Symptom

 When opening up a label, you may receive the following error message:

Record Set: [database] encountered a Connection error.

Applicable to

BarTender 2019 and later

Solution

This error means that the database file has been moved, deleted, or is otherwise no longer at the location BarTender believes it to be.

In order to correct the error you will need to follow the below steps:

1. Open up the Database Setup Dialog by clicking on the database icon or going to File > Database Connection Setup.
2. On this dialog, click the Configure Connection... button

3. An open file dialog will appear with the location where the database file should stored.
4. Click Browse... and navigate to the correct location for the database file.

5. Click Finish.
6. An additional dialog may appear. Click Yes. 

7. A new dialog will pop up asking you to specify the desired tables. Select the tables (tabs in Excel) from the list:

8. Once you've selected your tables, click Finish and you're done!