Damaged layouts
If a FileMaker Pro database file hangs or crashes when you switch to a particular layout, the layout may contain a damaged or corrupted object. If this happens, try deleting the corrupted object. This may be difficult, however, as the corruption may not be visible. Corruption may also cause FileMaker Pro to crash or hang when it tries to display the object, making the object hard to isolate and delete. In many instances, the simplest and sometimes only solution is to delete the entire layout, which also deletes the corrupted object.
Deleting a corrupted layout
1.
In another layout, switch to Layout mode.
2.
Scroll the window far down or to the right, past where objects would be visible on the damaged layout.
3.
Switch to the damaged layout. Because the corrupted objects are off-screen, the computer should not hang.
4.
Delete this layout.
If a file hangs or crashes as it opens and begins to display the first layout, you won't be able to open the file into a different layout and do the above steps. You can select the Bypass on open script checkbox in the Advanced Recovery Options dialog box to create a new blank layout for the file to open with instead of the damaged one. (For more information, see Setting advanced file recovery options.)
Notes
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Whenever you only want to bypass the layout to open the file, select Copy blocks as-is and Bypass on open script in the Advanced Recovery Options dialog box, and leave other options deselected.)
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FileMaker Pro Advanced: Runtime applications do not support advanced file recovery features.
Opening a file with a corrupted opening layout
1.
Open or create another FileMaker Pro file.
2.
Create a script with the following step: Perform Script [External: "BadFile"] where BadFile is the name of the unopenable file.
3.
Define this step to perform any script in BadFile that switches to a layout other than the opening layout.
4.
Perform this script. You should then be in BadFile in a different layout.
5.
Follow the steps in Deleting a corrupted layout, above.
You can also try recovering the file and rebuilding the file’s structure by selecting Scan and rebuild scripts, layouts, etc. in the Advanced Recovery Options dialog box. For details, see Setting advanced file recovery options.
Related topics 
Troubleshooting file recovery
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