Moving your Auction Tracker data from one computer to another

Summary

Note that your organization's most up-to-date Auction Tracker data needs to be on one computer at a time.

Moving your Auction Tracker data from one computer to another involves the following three steps:

1) Make a backup of your Auction Tracker data on the computer that currently has Auction Tracker, called the source computer. 

2) Copy that backup file from one computer to another -- from the source computer to the destination computer.

3) Update Auction Tracker to the latest release, on the destination computer. Moving the data from a new version of Auction Tracker to an older version of Auction Tracker is not advisable. Make sure that the computer that will be receiving the data is the most up-to-date version of Auction Tracker.

4) Open that backup file in Auction Tracker on the destination computer. 

Backup your Auction Tracker data to a file

In Auction Tracker, go to Utilities > Backup Data Files

If you are using Auction Tracker on a network, you must ask anyone else using Auction Tracker to log out of Auction Tracker, before making a backup.

By default, Auction Tracker will save the backup file to the \Tracker\Auct-Tr\Archive folder, with the name formatted as at70_backup (date time).zip. 

If you wish to save it there, select Continue

Otherwise, if you wish to save to a familiar folder such as Desktop or Downloads, select the three little dots icon.

If you selected the three little dots icon, above, a box will open, allowing you to choose where you save the backup file.

Copy the backup file containing the data from one computer to another

There are several reasonable options for moving your data:

Moving the data via a flash drive is both a secure and convenient approach, using Windows Explorer in Windows 7, or File Explorer in Windows 10. You simply need to find the backup zip file in the folder where you saved it, and drag it to the flash drive.

Emailing the data as an attachment is convenient but not the most secure approach.

You can upload the data from the source computer to DropBox, Microsoft OneDrive, or Google Drive and then download it to the destination computer.

If you have received the file as an email attachment, download it. It will then most likely be in your Downloads folder.

Update Auction Tracker on the computer that's receiving the data

Taking a minute to do this is essential, and ensures the well-being of your data!

Go to Help > Check for latest update

Follow all instructions and accept defaults. The update will be downloaded from the internet and the process takes just a couple minutes.

If your computer has strict security settings, you may need to run \Tracker\Auct-Tr\at70_update.exe as an administrator in order to update Auction Tracker.

To do that, left-click on at70_update, then right-click on it. 

Select Run As Administrator

Follow the prompts and accept all defaults. The update will be downloaded from the internet and usually takes just a couple minutes.

Open up the data file in Auction Tracker on the destination computer

In Auction Tracker, go to Utilities > Restore Data Files

This process will over-write any Auction Tracker data on the destination computer -- therefore, before proceeding, we recommend making a backup of the data on the destination computer. Follow the steps at the top of this article to make a backup.

If you are restoring the data onto a networked installation of Auction Tracker, you must be the only person currently using Auction Tracker.

If these two issues have been addressed, select Yes

Select the three little dots icon to go and locate the backup file containing the Auction Tracker data.

Select the folder that contains the incoming Auction Tracker data. Often it will be in Downloads

Select the backup data file. It will usually be formatted as at70_backup (date time).zip showing the date and time when the backup was made.

Select Open

The following message will display if you have selected any folder other than the default  \Tracker\Auct-Tr\Archive folder. 

Select Yes to continue

Select Continue to finish restoring the data to Auction Tracker