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Post Info TOPIC: Sage gives me "contains an invalid path" whenever I try to run any financial report.


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Sage gives me "contains an invalid path" whenever I try to run any financial report.
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Hi,

All of a sudden Sage has semi-died on me!

When I try to run trial balance, it says

 

C:\PROGRAM FILES\SAGE\ACCOUNTS\REPORTS\\*TB.SRT contains an invalid path

 

Similar results but finishing with \\*BS.SRT for balance sheet and likewise for all other financial reports that I have tried.

 

The data still seems to be there. So I went looking for answers on the internet and found instructions that said the problem was something to do with that double slash after "reports". It should be a single slash. Why it suddenly decided to insert a double slash when it had been working fine and I haven't changed anything, I don't know. Can anyone advise?



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First thing to do is check that that path really exists. Start at "Start > My Computer" and follow the folders until you are able to step into "REPORTS". Case is not important, you might see it in your window as "Reports", for example, but the spelling and spacing must be exact.

The double-slash shouldn't matter, plus I've seen other Sage questions on here which have the double slash and they were fixed without that being removed.

On that point, it might be this:
http://www.book-keepers.org.uk/t47889374/sage-50-again/


-- Edited by Rob-f58049 on Friday 5th of October 2012 04:18:19 PM

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Rob


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The need to run Sage as administrator, AFAICR, was due to the fact that in its older incarnations it stored the accounts data in a subdirectory of the program itself - only admins have write access to the Program Files directory and anything below it. All versions for the last few years correctly store user data under the Users directory.

Noting that the report name specified in the example has a .SRT extension, it seems likely that it's an older version - so it does seem likely that running it without admin privileges is indeed the problem. (I think these days the extension is .report for reports).





-- Edited by VinceH on Friday 5th of October 2012 06:10:11 PM

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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software

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As it happens, my next suggestion had running as administrator not worked, would have been to take a backup, uninstall Sage and reinstall it afresh, and then restore the backup.

Whether this would have solved the problem is anyone's guess - and, yes, it's possible that a backup might bring the problem with it, although that would probably depend on the type of backup. If you don't have any (or many) customised reports, you could have backed up just the data files and nothing else - I suspect that would have reduced the likelihood of bringing the problem forward. However, this assumes reinstalling Sage would have solved it in the first place, which might not have been the case. I still think the Admin issue is relevant (or, more precisely, something called User Access Control) - especially now that you mention Vista.

I should think a 2010 edition of Sage will see the problem resolved - and on that basis, I reckon you are probably safe to transfer the data via a backup, but I obviously can't be entirely sure that's so.



-- Edited by VinceH on Friday 12th of October 2012 11:45:12 PM

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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software

(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)



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This post is intended to thank those who replied rather than to report success, alas. I did try to run Sage as an administrator, but I couldn't get it to work. It would look as if it was going to, then would get to a stage where it asked me to specify where the data was - i.e. was I updating an older version of Sage, or starting a new company, or whatever. At that point all the options, which I tried one by one, told me that the data could not be found.

I also tried a suggestion I found elsewhere about trying to rename the "company" data file (not sure I'm using the right word here). Now, I had Sage on two computers and slightly less often than I should have I would back up Sage from the everyday computer onto a memory stick and restore the latest figures to the secondary computer. I could find the "company" file quite easily on the secondary computer - the one that had no problem with Sage but which was about two weeks out of date - but I could not find it on the everyday computer.

Eventually I decided it was not worth the candle. As it happens our company year ends on 31 October. I have mostly completed the task of replicating the lost two weeks on the secondary computer. I am hoping that the problem will not recur because the secondary computer uses Windows XP, which is more compatible with my old Sage than the Vista in the computer where the problem occurred. I trust it will hold out to the end of the month. Then I close the books and never think of it again!

Then, having purchased what is to me an up-to-the-minute (2010) version of Sage from Kris McCulloch of this parish (thanks, Kris!) I will install that on the main computer.

As yet I haven't decided whether I will even attempt to migrate the old data, or whether I will just enter the opening balances and start afresh. As things have worked out right now it might not be such a lot more work to start anew; there is a bit of a natural break in our company's lifecycle, so to speak. What I am absolutely terrified of doing is importing the problem along with the data!

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