Loosing data in the backend

[SpookiePower]

I have split a access database into a frontend and backend.
The frontend and backend are placed on two different computers.

I have tryed many times where the user have entered a lot of
data into the backend and then a few hours later, the data
is just gone. After the data have been entered into the
database, I tryed to turn off and on the computer and the
data was still there. but then a few hours later the new
updates was gone. How can this be ? Can it have something
to do with the network in the firm and not with access ??


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[Jeff Boyce]

I'm not aware of any mechanism by which Access has "short term memory" but
lacks "long-term memory".

Are you quite certain you don't have someone "messin' with your head"?

Is there a chance that the network server on which the back-end data is
stored is somehow spontaneously restoring itself to an earlier backup copy?

Can you get into the back-end and make changes that "stick"?

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

 

[SpookiePower]

Jeff Boyce wrote:

Is there a chance that the network server on which the back-end data is
stored is somehow spontaneously restoring itself to an earlier backup copy?

Maybe, I don't know.

Can you get into the back-end and make changes that "stick"?

Yes, if I enter data directly into the backend, then they stay there.
But if I work through the frontend, then some times the data just
disapers. My guess would be that the data just entered is stored on the frontend-
computer, and then later on, the network send them to the backend-computer
and update the backend. But sometimes the data get lost in the network...I think.

 

[Jeff Boyce]

You're there, we're not.

You'd have to look at how the forms are set up, what tables they use, what
code they use. Yes, it is possible that a database could be created to have
and use "local" tables, just in case the network connection wasn't
available. But you'd be the one who could check on that.

If you open your .mdb file and go to the database window, and click on the
Tables tab, do you have duplicate (or near duplicate) table names, some
"local" and some linked?

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

 

[SpookiePower]

You'd have to look at how the forms are set up, what tables they use, what
code they use. Yes, it is possible that a database could be created to have
and use "local" tables, just in case the network connection wasn't
available. But you'd be the one who could check on that.

The frontend-forms only uses the tables from the backend, there is no
local tables.

If you open your .mdb file and go to the database window, and click on the
Tables tab, do you have duplicate (or near duplicate) table names, some
"local" and some linked?

No duplicates. I'm not sure about what you mean by linked tables ?
I use "File - Get external data - Link tables" to get connected with
the backend, but don't know if that is what you mean.

 

[Jeff Boyce]

Yes, that's what I meant.

So if your front-end has no "local tables" (i.e., all the tables are
linked), then you aren't saving data locally. If you open a form bound to a
linked table and add a new record, how do you know that the record was
saved? Can you confirm this much is happening?

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

 

[SpookiePower]

So if your front-end has no "local tables" (i.e., all the tables are
linked), then you aren't saving data locally.

No, all tables er linked. The backend is placed on a computer
in another building, so they are all linked.

If you open a form bound to a
linked table and add a new record, how do you know that the record was
saved? Can you confirm this much is happening?

I would enter the data into the backend, using the frontend, and then look
directly into the backend, without using the frontend, to see if the
data still is there. But this do my users not know how to do.
They only use the frontend, and if they se the data in the frontend,
they assume that the data is still there.

Could it be something to do whit the network, that only updatas the
backend sometimes ?

 

[Jeff Boyce]

I'm not aware, as I mentioned, of a mechanism in Access that would only
sometimes update the backend.

Consider re-posting the issue, to see if any other readers here have run
across this.

You may need to seek "professional help" if the volunteers here can't give
you enough clues to resolve it.

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

 

[SpookiePower]

I'm not aware, as I mentioned, of a mechanism in Access that would only
sometimes update the backend.

Consider re-posting the issue, to see if any other readers here have run
across this.

You may need to seek "professional help" if the volunteers here can't give
you enough clues to resolve it.

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

Thanks a lot for your help

 

[Larry Daugherty]

It sure sounds like some kind of foreign (not Access) intervention.

Has any new data persisted in the back end since this problem first
surfaced? If so, can you isolate different results to different
users?

While still trying to determine the cause and without yet knowing what
is the cause you can still close a couple of doors:

Ask the administrator of the server on which the back end resides to
put just the authorized users of your application in the Access
Control List of the folder in which the back end resides. That list
should include you if you ever need to get at the back end in place.
With the new ACL no foreign user can get at your data. One of your
authorized users still could; either directly or through Access or
another application.

Closing the next door requires that you write an Autoexec macro in the
back end. In that macro put action "Quit". Anyone clicking on the
back end to start Access will be instantly blocked. The Autoexec
macro won't run when the backend is the target of a link.

Those are security measures that are totally transparent to the
normal, authorized use of your application. I've had to use them in
situations where the users were somewhat hostile to their management
and just plain were not going to be constrained to legal practices.
With the fixes in place, multiple random data errors from the Access
applications pretty much went away. It still didn't protect against
users simply turning off the power while they had Access up. That
behavior will create lots of issues sooner or later.

Speaking of security, if IT won't create the proper Access Control
List for you or if your users don't log in to the network then you
should invoke Access security. That isn't trivial and you have to be
careful to keep unsecured copies in your possession.
microsoft.public.access.security

HTH