Using Verify and Repair

Verify and Repair does these checks:

  • Makes sure that the database is intact.
  • Makes sure that all the data has been saved correctly to M-Files.
  • Makes sure that the file sizes and the file checksums of the physical files in the vault file data location match those reported by the metadata database.

Verify and Repair (Quick) checks for metadata inconsistency issues and makes sure that the files for the objects are present with the correct size and status.

Verify and Repair (Thorough) does also file integrity checks for the file data. More specifically, the operation calculates checksums and makes sure that delta files can be reconstituted. See important information for details.

Recommendations

Do the Verify and Repair (Quick) operation in these situations:

  • Two or three times a year.
  • Before you migrate a vault from Firebird to Microsoft SQL Server.
  • Before you migrate a vault to M-Files Cloud.
  • Before a server upgrade when you do not use automatic updates.
  • Before you do large changes to the environment.
    • For example, changes to server hardware or upgrades of the server operating system.
  • When the vault does not operate normally.

Important information

Before you start, read the information in this section carefully.

In most cases, use the Verify and Repair (Quick) operation.

  • Use the thorough operation only if you have a reason to suspect that the contents of the data files are corrupt. This can be, for example, because your antivirus software has changed the data.
  • The thorough operation takes considerably longer than the quick operation.
  • Before you start a thorough check, it can be useful to temporarily disable the weekly Optimize Database (Thorough) operation in scheduled jobs. The optimization job can take the vault offline and interrupt the verify and repair operation.

Reported errors

In the Verify Document Vault report dialog, if you see errors that cannot be repaired automatically:

  • Create a support case in M-Files Support Portal or contact your M-Files reseller immediately. Please provide the full contents of the report dialog and the full version number of your M-Files Server software.
  • Do not try to repair the errors yourself.
  • Do not click Yes in the dialog to let M-Files try to repair the errors.

Errors that cannot be repaired automatically are explicitly marked in the list of errors. When M-Files support has fixed the errors, start the verify and repair operation again.

Errors in automatic repair process

In the Verify Document Vault report dialog, if there are only issues that M-Files can fix automatically, click Yes. If the process ends with an error, create a support case in M-Files Support Portal or contact your M-Files reseller immediately.

Do the steps given here only if M-Files support tells you to do so:
  1. Open Advanced Vault Settings.
  2. Go to Database > Verification.
  3. Set Take the Vault Offline to Yes.
    It can be useful to set this to No after the process.
  4. Start the Verify and Repair (Quick) operation again.

Operation duration and interruptions

  • The vault can be used when the operation searches for issues.
  • If the vault is taken offline, the operation is interrupted. For example, the weekly thorough optimization or other maintenance breaks (such as installation of vault applications) can cause this.
  • The operation can be long. The length of the operation is mainly dependent on these factors:
    • Size of the file data database
    • Number of files in the vault
    • Number of object versions in the vault
    • Performance of the server machine
  • In very large vaults, the operation can time out. For more information, see this article: Verify and Repair Times Out Due to Communication Failure.

Starting the Verify and Repair operation

To start the operation:

  1. Open M-Files Admin.
  2. In the left-side tree view, expand a connection to M-Files server.
  3. Expand Document Vaults.
  4. Right-click a vault.
  5. Select Maintenance > Verify and Repair (Quick).
    It is rarely necessary to do the thorough operation. See this information.

M-Files checks the vault for errors. See this information for instructions on how to repair errors.