Data needs to be manually upgraded

[BATx2]

I'm in a bit of a panic ... Revit won't let any one save to our central file. Instead it gives us the following message:
"Data is file ****.rvt needs to be manually upgraded. Please contact your Autodesk Revit service provider"

We called Avatech and we're waiting for them to get back to us. Apparently the Revit tech support staff in their office is busy with another call.

I searched and haven't seen any similar posts in about a year. Has anyone experienced this lately? Is there anything I can / should / shouldn't do while waiting for our tech support to call back? Should we be working in our local files and only saving to local? Is this manual upgrade this something that can be done quickly by support staff or will it take days or even weeks? We could be losing five billable hours for every hour this doesn't get fixed.

Here's a bit of info about our project:
Started project in 9.0 in June 2006, upgraded in December to 9.1
Current central file size: 100,700 KB
We constantly have five users working on the project, all have their own local files open
Central file last compacted at 8:00 this morning
Last successful save to central file at 10:24 this morning

Any advice, encouraging words, or bitter truth would be appreciated

[twiceroadsfool]

Hi there. :)

Weve encountered this as well. For us, it was a situation where the local users were all out of sync. One person was getting the message though, not everyone. In our situation, that person saved locally, and closed out. Everyone else closed out as well, after Saving. Then, the person in question was able to reopen the local, Reload latest, and STC.

Not sure that is your issue, but thats what it was for us... Its happened here a couple of times, and thats always been the issue...

[jeffh]

When you get this message the file needs to be sent to Autodesk for the support staff and development team to investigate. Or you need to resort to a known working backup before the error has occurred.

Depending on what has caused the problem they may be able to recover the file and get it back to you. When support receives a file getting this message it is dealt with as a high priority issue to get the resolution back to you as soon as possible.

[richard.binning]

We saw this error today when a user opened a local file and was unable to STC.

1.) He then saved local.
2.) Shut down and rebooted.
3.) Reopened local file
4.) Save to Central was successful.

We are investigating further.

[luigi]

It happened to us yesterday. We just used the latest local file and turned it is a central file and bit the bullet on the other local files. The central file, when loaded independently gave us that error. And we have been working on 9.1 since September or something like that...


:(

[BATx2]

Just an update ... we are back up and running ... here's how.

Later in the day Avatech called us back. They walked us through a few steps over the phone and we were still unable to open or save to the central file. We sent the file to them through their FTP site and waited for them to contact us. In the mean time we continued to work on our local files, anxiously trusting that when we got the fixed central file back, all local users would be able to sync their files with the fixed central file.

We waited a couple days and didn't really hear anything positive from Avatech and decided to try a few steps on our own. We had everyone save a back up copy of their local file. We recovered the most recent central file backup copy (through File->Backups...) which had been saved only a half hour before the central file got corrupt. Everyone was able to sync their local files with the central file and only one person lost any of their work.

The one person who lost some work was the same person who's most recent save corrupted the central file. His local file gave the same save and open errors as the central file (makes sense ... we make a habit of always checking the "save to local after saving to central" box). The 20 minutes of work he did before realizing we had a problem was lost ... and of course was able to be duplicated in about 5 minutes.

We never did hear if Avatech was able to fix the corrupt central file, though we did tell inform them of our successful backup recovery as soon as we verified that everything was working fine. We have no idea what caused the corruption, but in the end we were able to fix the problem without losing any significant work.

[msmith.tsap]

Okay guys, in a major world of hurt here. Getting "...manual upgrade.." error and cannot open file AT ALL. Really cannot wait on Support. Two questions: 1) How can I resolve this and get back to work; 2) How do I keep this from happening again. Several huge projects on board and scares me to death if I get these locked out. Any ideas?

MarcTSAP

[BATx2]

I feel your pain!!! Luckily we haven't had this issue since my last post.

