PokerTracker

I'm struggling with trying to backup, re-install and restore my database, and found:

This is WAY too complex!

What do guys like me, who don't know SQL from shinolla do? PLEASE install a "Backup" and "Restore" button!

There are plans to add backup and restore options directly within PT3 and personally I hope they come really soon, but I can't say for sure when they will be added.

For now follow the step by step instructions in this post.

Thanks for the reply. This thread is a combination of "yet another cannot connect" and this one.

Continuing questions:

1 - I did do the full install but it didn't install postgres. This may be because when I installed the new OS I didn't delete all the old files. Once I was operational again, the files were there, but no programs were registered or operational. I then went at re-installing everything.

2 - Before I reloaded the OS, I used the instruction in this link to back things up: http://www.pokertracker.com/forums/view ... 554#p90554 It seemed to work ok.

3 - Once I reloaded PT3 and Postgres I got messages about not being able to connect on startup. I don't get those anymore (not sure why), but there's no data. The player list says "Unable to connect to database PokerTracker 3 Database"

4 - My first attempts to restore were totally flummoxed because the first instruction is "rightclick on the database". My pgAdmin didn't show any databases. After about 8 hours I tried double clicking on the "PostgreSQL 8.4 (bla bla)" and the databases showed up.

5 - Now that I've found "databases", when I rightclick on databases, and select new database, I enter a name, change the encoding to "SQL_ASCII" and when I click OK, I get: "ERROR: new encoding (SQL_ASCII) is incompatible with the encoding of the template database (UTF8).

So I think I still have 3 problems:
1 - configuring Postgres correctly
2 - Restoring my old data
3 - correctly connecting PT3 to a database with data in it.

OK, let's check first that you have postgres running correctly.
Use: Database > Database Management > New to create a new database - don't try to link to an existing database, just create a new one and set it to Active and try to import some hands.
Database Management & Maintenance Guide
Tutorial: Using Manual Import

If that works OK then you have postgres set up OK.

When you restore try leaving the encoding as UTF.

The other alternative if you still have your hand history files is just to import them into a new database.

When I started PT3, I got the "PokerTracker was unable to connect to any PostgreQSL .." message again.

Here's the message I received when I tried to create a new database: "Unable to create PostgreSQL database: (database name) Reason: Unable to login to database (template1). Reason: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "postgres"

Hmmm - this sounds like something that should be simple to correct!

When you click New in Database Management the window that pops up asks for user and password - make sure you fill those fields in: the user should be postgres and the default password is dbpass, but if you installed postgres yourself you would have set the password yourself so you should know it.
Alternatively you can remove the need for postgres passwords: How To: Remove PostgreSQL Password

I should add - if you can create a new database when you enter the password then you can edit your PT3 config file to change the password to link to your exiting databases.
Edit:
C:\Program Files\PokerTracker 3\Data\Config\PokerTracker.cfg
..and find the lines that look like:
DB1.Postgres.Password=dbpass
..and change them to the correct password.

There was a username / password already filled out. I updated the password (which was 4 dots), tried again, and it worked. When I set it active, the "no database" phrase in the player list when away. So, my new database looks connected.

Half way there!

I went into the config file (with notepad), changed the password, saved it, started PT3 and got the "unable to connect" phrase in the player list again.

I also tried to follow the instructions so that a password wouldn't be needed, but the first instruction is: "Go Start -> Programs -> PostgreSQL -> Configuration Files -> Edit pg_hba.conf". My Postgre doesn't have an entry in the start menu for "Configuration Files".