Access 2002 creating multiple copies of database (Access 2002)

Topic

New Reply

I just switched from Access 2000 on a Windows NT box to Access 2002 on a Windows 2000 Advanced Server. I have a database that was created in Access 2000 that is now being used in Access 2002. It is being used by three people. Whenever two of them are in the database at the same time and entering data Access creates another copy of the database. I can’t figure out why this is happening. This happens every time 2 or more people are in the database and then Access creates another database and gives it a unique name. This never happened when they used the database in Access 2000. This started happening as soon as they started using Access 2002. I have looked around and didn’t find anything about this and can’t figure out why this is happening or how to stop it. Does anybody have any ideas???

Reply | Quote

Replies

This is indeed strange. Is this a split database situation, and if so, is it making a copy of the frontend or the backend? Is the size of the copy the same as the original? What happens to these “copies” when the users exit the database? That is, do they go away. I’d be specifically interested in following exactly what happens in 2 situations. After each step, examine disk to see what databases are shown:

Situation #1: User1 starts using database. Then User2 starts. User2 exits. User1 exits.
Situation #2: User1 starts using database. Then User2 starts. User1 exits. User2 exits.

Reply | Quote

It isn’t a split database. When it makes the copies it makes a copy of the whole database. The copy is always the same size as the original. When a user exits the database the copy stays. The copy won’t go away unless you actually go and delete it. Now, after I had submitted the post, Access isn’t creating anymore copies. I tried recreating the problem and couldn’t get it to create any copies. One thing that might have caused it, is when the user was entering data through a form, instead of just closing the form when done, they would hit save first. I couldn’t get Access to create any copies by doing this though. But, since I told the users to not hit save, no more copies have been created. So, I don’t think that was really the problem but it isn’t happening anymore and I can’t recreate the problem.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Reply | Quote

I would take a very close look at that “Save” routine to see what it’s actually doing.

Reply | Quote

Make sure the Compact On Close option is turned off. I don’t know that is causes the problem, but with multiple people sharing the same database like that (which, by the way, is not the recommended approach), you can’t be too careful.

Reply | Quote

I checked and the Compact On Close option is off. By the way, you said that having multiple people sharing a database isn’t the recommended approach then if you have more than one person needing to enter data into a database how are you supposed to do it? I was never taught any different way in the classes I have taken or at work.

Reply | Quote

The recommended approach is what is called a split-database schema. This separates your one big database into a frontend database and a backend database. The backend database only contains the tables and relationships. It sits on a shared network drive. The frontend contains everything else (forms, queries, reports, etc.). It links to the tables in the backend. Each user can then have a copy of the frontend on his/her local drive.

This solves alot of problems. It greatly helps reduce database corruption. It helps performance since each user is loading their forms and everything locally, and only looking to the server for data. And it is easy to manage, and you can easily make and test changes to the frontend, then distribute the new frontend to the users.

Reply | Quote