Access – Bug – Access 2016 Form Scrolling Doesn’t Work

A recent update 1707 to Access 2016 has broken form scrolling.

Here are a few reports of the issue:

The only fix I am aware of is to uninstall (or what Microsoft is now referring to as Revert) the latest update.

The Microsoft Access Dev Team is aware of the issue and has indicated that a fix should be rolling out shortly as part of 1709.  When will 1709 be published?

Update 2017-10-03

People keep asking me for an update, when it will be fixed …  Sadly, I wish I had better news, but I have no clue what’s going on anymore than anyone else!  It’s been 2 months now and there has been no public forward movement from Microsoft on this subject.  The last update they provided was more than a month ago (August 25th) on the Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Access site which provided no more information than what I had already pieced together myself and posted here.

… and the waiting game continues …

Update 2017-10-23

1709 has finally been released and appears to resolve this issue (although there are already reports it causes other issues, but I will posts back if these reports are confirmed).  So be sure to manually update your installation.

File -> Account -> Update Options -> Update Now.

36 responses on “Access – Bug – Access 2016 Form Scrolling Doesn’t Work”

      1. Daniel Pineault Post author

        Yes, my last update indicated that MS finally released update 1709 which addressed the issue. So if you automatically get updates, it should already be resolved. If you disabled updates, then manually update to 1709 and the problem should go away.

        2. Walter

          I checked my Access build and I have 1708 with the scrolling issue. I clicked on update and it said I was current. How do I get build 1709?

  5. bob wallace

    Created a continuous form that is larger than the screen size. Horizontal Scrollbar only works when multiple records, and then only to move between records. But if you add record selectors (which are not anywhere else in the database so users don’t see them normally) and dividing lines, you can scroll inside a form and use the record selectors to move to the next record.
    We would prefer it to scroll down the form and when it gets to the bottom of the form, move to the next record.
    Still waiting for the patch

  7. Alan White

    Microsoft updates seem to becoming more a threat than cryptolocker ransomware!
    Not only my scrollbar does not work, my video accelerator is now not compatible to the ever growing hardcoded list in Microsoft Office!!!!!

    1. Daniel Pineault Post author

      I don’t know what is going on internally, but the Quality Assurance/Control seems to have seriously dwindled in the past years. We are seeing lots of new bugs surface from updates. Software being released with major flaws (Access 2016 not images!). One truly gets the feeling they are now relying on end-user testing instead of internal QA. The other issue is MS provides no mechanism for feedback, reporting issues making the entire process incredibly frustrating!

  8. Hans-Joachim Bolle

    Revert to an old version and disable updates. In my case running these two lines in CMD (with administrator rights) did the downgrade:

    cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun
    officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.8201.2171

    Bit it surely differs from your setup / version.

    1. PissedProgrammer

      I can’t revert the whole enterprise to some earlier version. UGH, I’m their VBA/SQL developer, and everything works fine until they upgrade and then scrollbars disappear, and there’s no way to scroll long forms. This is not acceptable!

  9. Frank Zwolinski

    This is a terrible problem. Here is the only workaround I came up with.
    Add this code to the mousewheel event.

    Private Sub Form_MouseWheel(ByVal Page As Boolean, ByVal Count As Long)
    If Count < 0 Then
    SendKeys "{PgUp}"
    Else
    SendKeys "{PgDn}"
    End If
    End Sub

  10. Frank Zwolinski

    Here is a better workaround. Use next/previous records. This mimics the default mouse scroll a little better until Microsoft comes up with a fix.

    Private Sub Form_MouseWheel(ByVal Page As Boolean, ByVal Count As Long)
    On Error GoTo errorhandle
    If Count < 0 Then
    DoCmd.GoToRecord record:=acPrevious
    DoCmd.GoToRecord record:=acPrevious
    Else
    DoCmd.GoToRecord record:=acNext
    DoCmd.GoToRecord record:=acNext
    End If
    errorhandle:
    Exit Sub
    End Sub

  11. Mickael PETIT

    I found a better solution than go to previous/next record :

    Private Sub Form_MouseWheel(ByVal Page As Boolean, ByVal Count As Long)
    DoCmd.GoToPage 1, , Count * 500
    End Sub

    Easily, It seems to function correctly

    1. Dan

      @Mickael PETIT – Apologies for the n00b question as my Access skills are non-existent, but how and where do I enter this code? I have tried to create a new module with this in VBA within Access, but it doesn’t seem to find the module when I click on the Run button.

