Problem facing During the NAV16 Migration to the New Database

Jadav Rudresh Deepakbhai 0 Reputation points
2026-07-01T16:54:55.9133333+00:00

Hello Everyone,

I’m currently working on a Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 to NAV 2016 data migration project, and I’m facing a challenge where I’d really appreciate some guidance from people who have handled similar cases.

In my scenario, the source system is NAV 2016 and it contains many years of historical data, while the target is a fresh NAV 2016 environment. The requirement is to migrate data only from a specific cutoff date, i.e., 1st April 2025 onwards.

The problem I’m facing is that the source database is quite large, but I don’t want to move all the old data. I only need data from 01-Apr-2025 onwards, and that too including all standard tables as well as custom tables and fields (since there are customizations in the system). Though i have already exported the Objects from the NAV Environment such as Tables, Pages, reports, XML Ports, Query, Codeunit. So now the fields and all are been done but there is no Data in the other Database.

At the same time, data integrity is very important, so I need to make sure relationships are maintained properly (like ledger entries, posted documents, etc.). I can’t break any links between data just because I’m filtering by date.

The reason for doing this is that the current system has become slow and heavy to work with — even simple operations like searching, creating entries, or modifying data are taking more time due to the large volume of unnecessary historical data.

Challenges I’m facing:

• How to filter data based on date without breaking dependencies

• Handling ledger tables (G/L Entry, Item Ledger, Value Entry, etc.) where data is interconnected

• Migrating custom tables and fields along with standard data

• Standard tools like RapidStart don’t seem sufficient for this kind of partial migration

• Not sure whether to go with SQL scripts, NAV objects/codeunits, or any third-party tools

• How to take the Data from the current existing Database to the another which is blank

What I’m looking for:

• Best approach for doing date-based partial data migration in NAV 2016

• How to safely handle dependencies and linked records

• Any tools, scripts, or approach that has worked in real projects

• Things to be careful about (common mistakes or risks)

• Also how can I migrator all the data such as Customer, Vendor, G/L Entry, COA, Items and all other required and remaining data from the current Database to the New Database

If anyone has worked on a similar requirement, please share your approach or suggestions. It would really help me move in the right direction.

Thanks in advance!

SQL Server Migration Assistant
SQL Server Migration Assistant

A Microsoft tool designed to automate database migration to SQL Server from Access, DB2, MySQL, Oracle, and SAP ASE.

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  1. Erland Sommarskog 135.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-07-01T19:23:41.7966667+00:00

    If you have not done so, I would recommend that you ask this question in a forum devoted to Navision. I could attempt to write a general answer from an SQL Server perspective, but since I don't know Navision the answer might not be that helpful for you.

    What I can say is that the exercise is a challenge for any database of some complexity. I recall that I wrote a spec for data purging for a system I had worked with for many years and which I knew well, and I spent more than 40 hours on that task, and that was only the spec.

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