The short version. The full line reads: “No readable field definitions or records were found in this FileMaker file. It may be password-protected or encrypted, or too damaged to read; no password was tried and nothing was modified.” The file was recognised as FileMaker’s. Nothing in it could be read. Fetchavo does not guess which of the two reasons applies, and neither can this page.
What the message is telling you
Fetchavo checks that the file begins like a FileMaker file, then looks for the field names and records inside it. Here the file passed the first check and the second came back empty. Rather than write out an empty spreadsheet and call it a success, the tool stops and says so.
A password-protected file can look like this, because its contents are not readable without the password. So can a file that has been damaged or re-packed on its way to you. From the outside the two look the same, which is why the message says “may be” and not “is”.
Check 1 — does anyone know a password? (free)
If the database was ever protected, the person who set it up, or whoever ran it, may still know the password. With the password, the original FileMaker can open the file and the protection can be removed there. Fetchavo can then be run on the unprotected copy. Fetchavo itself never tries a password and never tries to get round protection.
Check 2 — is there another copy? (free)
If the file is damaged, another copy may be fine. Look at the old machine, backup drives, disk images, and email attachments, and ask whoever sent the file to send it again, zipped. Keep every copy you find and compare their sizes. The wider guide, what an .fp5 file is and how to open one now, has the longer checklist.
Check 3 — can an old copy of FileMaker open it? (free if you have one)
A FileMaker Pro from the same era understands its own files. If you can borrow or find one, open the file there and export to CSV. That is a better result than a third-party reader can usually give.
Before you try anything else, copy the file
Work on a copy and keep the original exactly as you found it.
Honest scope. If this file is password-protected, Fetchavo cannot read it: it does no password cracking and no protection bypass, and it will not become able to by being run again. If the file is damaged beyond reading, the same is true. Fetchavo recovers your data, meaning the stored field text, from .fp3 and .fp5 files it can read. It does not carry across layouts, scripts, calculations, value lists or relationships, and .fp7 / .fmp12 files are detected and reported as unsupported, not decoded, this release.
Supported operating systems: Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit), and macOS 10.15 or later on Intel and Apple silicon. One purchase covers both.
The order to work in
- Copy the file. Work on the copy.
- Ask who might know a password, and look for another copy.
- If you can get an old FileMaker Pro, try the file there and export from it.
- Other files from the same database, or other databases, may read fine. Try those.
If step two or three works, you may not need us at all. That is a good outcome.