MusicMaster Blog
Is Your MusicMaster Database Slow? posted on January 13th, 2014
By Jesus Rodriguez
One of the most common calls I get is when clients think their database has become corrupted or got a “virus” as they put it. Those scenarios are very odd so I follow up by asking what made them come to that conclusion? I get answer like: Well the database is taking too long to load or replace a song. Or: I get the never-ending hourglass or as many call it the circle of death. They then follow it up by saying that they know something is wrong with MusicMaster because all of their other software works fine and at normal speed with my (enter outrageous RAM quantity here).
The first thing I always ask is when was the last time they purged their database? Many times I’m asked what is a purge. We like to think of “Purge” as a form of “defrag” for your database. If you have never used purge or don’t recall the last time you did a purge we will go through the steps together.
First you are going to want to make sure you create a backup of your database. Especially if you will be doing this for the first time; to create your back up go to Tools > BackUp>Perform A Standard BackUp or Perform A Custom BackUp.
To Purge go to Tools>Purge. You will get a warning reminding you to make sure you are the only user currently on the database and recommending that you create a back up. If you have followed our previous steps you can click YES. The purge will begin and depending on the size of your database as well as the last time you purged it can take seconds up to minutes for it to complete. You can see the progression of the purge on the lower left hand corner of MusicMaster. The most important thing to remember is not to “End Task” while this is running. Let the Purge finish.
Once completed you will receive a message stating “Dataset Purge Complete.”A percentage of how much of your database has been reduced after the purge will be located at the bottom left hand of MusicMaster. Purging will compact the database allowing it to respond much quicker.
If you have any questions concerning this topic or others please contact your MusicMaster support representative for assistance.