How to Fix “Unable to Determine Security Privileges” Error in Sage 50 Accounting Software?

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January 17, 2024
Fact checked by
Narayan

While the usage of one of the most recognized and desirable accounting software makes all your finance-related tasks easier; but at the same time, it also leaves you in trouble when you encounter an error like “Unable to Determine Security Privileges” in Sage 50 accounting software during the time when you try to open the company file.

Considering this fact and to save you from such trouble, today in this blog we’ve mentioned almost all the possible solutions that you can try to eradicate this error completely without much effort. So, let’s get started with the step-by-step troubleshooting guide for “Unable to Determine Security Privileges” in Sage 50 accounting software.

However, before starting with the troubleshooting guide, you’ve to ensure two very important aspects, and they are as follows:

Make sure that you’re not opening the company on an external media device and if yes, then you need to move the company simply to an internal hard drive in order to try opening it once again.
Make sure that when you’re trying to open the company on one particular workstation, no other workstation has the ‘Company information’ window open, and if yes, then close all other windows and then try opening it again.

Now, if still, the error persists, then you’re good to go with the following (four) solutions:

Solution1: Stop and Start Again the Pervasive Service on the Server:

Sometimes, the pervasive database service gets blocked or it goes missing and therefore this error occurs. So, in order to troubleshoot this error you need to restart the Sage 50 Pervasive Database Service either from ‘Windows Services or from Task Manager ’ and for that follow the below-given steps correctly:

From Windows Services—

First and foremost, make sure to exit yourself from the Sage 50 program on all computers.
Then, from your keyboard, press ‘Win + R’ key together to open the ‘Run Dialog Box.’
In the required text field of the dialog box, type ‘services.msc’ and click on the ‘OK’ button.
Once you reach the ‘Services’ window, look for ‘Pervasive PSQL Workgroup Engine’ service.
Afterward, click right on the ‘Pervasive PSQL Workgroup Engine’ service, and from the available contextual menu select the ‘Stop’ option in order to stop the service.
Then, again do a right-click on the ‘Pervasive PSQL Workgroup Engine’ service, and from the options click on the ‘Start’ button to finally re-start the Sage 50 Pervasive Database Service.

From Task Manager—

Similar to method one, close your Sage 50 program entirely.
Then, from your keyboard press together ‘Ctrl +Alt+ Delete’ key shortcut in order to open the ‘Task Manager.’
From there, navigate to the ‘Details Tab’ and then look for ‘w3dbsmgr.exe’ process.
Afterward, you’ve to select it and click on the ‘End Task’ option in order to end the process.
Then, look for ‘psqlWGE’ by navigating yourself to the ‘Services Tab’ which is there at the top of the Task Manager window.
And at last, do a right-click on ‘psqlWGE’, and from the available menu, simply select the ‘Start’ option.

That’s it! Now, ensure whether you’ll be able to get into the company or not. If not then, do not worry and move on to perform the other solutions.

Solution 2: Try to Clean Out Company Folder

In order to do so, you first need to locate company directories within Sage 50 program and to do so; select the ‘Maintain, Company Information’ and then in the window that opens after that, locate the ‘Directory line’ as only this will indicate you the location of the open company.
From it, click on the ‘File’ option and then ‘Open Company’ so that all the companies located in your data path will be listed.
Then, with no companies open, click on the ‘Open an existing company’ option from the main Sage window.
Doing so will list all ‘Opened companies’ history along with the location of each company that is given in the ‘Directory’ column.
Now, browse to your particular company’s data folder and then simply start the process of clean out your company folder with the help of deleting these given files:
- Alarm.dat
- Connco.dat
- Cosess.dat
- All files of type DATtemp
- All files of type DDF
- All files of type DATptl
- All files of type LCK
- All files of type MKD
- All files of type PTR
- All files of type PTL
- All files of type RPT

That’s it! Now, check whether you’re successful in troubleshooting the ongoing error or not. If not, then there’s another solution that can fix this error hopefully.

Solution 3: Uninstall and Reinstall Pervasive:

To Uninstall—

To start with the uninstalling process of ‘Pervasive Database Service,’ you need to first close the Sage 50 program and then press ‘Win + R’ shortcut key to open ‘Windows Run Dialog Box.’
In the pop-up dialog box, type ‘Control Panel’ and hit the ‘Enter’ button.
After that, from the Control panel select the ‘Programs & Features.’
Under it, click on the ‘Uninstall’ button to uninstall the ‘the database engine named as Pervasive PSQL Workgroup Engine.’
That’s it! Now, close the ‘Control Panel.’

To Reinstall—

To start with the reinstalling process, you need to navigate yourself to the location “C:\Sage\Sage50_[version]” (according to your Sage 50 version) in order to browse the installation folder.
Then, simply open the ‘PervasiveMin’ folder and run the ‘SetupWorkgroup32_x86.exe’ for the latest version.
After that, click on the ‘Next’ button in order to accept the license agreement of the ‘Pervasive Database Service.’
Once you accept the license agreement, click on the ‘Next’ button again to select the option of ‘Run as a Service.’
Now, to complete the process, select the ‘Complete’ button, and then click on the ‘Next’ button to finally ‘Install’ the ‘Pervasive Database Service.’
That’s it! Select the ‘Finish’ button in the end to apply changes and to check whether this time, the error has been resolved or not.

Again, if you’re unable to fix this error then, what best you can do is repair the program with the help of the following below given steps.

Solution 4: Repair the Program:

To repair the program you need to remove all (except the individual company data folder) files and folder that it contains.
And, note that you can hold these files and folders at one place i.e., in a separate folder on your desktop for the time being.
Now, to start the repair process, open your system’s ‘Control Panel’ and from it select ‘Program & Features.’
Then, select the ‘Sage 50 Accounting program from the program list in order to click on the ‘Change’ button.
After that, select ‘Repair’ and click on the ‘Next’ button so that the repair process will begin.
Now, during the process ensure that none of your Windows Firewall settings or antivirus interrupts the ongoing process. To ensure that you need to simply disable them from your computer and if you want assistance for doing this you can refer to our previous blogs related to Sage 50 accounting software errors.

That’s it! This is all about the troubleshooting guide of how you can resolve the “Unable to Determine Security Privileges” error in Sage 50 Accounting Software in the most effective manner even without the need for any expert help.