      Clearly, I am doing something wrong, but Google is not helping in this instance…

      Thanks,
      Dan

      1. Daniel Pineault Post author

        If you look at the code, you’ll see Form_MouseWheel so it is a form level event. Open the form you want to apply this to and then open the property sheet, go to the Event tab and locate the property “On Mouse Wheel” and then select [Event Procedure] and then click on the … button which will then bring you to an empty Form_MouseWheel procedure. Now simply copy/paste Mickael’s code into it, save, close and reopen to see if it solved the problem.

    2. Rachel Winder

      You are absolutely brilliant! Thank you for this!!! Muah!!! This has been driving me batty forever. My software is supposedly up to date and was still giving me fits with vertical scroll bar on continuous forms! You are a blessing. Now, I’m going to rest easier knowing that I have a valid work around!!! Cheers!

    1. Daniel Pineault Post author

      The issue here is that the Dev Team has already been aware of the issue for over 2 months. It’s already on their radar. We’re all just waiting for a fix to be made and actually publically released.

      The second part of the issue is that they have given us no updates on the matter. They included the issue in the Access Fixes and Workaround page, but have never actually given us any further update or ETA. So we are no more advanced.

      Why it has taken 2+ months to fix scrollbars, I cannot say?
      Why there has been no communication from Microsoft, I cannot say?
      They say they want to be transparent (it’s their new motto), but they sure missed the boat on this one and obviously, based on response time, this was by far not judge to be an important problem!

      As I indicated in my article, for now, uninstall the update to restore the functionality, see: http://www.devhut.net/2017/10/04/microsoft-office-uninstall-an-update/

      The other option is to stop using Microsoft products altogether as they seem to be getting more and more unstable.

      I’d also urge you to

  13. john

    It is very troubling that as a programmer, I have to work with a flawed product that does seem to a priority to be fixed. Very telling! Maybe it is time to look for another development tool!

    1. Travis

      This and the comments like the authors just above yours to just not use MS products are all fine and dandy until you actually try it. I’m sure several people will jump on my #@$!, but I’ve not found a RAD tool as robust and yet simple as Access. I can still make and deploy solutions in access many times faster than anything I can do in any other product. Seriously, with remote desktop services and SQL Express you can have an app up and serving hundreds in no time at all. Please please please, if you manage to find something better, let me know.

      Roll back the version and everything is fine. Once it’s confirmed fixed, which it appears it has been, turn updates back on. This isn’t the first time there’s been a big bug in Access or Office and it won’t be the last.

  14. S H A (Kim) Hollingshead

    The trouble is that as a self-taught Access user 20 years ago I took MS at their word that Access was a user-friendly system that even I could use. I have done so and have added to my database over that time. The loss of easy access (small ‘a’) to my data a a great worry an code-based ‘fixes’/’workarounds’ don’t mean a thing to me. The whole idea was to make the base-level use of Access available to all. MS has really lost its way.

  15. David Nealey

    You have to understand their motivation. In this era of everything being for the cloud, desktop/workgroup users are not the focus.

    I suspect that they spent months working on developing Salesforce and Dynamics connectors. That is great for Access users in large companies. I could have used the Salesforce connector in 2016 on a contract if I had had Access 2016, but my client was using Access 2007 even though it was a Fortune 500 company. They don’t understand that some of the companies that use Salesforce are still using Office 2007 and 2010. I can see getting ready for Access 2020 in 2017 but if many of the Access users abandon the program, who will be here to develop the next generation of business applications? There are millions of Access applications in both the public and private sectors for good reason, it is easy to learn and use, and it does not require IT (with some exceptions). Small businesses don’t need Salesforce because there are very useful Access-based CRMs on the market in the US and Germany. And many don’t need cloud except for O365.

    Great conversation! I learned a few things about using the mouse events.

  16. Walter Whitman Moore

    Thank you!!!
    I just installed Access on my Mac using Parallels, and just started using it, and thought, “Well, this sucks.”
    I appreciate your taking the time to help!

  17. ACSTech

    I believe this is now fixed. Can other people check and see if this is resolved for them? I have looked at the Windows and Office updates going back a month and do not see this explicitly mentioned, though. Maybe a stealth fix?

    1. Daniel Pineault Post author

      There has been a fix for a while, but it depends on what update channel your Office installation is configured to use which dictates if that update has been rolled out to your system yet, or not.

  18. Tom Bates

    Just another data point. I am using version 1811 and I see the mouse issue. I cannot scroll with the mouse wheel when looking at a long, pretty-printed SQL query.

  19. JN

    I have Access build 1812 and I seem to have the scroll wheel problem (well: scrolling via mouse wheel, in Access and nowhere else, is *almost* completely broken). Still, Access is so involved I suppose that it could somehow be user error on my part.