My first suggestion for question 1 is to try using the most recent backup copies. In the file menu select "Backups..." Navigate to the central file backup folder and click ok. You should see a list of "versions" of the backup copies. The number of backup versions will depend on your settings ... Revit defaults to 20, we have set our number to 10. Select the most recent version that's not labeled "Current" and hit "Rollback". Then try going through your normal save process with your local files. If one person's file doesn't sync up properly, try someone else's. If that doesn't work, try opening the central file. If that doesn't work, go through the "backups" process again and use the next most recent version and keep trying until you've exhausted all versions. If all of that fails ... assuming at least one person can open and edit their local file, have someone save their local file as the central file ... everyone else will have to recreate their local files and will lose any work that they've done since the problem started. And as a last resort, go to your backup tapes (you do backup your server every night don't you?).

As for how to keep this from happening again ... I don't know ... maybe we've simply been lucky. Ever since this happened, though, I haven't hit "Compact Central File" again. My Avatech contact said she didn't trust that process, primarily because she didn't know what it actually did. Our file, of course, continues to grow daily. It has hit 320MB on occasion and that's just ridiculous. Instead of using the "Compact Central File" check box I use a "SaveAs" process which deflates the central file about the same amount as what "Compact.." used to.
1. Copy Central file and Central Backup folder to a back-up folder on my local hard drive (this is just for safe keeping)
2. Open the Central file (the one on the network) and click "Detach from Central" (occasionally I also click "Audit"
3. After the file is opened ... rename the Central file and Central Backup Folder to something like"Central-old"
4. Hit "SaveAs" and navigate (if necessary) to the correct folder on the network. Name the new file the same as your central file naming convention.
5. After the file is done saving, click on the workset button and make all worksets uneditable.
6. Close the central file.
7. Recreate your local file
8. Open your local file and hit "Save to Central"
9. All other users will need to recreate their local files and all should be well.

Lately I have been doing this process at least twice a week. Typically the central file starts at 250MB and deflates to 170MB.

I have no idea if any of this is necessary but I do it anyway ... My network administrator likes that I try to keep the file size as small as possible. I hope this helps. By the way, we're still on 9.1 ... not going to upgrade to 2008 until our next project starts ... we're too far into our current project to trouble shoot a new version.

[msmith.tsap]

WOW!! Thanks for the info. I appreciate you taking the time to go through all of that. I think I have the file back now. Had to go back several backups to get it. Even got the "upgrade message" one time during the file reconstruction but have reloaded it several times and nothing again.

What is the best way of opening and using a file without working in the central file. I feel like that is what I am doing now. If I open a workset file and then begin working in that file am I in the central file or should I "save as"? Does that then get me out if central but still allow me to STC? Do I change the name when I save to local? What is best method?

Thanks again.

MarcTSAP

[twiceroadsfool]

When we have worksetted projects, we navigate to the folder in Windows Explorer. We Copy the central file, and Paste it on our local machines (On the desktop, in my documents... somewhere.) We typically then rename it just so it has our initials at the end (just so we dont get confused).

If the central file is "05045 - HOUSE.rvt" my local will be "05045-HOUSE-arm.rvt".

Then, i go File > Open in Revit, and select the local. It knows its tied to the central already.

Also, to avoid issues like you are having, we have found everyone should get a new local copy EVERY MORNING. I have seen the "data needs to be..." message when files get drastically out of sync... Like if i was on vacation for a 5 day weekend, everyone else kept working, and then i opened my old local file.

[Teresa.Martin]

Hi. Just to throw in my two cents here, but generally I tell me clients to upgrade in this fashion: Install the new Revit version/build. Open the Central file. Do a saveas. Tell it that this is the new central file. Close the file.
Make sure all local files are trashed/erase. Remake new local files by copying the new central file to each person's desktop and renaming. I am not sure this was the issue when it crashed. Your approach was good however. I generally advocate your procedure if all else fails: find the most recent valid local copy (the last person to save to central and reload latest) and make that the new central file.
On another note to keep working without having a valid central file is not generally a good idea because so much has changed that when the central file gets back on line it screams "Uncle" and then crashes again....
Best regards,

[richard.binning]

Those steps are a good way to recover a file when this occurs with one exception.

Copy your central file to your local computer rather than opening it across the network and choosing saveas...

You'll have access to your file sooner, and Revit is smart enough to know when it has been copied out of its central location.
~Richard