Category Archives: MS Access Bugs

Access – Bug – Database is in an ‘Inconsistent State’ or ‘Unrecognized Format’

Software Bug
Current Status (2022-08-07)
I keep getting e-mails and seeing forum questions regarding the status of this problem. Sadly 39+ months, more than 4 years!, after this issue surfaced we are still awaiting action on Microsoft’s behalf. So basically, absolutely nothing has changed and the only option is implementing the DisableLeasing registry hack workaround, or one of the alternate Community Workarounds (see below). There has been no new information provided by Microsoft whatsoever, so we are at a standstill on this front and have been for quite some time now.

I think at this point in time, after more than 3 years, one has to seriously question continuing to use Access back-ends at all!  Maybe even question using Access at all considering the support we are seeing from Microsoft.

The Problem

Recently, the past few weeks, we have been seeing numerous reports of:

  • databases getting repeatedly corrupted
  • databases reporting  “Unrecognized Format” or “Microsoft Access has detected that this database is in an inconsistent state, and will attempt to recover the database …“

and typically these are longstanding databases, that suddenly demonstrate such problems.

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MS Access – Bug – Context Menus Are Gone?!

Software Bug

No, you’re not hallucinating, the context menus have disappeared!

A couple posts started surfacing this week regarding system context menus no longer rendering, see:

Access 2016 Context Menu Problem
Right click not working in Access 2013
Right click on the title bar doesn’t work no more !
Changement du comportement du clic droit dans les formulaires et états avec Access 2016

I immediately forwarded these reports to Microsoft and this evening they advised us that a fix should already be in place! Apparently, one need only shutdown Access and restart it and the issue should resolve itself. Worse case scenario, the fix may need a day to propagate.

If you are still experiencing the issue tomorrow after a shutdown/restart of Access please let me know by posting a comment so I can forward this information to the Access Dev Team.

MS Access – Bug – Record Source and Row Source Changes Not Saving

Software Bug

A new bug with MS Access has surfaced with the latest build (9029.2167) in which SQL Statements used to define a Record Source or Row Source (in forms/reports, combo boxes, listboxes, …) do not get saved after being modified and the user purposely saving the changes.  They just don’t get committed.

There are a couple threads that have popped up relating to this issue, such as:

The Workaround

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MS Access – Bug – Automatic configuration of the current version of Microsoft Access has failed

By all accounts, it appears that Office365/2016 update 9029.2167 is flawed and causing some user to not be able to launch Access at all and instead receive the following error message

Automatic configuration of the current version of Microsoft Access has failed. Your database might not function correctly. This can occur if you do not have the necessary permissions to install Microsoft Access on this computer

In the last week (more now) there have been a whole slew of posts that have appeared on the subject, for instance:

Worse is the fact that this was reported through the Insiders Program back in January!

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Access – Bug – Can’t Automate Toolbar Property

Software Bug

In some cases, especially when trying to upgrade older databases (mdb -> accdb) it becomes useful to automate certain processes instead of having to manually edit every form/report … One aspect that can be very useful to automate is the switch from using a Toolbar to a Ribbon, as Toolbars get relinquished to the Add-in tab which is less than ideal.

In a recent discussion with MVP Alumni Bill Mosca he brought to our attention an issue he was having trying to perform such an update. After some digging and testing, we were indeed able to confirm that there appears to be a bug in VBA with regards to trying to set a value for the Form/Report Toolbar property.

So a line such as the following does not work

Reports("YourReportName").Report.Toolbar = ""
'Or
Reports("YourReportName").Toolbar = ""
'Or
Reports("YourReportName").Report.Toolbar = "YourToolbarName"

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Access – Bug – 1710 Breaks Compatibility with ACCDEs and Access Runtime

It’s been a rough year for the Access Development Team and Updates!  Sadly, Update 1710 is no exception to the rule.

First reported in the Microsoft Answers forum by JDKilmer and now confirmed by the Dev Team, it would appear that update 1710 breaks compatibility between ACCDEs and Access runtime.  Access generates the “unrecognized database” error:

This database is in an unrecognized format.  The database may have been created with a later version of Microsoft Access than the one you are using.  Upgrade your version of Microsoft Access to the current one, then open the database.

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Access – Bug – Maximizing a Hidden Form Unhides It

Software Bug

Well, I’ll admit it is a very particular situation, but I’ve found yet another bug.

I had a specific need to open a form hidden to the user and then maximize it, so I made a call such as

DoCmd.OpenForm "frm_Db_Util_GetInfo", acNormal, , , , acHidden

and then in the form’s Open or Load event I inserted a maximize command, like

DoCmd.Maximize

and low and behold the hidden form was no longer hidden?!

I’ve tried implementing a variety of suggestion from fellow MVPs without much success (but I still have a few left to test, fingers crossed). Should I ever find a workaround, I will post back and share with all.

And yes, I did notify the Access Dev Team.

Access – Bug – AWA Queries only returning 50 records

Software Bug

A new bug has surfaced impacting Microsoft Access Web Applications (AWAs) in which queries only return the first 50-60 records. This is has been confirmed by multiple sources now.

The good news, well sort of, is that fellow MVP George Hepworth found a simple workaround to the problem which is to simply apply a sort. Once you get the query results, apply a ascending or descending sort and all the records show. I know it’s not ideal, but for now, it will have to do until Microsoft fixes whatever it is that they’ve broken.

The original MSDN thread can be found at Access web app queries now being throttled to first 50 records only?

MSCOMCTL.OCX Bug (Treeview, ListView, …)

Software Bug

Just a heads up that there are now numerous reports that the most recent update impacting the MSCOMCTL.OCX actually breaks TreeView, ListViews et al.

First and foremost, Microsoft was advised of the issue and we are all waiting for them to release and update to fix the faulty update.

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