diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 07daf1a..6a2cac4 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: ChemotaxisDashboard
 Title: Chemotaxis dashboard
-Version: 0.1
+Version: 0.1.1
 Authors@R: c(person('Randy', 'Johnson', email = 'Randall.Johnson@nih.gov',
                     role = c('cre','aut')))
 Description: Dashboard for exploring chemotaxis data.
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 762231e..7aa9e69 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ export(qc_cardsUI)
 export(qc_server)
 export(qc_sidebarUI)
 import(rlang)
+importFrom(DBI,dbAppendTable)
 importFrom(DBI,dbConnect)
 importFrom(DBI,dbDisconnect)
 importFrom(DBI,dbGetQuery)
diff --git a/R/initialize.R b/R/initialize.R
index 3cc6f95..6898146 100644
--- a/R/initialize.R
+++ b/R/initialize.R
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # initialize.R
 
 #' dbinit
-#' Set up database and infrastructure needed to run the Chemotaxis-Dashboard 
+#' Set up database and infrastructure needed to run the Chemotaxis-Dashboard. If the database already exists and data is not empty, this will append the information in data to the database. 
 #' 
 #' @param db_path Character value specifying the path to the file where the database should be initialized.
 #' @param data List of data.frames to initialize or add to the database. Internal test data will be used if `data` is NULL.
@@ -36,35 +36,67 @@ dbinit <- function(db_path, data = NULL)
   # add data.frames
   if(!'users' %in% tabs & 
      !is.null(data$users))
+  {
     dbWriteTable(con, "users", data$users)
+  }else if(!is.null(data$users)){
+    dbAppendTable(con, "users", data$users)
+  }
   
   if(!'access' %in% tabs & 
      !is.null(data$access))
+  {
     dbWriteTable(con, "access", data$access)
+  }else if(!is.null(data$access)){
+    dbAppendTable(con, "access", data$access)
+  }
   
   if(!'expSummary' %in% tabs & 
      !is.null(data$expSummary))
+  {
     dbWriteTable(con, "expSummary", data$expSummary)
+  }else if(!is.null(data$expSummary)){
+    dbAppendTable(con, "expSummary", data$expSummary)
+  }
   
   if(!'expStats' %in% tabs & 
      !is.null(data$expStats))
+  {
     dbWriteTable(con, "expStats", data$expStats)
+  }else if(!is.null(data$expStats)){
+    dbAppendTable(con, "expStats", data$expStats)
+  }
   
   if(!'chanSummary' %in% tabs & 
      !is.null(data$chanSummary))
+  {
     dbWriteTable(con, "chanSummary", data$chanSummary)
-
+  }else if(!is.null(data$chanSummary)){
+    dbAppendTable(con, "chanSummary", data$chanSummary)
+  }
+  
   if(!'chanRaw' %in% tabs & 
      !is.null(data$chanRaw))
+  {
     dbWriteTable(con, "chanRaw", data$chanRaw)
+  }else if(!is.null(data$chanRaw)){
+    dbAppendTable(con, "chanRaw", data$chanRaw)
+  }
 
   if(!'trackSummary' %in% tabs & 
      !is.null(data$trackSummary))
+  {
     dbWriteTable(con, "trackSummary", data$trackSummary)
+  }else if(!is.null(data$trackSummary)){
+    dbAppendTable(con, "trackSummary", data$trackSummary)
+  }
   
   if(!'trackRaw' %in% tabs & 
      !is.null(data$trackRaw))
+  {
     dbWriteTable(con, "trackRaw", data$trackRaw)
+  }else{
+    dbAppendTable(con, "trackRaw", data$trackRaw)
+  }
   
   dbDisconnect(con)
 }
diff --git a/data-raw/process_raw_data.R b/data-raw/process_raw_data.R
index 5141d51..e0f186d 100644
--- a/data-raw/process_raw_data.R
+++ b/data-raw/process_raw_data.R
@@ -42,9 +42,14 @@ all_experiments <- all_experiments[!all_experiments %in% done]
 
 
 # process experiments that haven't been processed yet
-processed_data <- process_experiments(all_experiments,
-                                      source_dir = file.path(root, 'data-raw', 'results_csv'),
-                                      results_dir = file.path(root, '.data'),
-                                      seed = 923847)
+if(length(all_experiments) > 0)
+{
+  processed_data <- process_experiments(all_experiments,
+                                        source_dir = file.path(root, 'data-raw', 'results_csv'),
+                                        results_dir = file.path(root, '.data'),
+                                        seed = 923847)
+
+  dbinit(db_path, processed_data)
+}
 
 parallel::stopCluster(parallel::getDefaultCluster())
diff --git a/man/dbinit.Rd b/man/dbinit.Rd
index 185db80..c5731d9 100644
--- a/man/dbinit.Rd
+++ b/man/dbinit.Rd
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 \name{dbinit}
 \alias{dbinit}
 \title{dbinit
-Set up database and infrastructure needed to run the Chemotaxis-Dashboard}
+Set up database and infrastructure needed to run the Chemotaxis-Dashboard. If the database already exists and data is not empty, this will append the information in data to the database.}
 \usage{
 dbinit(db_path, data = NULL)
 }
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ Something - use this to sniff for existing DB information?
 }
 \description{
 dbinit
-Set up database and infrastructure needed to run the Chemotaxis-Dashboard
+Set up database and infrastructure needed to run the Chemotaxis-Dashboard. If the database already exists and data is not empty, this will append the information in data to the database.
 }
 \details{
 The data.frames expected in data are `users`, `access`, `expSummary`, `expStats`, `chanSummary`, `chanRaw`,