A NSF file, Lotus Notes Database, is also known as Notes Storage Facility file which is used for storing e-mails and other important data in Lotus/Domino applications. Lotus Domino Server, an email server application provides a custom application environment to its users for efficiently managing their important data. This server application uses a document accommodated NSF file to save the data in the form of documents and views which make it fast to search the relevant data within database files. These NSF files can also be read through Web Access.
IBM Lotus Notes is a popular application and used by many users across the world as an e-mail client. Besides e-mail messages, it allows the users to create address book, calendar entries, instant messaging, discussion groups and other features. However, sometimes Lotus Notes database (.nsf) file can get damaged and users fail to access their e-mails and other important items. In this case, user should take appropriate corrective methods to repair and rebuild NSF file.
Reasons for NSF File Corruption:
- Operating System Issue
- NSF file header corruption
- Dirty shutdown of a system
- Failure of hardware component
- Corruption during migration
- Or Lotus Notes interacting with incompatible program
Solution to Recover NSF File:
A) Following commands can be used to fix the damaged NSF file:
fixup -f (This causes Fixup to check all documents in the database.)
compact -i -c -d -K (ignore errors, copy-style, delete view indexes, set large UNK table)
updall -R(rebuilds all used and corrupted views including full-text indices. This task is resource intensive)
B) Make a new database in place of damaged NSF file. Since the corrupted document has not been replicated, this will be regenerated automatically when you will run LEI (Lotus Enterprise Integrator).
C) Make use of your most recent NSF file backup. If you have valid backup of database file, you can easily restore them.
As it turns out, the above mentioned solutions may not be capable to rebuild corrupted or damaged Lotus Notes Storage Facility (NSF) file in an efficient and secure way. In such situations, you should use a third party tool to fix the problem. Stellar Phoenix Lotus Notes Recovery is one such NSF file repair software that uses quick yet sophisticated analyzing algorithm to rebuild the damaged NSF files. The latest version of this software is efficient in even recovery of lost or damaged OLE objects, style sheets, Java applets and more.
