intermittent error message when editing data in a form

[Paul]

I'm running Access 2003 with the back end on a network server, and multiple
users running their individual front ends from their local C drives.

The users sometimes get this message when they try to edit data in one of
the forms:
Write Conflict

This record has been changed by another user since you started editing it.
If you save the record, you will overw3rite the changes the other user made.
Copying the changes to the clipboard will let you look at the values the
other user entered, and then paste your changes back in if you decide to
make changes.


Save Record - Copy to Clipboard - Drop Changes

The message can occur if the user tries to save the Records - Save Record
command, and also if they try to navigate to another record right after
making the change.

What is puzzling about this is that I've had the users test it on certain
records that I know are not being edited by anyone else, and yet the message
still appears from time to time. But on other occasions, the user can edit
the record without encountering an error message.

What is causing this, and what can I do to prevent this from happening?

Thanks in advance,

Paul

 

[Paul]

Thanks for the info, Tom.

One of the things I suspect is going on is that some users type something
into a field or two, and let it remain there in the edit state which might
be tying up the record and page. If I put a 60 second timer in the form
that says something like If Me.Dirty then Save Record, would that actually
save the record and possibly solve the problem?

Thanks again in advance.

Paul

 

[David W. Fenton]

For performance reasons Access locks records a page at a time, not
a record at a time. A page typically contains several records.

Well, except when it doesn't. If you created your database in A2000
or later, it should automatically use record-level locking.

Now, it could be that it's very easy to fall over into page-level
locking mode (certainly there's the issue that DAO doesn't support
record-level locking) but page-level locking will happen only in
databases converted from versions of Access that predated
record-level locking (i.e., pre-Jet 4) or that were created with
record-level locking specifically turned off.

All that said, I've never even bothered to worry about it one way or
the other, and my clients' apps have not had edit conflicts at all.