Lock out problem

[calsteve]

Hi,

Have a database in Access 2003. Databadse is on a server, each user, 17,
has Access on their computer, the database is split back end and front end.
Almost daily the database will lock up on 1 or 2 computers but not on the
others. It won't work on those 2 computers until everybody quits Access and
signs back in.

Would appreciate some ideas.

 

[Norman Yuan]

Hi,

Have a database in Access 2003. Databadse is on a server, each user, 17,
has Access on their computer, the database is split back end and front
end.

Does each user have the front end on his/her computer?

 

[Steve]

No it is shared on the server.

Does each user have the front end on his/her computer?

 

[Bob Larson]

That would be your problem. Give each user a copy of the frontend and stop
trying to share it over the network.

--

Thanks,

Bob Larson
Access MVP

Free Access Tutorials and Resources: http://www.btabdevelopment.com

 

[John W. Vinson]

Then you're asking for BIG BIG TROUBLE.

A shared frontend on the server with a split database is the *worst* possible
combination. It has all the disadvantages of an unsplit shared database - user
contention, bloat, risk of corruption, etc. - and all the disadvantages of a
split database - network traffic, possible performance drag, etc.

Each user *MUST* have their own individual copy of the frontend.

 

[Steve]

The frontend keeps changing as I write new reports and queries. It is
problematic to have 16 Other non compuiter literate people reinstall the
front end each time a change is made. Or am I missing something? It sounds
like a great solution otherwise.

 

[John W. Vinson]

The frontend keeps changing as I write new reports and queries. It is
problematic to have 16 Other non compuiter literate people reinstall the
front end each time a change is made. Or am I missing something? It sounds
like a great solution otherwise.

There are good tools to make this pretty painless. One is Tony Toews' front
end updater:

http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/autofe.htm

Or you can "roll your own"; one easy way is to have a shortcut that the user
clicks to open the database check to see if there's a more current frontend on
the server and download it before opening.

 

[calsteve]

I used the database utilities, create MDE file and each time the program
freezes and Access stops responding.

 

[John W. Vinson]

I used the database utilities, create MDE file and each time the program
freezes and Access stops responding.

Read the hints on Tony's Tips page.

For one thing you should be sure that all of the VBA code in your application
compiles correctly: Ctrl-G to open the VBA editor, and select Debug... Compile
<database name> from the menu. Fix any errors, compile again until it's clean,
close the VBA editor and use Tools... Database Utilities... Compact and Repair
before trying to make the MDE.

You *can* distribute a .mdb instead, but it's bigger, slower, and runs the
risk that your users could (intentionally or otherwise) change something you
want left alone; and if you can't make a .mde, you have SOME sort of problem
that should be fixed.

 

[David W. Fenton]

You *can* distribute a .mdb instead, but it's bigger, slower, and
runs the risk that your users could (intentionally or otherwise)
change something you want left alone;

I distribute MDBs almost exclusively, for not good reason other than
laziness.

I have one exception, and that's a user who would ignore error
messages and type through them (even though she'd see them onscreen)
and end up typing in the code window and breaking her MDB. That's
the only way I found out about the unhandled error, because she
changed the code! From then on, she got an MDE.