Back up offline is not available v2026.5

Hi dirkfielding​ 

It isn't that I am doubting the authenticity of your claim - I have made that clear - it is just that I am arguing that your claim has to be handled off this forum and not in the context of the fight this post is about.

Undoubtedly dirkfielding​ you have a stack of evidence supporting your claim which throws the gauntlet squarely down in MYOB's court to escalate this complaint, case through the correct channel - and the public forum is not that forum - for a number of reasons notwithstanding private information on both sides needs to be collected and MYOB cannot do that on this public forum despite wanting to add context to this issue.

All I am saying is - find the right person in MYOB to grab this case and get it sorted - by all means when it is completed and we assume, you get your file back - air the grievance ... that is your right.

We cannot be party to this due diligence required to sort this problem objectively - there is too much emotion spilt on this forum for debating this issue.

But further, as I keep saying - the debate ( the core of this post - local back-ups and opening files locally) is not helped  by public airing your case, sorry.

I am 73 and been in business over the entire MYOB life cycle - the forum is where we often see complaints for the first time and the forum respond in kindness mostly and MYOB gets a hammering if they have erred.

Now to actually give a good story of how quickly, in general MYOB handles problems - on Friday 1 week ago a clients franchise file went off the air - this client runs 20 plus MYOB files - all on line and accessed by a bevy of in house admin/accounting staff - I have full administration rights to all and have 3 operating apps connecting every 30 minutes via the API to all these files - one went dead with an error message in my app - 'Access Denied' - I was the first in the system to see the problem then the admin staff reacted sending a 'help - Doc file gone dead'.  Wasn't my file and not my job but I leapt in and rang MYOB - it was 1630 late friday .... yes I was put on hold for 25 minutes - 4th in line.

When a technician came on the resolution of the problem was efficient, smart, professional and the problem after the first respondent operator clearly identified that I knew there was a problem and the file had crashed - quickly escalated the case up the line but asked me to hold whilst the problem was  resolved.

He came back on a few times to say the problem is being addressed please hold. Polite, knowledgeable and proactive.

Within about 20 mins the file was back online and the problem has not recurred - the telephone call was politely summarised, 'the cause of the crash will be investigated - anything else I can help you with?' - no thank you, most aprreciated.

My point - get the right person in MYOB and cases can be resolved quickly - however it needs to be said - get the wrong person ( which may be the result of a big turnover in MYOB of phone operators) and your case will stagnate.

dirkfielding​ , push this hard and find the right person and MYOB must resolve it quickly. 

We would certainly like to hear the outcome.

The Doc

I month. No response. 3 hour wait on phone before giving up. I’ll try again tomorrow. If this is not the right forum I will not bother you anymore 

thank you

Hi KatieLee​ 

This is good stuff and just the logical summary needed for the argument to pushed back onto MYOB.

However, there is a slight spoiler to your argument that MYOB will exploit - a big online only accounting software provider does not any ability to back up your data, recover your data, restore your data or do anything that suggests that some sort of back up has been done for businesses using it and their clients (assuming an accounting business has both MYOB and competitor software user clients) - this becomes a huge problem.

We are fully ISO accredited 27001, DOC2, and numerous other ISO accreditation and we use this competing software, (though we are not an accounting firm)  but a cloud hosting business specialising in medical practices, but not exclusively.

There seems to be a grey area where, if a back up is not available ( either you don't use this software) or it is risk factor to be managed in the assessment.

The Doc

Hi dirkfielding​ , creating a case with the security team will provide a fast turnaround for your concerns.
Calling to our support team and creating a support case, unfortunately means that you enter the queue with everyone else (and these are taking a lot longer than normal right now) but we create the option to report security concerns to ensure that you have an avenue for getting something like this addressed quickly.

Thank you The_Doc​ for you replies, I think you have articulated the scenarios and considerations that people need to be aware of before assuming that MYOB are at fault. 
 

Completely agree!  Definitely not happy/confident with only online backups - too many 'ifs' and 'buts' with file corruption, cyber attacks etc.  Again, no advance information about this to see if customers were okay with this - another change without consultation.  Another not happy customer.

MJBook​ the prior warning was given March or April but it was only sent to those using the Server edition and working offline. It also didn't mention anything about removal of the offline backup option, only that those clients would have to now work online. So.. for that feature, there was no prior warning.  They will lose the data and there will be a class action.. it's only a question of when.  The cost to them will be very significant, given the impact to thousands of businesses. I hope they have good insurance. I have continued to do my regular and significant event backups. In the hope that I have something other than their automated backups, in case of a major failure. I wonder how many files they already have in the Backup archive that are not automated ones. That should give them a good indicator of how many people were using the feature previously and why we are all so angry.

I'm done with MYOB, been a customer since before 2000, I have had enough.
All im wanting is to back up my files to my PC and to have control over my own invoicing.

We have a simple business with no employees and I dont need all this added stress.
Over the last 6 months everything has changed and I dont have control over my files anymore.
I'm moving to another server who can give me that.

Hi Wendy_R. 

I can understand why you’re upset. If you’ve always kept a copy of your file on your PC, this change would feel like a big loss of control.

From AccountRight 2026.5, offline backups are no longer available in the PC edition.

If you want to keep using the file in current versions, it’ll need to be moved online. If you already have older offline backups, they can still be opened in 2026.5 Server Edition.

Regards,
Genreve

Hi Genreve_S​ , Wendy_R​ 

Hmm - not sure that is true - did exactly that last week having setup my server to still be able to open online files and offline files with SE 2026.5 - ver 00014 not ver 00021 ...... all seemed to be well.

Had a staff member come to me for payslip from an old MYOB file in 23_24 before we converted to XERO in 24_25.

I had opened this file numerous times in the past - but now it wouldn't open with 2026.5 (i.e. I had upgraded the file to ver offline 2026.5) - it errored.

So I downloaded it to my laptop - same problem with ver .00014 SE - luckily I had old versions of the MYOB file in 2026.4 format - clicked that - MYOB asked did I want to open in 2026.4 and it successfully opened... and I recovered the said payslips for the staff member without further problem.

My concern is why, now, is 2026.5 not opening an offline 2026.5 file. 

No it wasn't corrupted - I upgraded it to 2026.5 from 2026.4 - and it wouldn't open offline yet the 2026.4 did.

I guess, no problem but if you download off the internet a 2026.5 file to open offline - before it is unreachable with 2026.6 - will it be able to be opened.

I believe there is someone 3rd party that can convert back to 2026.4 - something I am now gearing up to do as a project that seems to be very necessary.

Messy MYOB 

The Doc

Hi The_Doc, 

That doesn’t sound like expected behaviour if you’re opening the file in Server Edition 2026.5. PC Edition 2026.5 can’t open offline files anymore, but Server Edition is still the temporary option for local offline files.

So if the 2026.5 file still won’t open there, it’s likely something specific to that file, and our support team would need to investigate it further.

Regards,

Genreve