Done for you
Send me the files and I do the export
If you would rather not do it yourself, upload your old FileMaker files here. I get every record out and send you the Excel workbook and CSV files within one business day of payment.
US$79 per job
One database
Up to 10 FileMaker files. In FileMaker 5 and 6 every table was a file of its own, so one database is often a handful of .fp5 files that belong together.
US$149 per job
A folder of files
Up to 50 FileMaker files, say a shared drive or an old office's archive. The form takes 20 files at a time, so put more than that in one .zip.
A fixed price per job, in US dollars, plus sales tax or VAT where it applies. If I cannot get your records out, you get the whole amount back.
How it goes
- You upload the files with the form below. Nothing is charged for that.
- You pay the fixed price through Stripe. The page after the upload says how.
- Within one business day of the payment (Monday to Friday, Ontario time) I email you a private link to the finished files.
What you get back
A zip with an Excel workbook for each FileMaker file, one sheet per table, and a CSV file of every table. Every row is in them, not the 20-row preview. Beside them is a short text report for each file: its tables, how many rows each one has, which fields were left out and why, and any damage I found.
What comes back is the data. Layouts, scripts, value lists and relationships are not in it, and neither are the pictures or documents in container fields. Unstored calculations, summary fields and globals have no saved value for each record, so their columns come out empty. Dates and times come out as they were typed, as text. An .fmp12 file with encryption at rest cannot be read without FileMaker and its password, so I cannot do those. A damaged file is read up to the damage, and I tell you where the rows stop.
What happens to your files
They go over HTTPS to private storage on Cloudflare. Only I open them, and I use them for this job and nothing else. I delete them 14 days after delivery, and the download link stops working at the same time. Files that are uploaded and never paid for are deleted after 14 days.
If the data must not leave your building, use the converter on the home page instead. It reads the files inside your browser and uploads nothing, and the full export there is US$29.
Who does the work
I do: Jonathon Wager, at Plaug Studios in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. I wrote the converter this site runs on. Questions before you send anything go to [email protected].
Send the files
Questions
I have the .fp5 files and other files next to them
Send the whole folder, zipped if it holds more than 20 files. I use the FileMaker files and leave the rest alone. Files with no extension are fine too; old Macs often left it off.
How long does it take?
One business day from payment, Monday to Friday, Ontario time. A job paid on a Friday evening comes back by the end of Monday.
Can I see what I will get first?
Yes. Open the sample on the home page, a real FileMaker Pro 5 file, and download the free Excel and CSV of its first 20 rows. The finished job looks the same with every row. You can try one of your own files there as well, and nothing is uploaded.
Can we talk before I send anything?
Write to me at [email protected]. If a short call would help, say so.