Error: "Ceedata error: can't open cds.dir" when opening MYOB Accountants Enterprise

This support note applies to:

Profiles (AU)
AE Tax Series 6 & 8 (AU)
AE Accounts (AU)

Article ID: 25491

In MYOB Accountants Enterprise (MYOB AE) you may experience the following error "Ceedata error: can't open cds.dir" when opening Contacts, Configuration, My Work, or the Employees module.

The error message can be caused by a path or permission problem, such as:

A blank or invalid database path in the CHOME line in the user's ceedata.ini
Ceedata.ini does not exist for the user
Incorrect drive mappings
A desktop icon pointing to the wrong directory
Insufficient security settings for the program and data directories
The cds.dir file is corrupt.

If the error is caused by incorrect drive mappings, or an invalid database path in ceedata.ini, the error message incorporates a path, for example "...can't open s:\MYOB\bin\cds.dir".

Where is my ceedata.ini file?

The location of the ceedata.ini file can change depending on your network and operating system. Refer to the table below for standard locations.

Network or Operating System	Location
Windows 7	C:\Windows\ceedata.ini
Windows 8	C:\Windows\ceedata.ini
Windows 10	C:\Windows\ceedata.ini C:\Users\MYOB\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Windows
Terminal Server - users copy	C:\Users\<UserName>\Windows
Terminal Server - server copy	C:\Windows\Ceedata.ini

The ceedata.ini may reside in other directories on a terminal server environment.

If there is no ceedata.ini in the respective directory, run a workstation setup, for example, from s:\MYOB \setup\setup.exe if your program directory is s:\MYOB\bin.

Complete the follow checks to resolve this error:

To check the network drive

All workstations on the network accessing MYOB must have the same mapped drives for the program and data directories. If the error message only occurs on the one computer, open Contacts on another computer and from the Help menu select About MYOB Contacts. Note down the program and data directories.

On a computer that can open MYOB, right-click on the Windows Start button and select Explore. Compare the drive mappings to the computer/s that are experiencing the error. Map or disconnect network drives as required.

To ensure the error is not caused by the computer temporarily losing connection to the network drive, try and navigate around folders in that network drive.

To check the CHOME path in ceedata.ini

At the Windows Desktop, click Start and select Run. The Run window appears.
Type ceedata.ini in the Open field and click OK. The ceedata.ini - Notepad window appears.
For users on a terminal server network, type the following in the Open field:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\windows\ceedata.ini
Under the Environment block check the contents of the CHOME line. If your data directory in Help > About MYOB Contacts is q:\data\MYOB then the line should read:
CHOME=q:\data\MYOB\
If some of the workstations can access Contacts and other workstations cannot then check to find out where the CHOME line on the workstations that can access Contacts.

To check security settings of a directory

Right-click your Windows Start button and select Explore. Windows Explorer appears.
Navigate to your program directory, e.g. s:\MYOB\bin, right-click on the bin folder and select Properties. The Bin Properties window appears.
Select the Security tab and ensure the Full Control Permission is set to Allow. The security is applied.

To test write permissions on a directory

At the Windows Desktop, click Start and select Run. The Run screen appears.
Type s:\MYOB\bin in the Open field and click OK. The list of files in this directory appears.
Go to File > New > Text Document. New Text Document.txt appears highlighted at the bottom of the screen.

If the error message 'Unable to create the file 'New Text Document' Access is denied' appears, you do not have full rights to the directory.

For further queries on this error message, please contact MYOB Support quoting this article number and the checks you have performed.

MYOB INTERNAL STAFF ONLY

If the above checks do not clear the error message, ask the client to email module.ini, ceedata.ini from the computer with the error and ceedata.ini from a computer without the error.

To verify the integrity of cds.dir, In Datasafe select Support Tools and run the Utility dbchk for the database cds.dir.

If any tables display a p# record out of range/record out of sequence/suspicious padding/index etc error then the cds.dir file requires restoring from a previous backup.