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How to: Export and Import Companies and Other Data in Clients

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You can export data such as a company or an application from a Dynamics NAV database in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client and the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client. You can also import data into a Dynamics NAV database.

Important

To export or import data from a Dynamics NAV database, you must be a user in the Dynamics NAV database, and your user account must have a permission set that enables you to export or import data, such as the SUPER permission set. We recommend that you define a specific permission set such as DATA-EXPORTIMPORT and add system permissions 5410, Export Data to Data File, and 5420, Import Data from Data file. Optionally, add other permissions, and then assign the permission set to the users that you want to be able to export and import data.

When you export data from the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client or the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client, data is exported from the database that your current company uses. Similarly, when you import data, data is imported into your current database.

The following procedures assume that you have the relevant permissions as described above.

To export data

  1. In the Search box, enter Export to a Data File, and then choose the related link.

  2. In the Export to Data File window, fill in the fields as described in the following table.

    Field Description
    Description Optionally, specifies a description of the data that you want to export, such as Company A data.

    The text that you specify is used as a suggested file name when you start the export.
    All Companies Specifies if you want to export all companies in the current database.

    If you do not choose this field, and you want to export one or more companies, you must you must select the relevant companies from the list of available companies.
    Global Data Specifies if you want to export data that is common to all companies in the database. This includes the report list, permission sets, user IDs, and printer selections, but no company-specific business data.
    Application Data Specifies if you want to export the data that defines the application in the database.
    Application Specifies if you want to export all application objects. Application data is not included.

  3. Optionally, if you did not choose the All Companies field, select one or more companies to export.

  4. Choose the OK button, and then, in the window that appears, specify the location and name of the file that the data is exported to, and then choose the Save button.

    The data is exported to a file with the extension .navdata.

    You have exported data from a Dynamics NAV database into a file. Now, you can import the data into another Dynamics NAV database.

    Before you import data from a navdata file, you can choose to use the Get-NAVDataFile Windows PowerShell cmdlet to see what the file contains. For more information, see How to: Export and Import Companies and Other Data using Windows PowerShell Cmdlets.

To import data

  1. In the Search box, enter Import Data, and then choose the related link.

  2. In the Import from Data File window, fill in the fields as described in the following table.

    Field Description
    File Name Specifies the name and location of the .navdata file that you want to import data from.
    All Companies Specifies if you want to import all companies in the current database.

    If you do not choose this field, and you want to import one or more companies, you must select the relevant companies from the list of available companies.
    Company Name Specifies the name of the company that you want to import. You can specify more than one company.
    Global Data Specifies if you want to import data that is common to all companies in the database. This includes the report list, permission sets, user IDs, and printer selections, but no company-specific business data.
    Application Data Specifies if you want to import the data that defines the application in the database. Warning: If you choose to import application data, you must make sure that the application in the current database supports the application data.

  3. Optionally, if you did not choose the All Companies field, select one or more companies to import.

  4. Choose the OK button.

    Warning

    If you choose to import data of a type that already exists in the database, you risk overwriting the data. You will be asked to confirm that you want to overwrite the existing data.

  5. The data that you specified is now imported into your current database.

See Also

Exporting and Importing Companies and Other Data
How to: Export and Import Companies and Other Data using Windows PowerShell Cmdlets