What is a FOW file?

The .fow file is an internal temporary file that is used when the fon file is set up with ownership mode.

If you are seeing an error #205 about your FOW file check your phone header to see if it has ownership mode turned on.

In those cases where the ownership mode is turned on, the .fow file was not properly shut down on the previous use of the .fon file and this generates the error message when you bring the study back up. In those instances though, there is no other side effect other than a message as the phone file continued to operate correctly.

To get rid of the message, bring the study down and remove the old .fow file if it does not go away on its own.

If this doesn’t sound like what is happening to you, or shutting the study down does not fix the problem, we will need to get a copy of your server log file with the error message in it and we will probably also need a copy of your .fon file.