How to Obtain a Copy of a Notes Database Design Only?

There may be requirements for Microsoft Support Engineers to obtain a copy of your Lotus Notes database for local reproduction of problems in working with some Microsoft products. For example, Application Conversion Assistant and Lotus Notes Connector. However, for many reasons, there is generally no need for you to send the data in the database. This article describes the steps needed to get the stripped down copy of the database. The article assumes a Notes R4.x client as the interface.

To get the Notes database without the data, perform the following steps:

1. Start the Lotus Notes client.
2. Open the relevant Notes database.
3. On the File menu, click Database - New Copy.
4. The Server location can stay at the default "Local" location. Look for the Copy section in the dialog box.
5. Change the default selection from Database design and documents to Database design only.
6. Also clear the Access Control List option, otherwise you will have problems reading the database later. Do not select the Create Full Index option.
7. Make sure you know where the database is being created. If you are trying to make a second copy of a local database, you will have to select a different location for the database, or change the file name. By default, Notes will give the same filename, and when it tries to copy the database, it will error out indicating that a copy exists already.