backups
Scenario 2: Left over files from backups that did not complete. If an ACT! backup does not complete there will be temporary files that are normally removed at the end of the backup process left in the backup folder. If they are left behind, they will be pulled into every future backup. The left over files can be very large - especially if the backup went most of the way to completion. Take this example. If the normal size of the backup file when completed is 1.5 Gig and a failed backup made it most of the way through to 1.3 G it will then add them together to create new ongoing backups that are about 2.8 Gig. So what happens if you have a backup that then runs to completion at 2.8 Gig then fails again and is picked up by the next backup it will then be 4.3 Gigs.

Remedy: If you aren’t sure what you are looking at - call a Certified ACT! Consultant or Sage Tech Support - sorry, this one is not for novices.

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