FWeston
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MS Access multi user support has stopped working
My company has several older Access databases which are stored on file servers where multiple employees access them simultaneously. This has worked for many years and has recently stopped working for two databases.
The databases are on separate servers and used by separate groups of employees. The employees have shortcuts on their desktops to the mdb files on mapped network drives. When the first employee opens the database it works fine, when additional users try to open it they double click on the shortcut and briefly get an hourglass then nothing else happens.
I have tried copying the file to the local computer and after doing so they have no problems opening it from the local disk. I have also tried getting everyone out of the database and once everyone is out, an employee who could previously not access it can not access it with no problems.
So it would appear that the first user is somehow locking the database and preventing anyone else from using it. As soon as they close the database someone else can open it. We have not made any configuration changes, so I am suspecting some sort of windows update or perhaps some other type of update could be causing this problem.
Employees are using MS Access 2003 on a combination of Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 x64 SP1. The servers are a mix of Windows 2003 and Windows 2008.
Do you have any suggestions?
The databases are on separate servers and used by separate groups of employees. The employees have shortcuts on their desktops to the mdb files on mapped network drives. When the first employee opens the database it works fine, when additional users try to open it they double click on the shortcut and briefly get an hourglass then nothing else happens.
I have tried copying the file to the local computer and after doing so they have no problems opening it from the local disk. I have also tried getting everyone out of the database and once everyone is out, an employee who could previously not access it can not access it with no problems.
So it would appear that the first user is somehow locking the database and preventing anyone else from using it. As soon as they close the database someone else can open it. We have not made any configuration changes, so I am suspecting some sort of windows update or perhaps some other type of update could be causing this problem.
Employees are using MS Access 2003 on a combination of Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 x64 SP1. The servers are a mix of Windows 2003 and Windows 2008.
Do you have any suggestions?
1. Make sure that all users have full privs (read, write, and delete) for the directory where the MDB resides. make sure you check SHARE and Directory privs.
2. Make sure that the .LDB file with all users out is gone. If not, delete it.
3. Make sure that you don't have two DB's with the same base name in the directory (ie. "myApp.MDB" and myApp.MDW")
4. Make sure in the Access options that database open mode is set to shared.
5. Check the shortcut of each user and make sure that it doesn not specify /exclu
Jim.
2. Make sure that the .LDB file with all users out is gone. If not, delete it.
3. Make sure that you don't have two DB's with the same base name in the directory (ie. "myApp.MDB" and myApp.MDW")
4. Make sure in the Access options that database open mode is set to shared.
5. Check the shortcut of each user and make sure that it doesn not specify /exclu
Jim.
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You did not answer my first question? Is the database split.
If not, I would highly encourage you to do so.
If not, I would highly encourage you to do so.
<<The shortcut was direct to the MDB file, I tried changing this to point to msaccess.exe and then pass the path to the database as a command line parameter and this seems to have solved the problem for everyone. >>
That's weird. I've never heard of that causing that kind of issue before. And there's no default setting except the one in Access.
You don't have multiple versions of Access installed do you? A shortcut without specifying the .exe directly would open the version registered as the "Default", which a shortcut could point to another.
That ties into #4 that I posted earlier.
Jim.
That's weird. I've never heard of that causing that kind of issue before. And there's no default setting except the one in Access.
You don't have multiple versions of Access installed do you? A shortcut without specifying the .exe directly would open the version registered as the "Default", which a shortcut could point to another.
That ties into #4 that I posted earlier.
Jim.
ASKER
Yes, the default open option is shared, and no we only have one version of Access installed. I opened task manager and watched to see if msaccess.exe started when I clicked on the shortcut and it did not, so I tried opening access and then doing a file > open and opening the database that way. This worked, so that's what made me try changing the shortcut.
<<I opened task manager and watched to see if msaccess.exe started when I clicked on the shortcut and it did not,>>
I'm confused I guess...if the short cuts didn't work, how were the employess running the app at all?
Jim.
I'm confused I guess...if the short cuts didn't work, how were the employess running the app at all?
Jim.
Most experts here will tell you to split the database (as indicated above) and to put a copy of the "front end" on each users computer.
Does this happen mostly when users running Windows 7, x64 open the database first, or does it also happen when your XP users are the first ones into the application?