When trying to open a labels list file, you may receive the following error message:
The specified file is password protected, not saved in a valid database format, or contains special characters.
This message indicates that you are attempting to open your labels file but you are missing the associated files that accompany your main labels file.
When you first create a labels file, the program creates, not one, but four total files that work together to be your data. For example, if you have a list that you created and saved as a file called friends, in addition to the main file friends.mlb, you have other files that start with the word "friends", but have different file extensions and names. Here is what you would see in your saved data folder if you browsed to view the contents of your saved list data files (for a list file called friends.mlb ):
friends.mlb
friendsmlb.fsif
friendsmlb.msif
friendsmlb.bcf
If you look in Windows Explorer (outside of your labels program), you should see this set of files in the same place as you chose to create/save your labels file.
If you do not, this is because you manually deleted the supporting files (because you incorrectly thought these files were irrelevant, or copies), or you renamed the main *.mlb file and did not subsequently rename the supporting files so that they all have the same naming. All 4 files MUST be in a common folder, such as the Data folder or My Documents. If friends.mlb is on a floppy disk, and the other files are on the hard drive, you will not be able to open it from the floppy disk. You will need to get all of the files together, in a common folder.
If you deleted the supporting files and then got this message, Restore them from the Recycle Bin and then try to open your file again.
If you renamed the main file, but not the supporting files, go back and rename the main file again back to exactly what the file was called before (use the naming convention of the other supporting files for guidance if you are not sure what the original name was).