How to Fix QuickBooks Hosting Mode is Off?

QuickBooks is no doubt one of the best accounting tools that accountants, auditors, and CPAs prefer to use professionally. However, no professional would prefer seeing errors like “QuickBooks Hosting Mode is Off.” 

When the error ‘hosting mode is off’ pops up, you cannot access any of your QuickBooks files. In this case, QuickBooks File Doctor can come to your rescue. It is a commendable tool that has especially been designed so that it can easily recover the damaged company files. Added to this, this tool is efficient in providing assistance, so that your other network issues are also fixed. 

So, in this article, you will find the test result from the file doctor and how you can get this error fixed.

Step for QuickBooks Turning on Hosting Mode 

On a preliminary level, the step that you need to follow is to turn on hosting mode, so that over the network, you can access the QuickBooks file. 

1. Hosting QB Company Data Files in Multi-User Mode

When the term hosting is used, it refers to the permission that it offers to the workstation (other laptop/ computers) to access the host (main computer), where all the company files are stored. 

In the case of alternative hosting:

In case of Peer to Peer hosting:

In case of dedicated hosting:

2. QuickBooks Desktop Manages Access to the Company File via a Service

Regarding managing access to the company file via a service, you can use the service as per your QuickBooks Desktop version listed below:

• QuickBooksDB26 - Used by QuickBooks Desktop 2016
• QuickBooksDB27 - Used by QuickBooks Desktop 2017
• QuickBooksDB28 - Used by QuickBooks Desktop 2018
• QuickBooksDB29 - Used by QuickBooks Desktop 2019
• QuickBooksDB30 - Used by QuickBooks Desktop 2020

On navigating to the Windows Control Panel, you can find the service. To reach the exact location, you need to follow this:

Windows Control Panel > User Accounts > Search from the list and click on your matched version of QuickBooks

Accessing Company Files

To access company files, it is imperative the below conditions are aptly met.

• QuickBooks User Login – It is a preliminary aspect that needs to be fulfilled to access company files. Being a QuickBooks user, you should have both QuickBooks user login ID and its password.  
• Windows File Permission – If you are the authorized user, you should have the permission to have complete control. Once you have full control, you can easily open the file, change the file, and even have access to ‘permission to view.’
• Database Server Mode – The company file can successfully be open by the database server.

Hosting Modes

For every QuickBooks Desktop version that runs on an individual system, a specific hosting mode is set. However, you need to remember that the setting is not for QuickBooks installation or company file. 

The 3 hosting modes include:

1. Not Hosting Mode

• Any user of QuickBooks will know that it is via a normal process that the QuickBooks Database Manager runs. Simply put, it runs as Windows User running QuickBooks.
• Multi-user mode is not supported by this mode. What non-hosting mode does for communicating with QuickBooks is to utilize shared memory. If you are running QuickBooks on your local system (computer), only you can access the file. You can do so via a database server. 

2. Hosting Local Files Only mode

• The QB Database Server Manager in this mode runs as a Windows service. You can identify it as QuickBooksDBXX. Here XX refers to the version of QuickBooks and the number ranges from 17 to 28.
• QuickBooksDBXX service continues to run until the system is switched on.
• Windows user QBDataServiceUserXX, quite often, also runs as Windows user QBDataServiceUserXX.
• If you want to host only the files present on that computer, your system should be in this mode.
• The support can be availed by the multi-users by using TCP/IP. This is a vital method for communicating with QuickBooks. 
• If you are on remotely located computers, you can access the company files through Hosting Local Files Only mode run a database server.

3. Hosting Local and Remote Files Mode

• In this mode, your local computer can host files that are already stored in the system. 
• When you log in, the process starts and on logging out, it ends.
• In this case, too, the support can be availed by the multi-users by using TCP/IP to connect with QB.

QuickBooks Method of Determining which Database Server to Communicate

There are certain aspects based on which QuickBooks Desktop determines which of the database server it requires to communicate with. 

1. The first thing the QuickBooks Desktop looks for is the. nd file. It is a text file sharing the same name of the company file but with a “. nd” extension. You can find this file in the same directory where the company file (.qbw) is located. If you require the details like port or IP address to contact the server, you can get it from the same directory.
2. The use of the .qbw file is determined by QuickBooks Desktop.
3. In case the QuickBooks Desktop detects the .nd file and finds out the company file to be in use, it will try communicating with the server.
4. If the communication is not established, an error message with a description of resolution will appear. 
5. If communication is established, the company file will be opened by QuickBooks.