My user is unable to open .mde file I e-mailed him

[elviajero]

They received the mail, saved the file to their hard drive, created a shortcut to it, and dragged the shortcut to their desktop.

When they try to open it, it invokes Access then comes up with an error message "c:\ets\Inventory_be.mdb is not a valid path. Make sure that the path name is spelled correctly and that you are connected to the server on which the file resides."

Number one, c:\ets is where the .mde file was sent *from* on my machine, but is not where he saved it to on his. It's trying to open it from the path it came from instead of the path he saved it to. My user's ODBC SQL driver settings are indeed pointing to this database.

Number two, I did not send a _be.mdb file. I sent a .mde file. I do have files Inventory_be and Inventory.mdb in the same directory c:\ets as the .mde file, but I am certain I sent the .mde file and it shows as .mde on his machine.

Anyone have any ideas? Answers to either question would be welcome. Until I figure this out I can't really e-mail this out to my users.

 

[tlbroadbent]

Does the MDE database link to or refer to
c:\ets\Inventory_be.mdb in any way? Terry

http://members.home.net/tlbroadbent/index.htm

 

[elviajero]

Other than that path being it's point of origin on my machine, no, not that I'm aware of.

The interesting thing is that even if I create a folder c:\ets on his machine and rename the file to exactly what the error message says it can't find, I still get the same message.

Yet if I make a .mde on my own machine it works fine.

 

[elviajero]

Another interesting twist - I marked the folder on my hard drive that I have the database saved to as a shared drive on the network. My user went to it and tried to open the .mde directly from my hard drive. Got the same error message I mentioned above.

One thing I noticed was that when I split the database I didn't accept the default value (see FAQ What is an .mde and why do I need it). The FAQ says to accept the default.

So, my Inventory_be is in the same folder on my hard drive as the .mde and .mdb. I think this has something to do with this error and the inability of my users.

I deleted the _be and tried to split the database again accepting the default this time which was c:\My Documents. Got error message that the database had no tables - so much for that idea.

Tried to physically move the _be file to c:\My Documents. Tried to open the .mde from my machine. Now *I* got the same error message.

I'm coming to the conclusion that I did a really really bad thing when I didn't follow the instructions in the FAQ and I have irreperably screwed the database up to the point of it being unusable by anyone who's not physically at my machine.

 

[elviajero]

Well, I figured it out. I didn't have the Inventory_be file on the client along with the .mde. Both are necessary on the client end after the database has been split. As soon as I moved the _be file to the client machine, it worked fine. One would think I would have been able to figure that out from the error message.

This is the first Access database I've designed by myself since getting out of school. So, I'll try not to feel too stupid and realize I've learned something.

 

[CVigil]

*Buenos Dias*, "Traveler"

I take it that you renamed your back-end database "Inventory_be" to indicate that it was the "Inventory" database's "back-end" (_be)? So you have Inventory_be (no extension???) and Inventory.mdb (no "_fe" added). And when you create the mde from your front end, you wind up with an Inventory.mde.

It just took me a few minutes to read back over the posts of the thread and figure that out, so I thought it worth mentioning for future readers.

And you do seem to have figured out the problem -- Well, if you say you aren't having the problem anymore, then obviously it's fixed ;-) . But to make the problem and solution clearer to other readers now, too, I'll restate them in more general terms without mentioning your specific databases by name ...

The Windows shortcut was never the problem; clearly it pointed to an exisitng Access file, or else Access would never have started. The error message came from Access, indicating that there was a problem in the database which opened up. That database could not find the listed database, so we can safely infer that there was definitely some reference to the listed database.

elviajero's Problem: If you have a database which has links to tables (or code) in another database, *both* databases must be available to the user; to use some common terminology, both the front-end and back-end databases must be available to the user. And "available", in the case of back-end databases, means that the references in the front end must actually point to the place where the back-end database resides.

The back end database will not be "available" if the system can't find the path specified as its location or if the system can't find a file with the specified name at the specified location (path). To see the path and name specified for a table link, you can open the table link *in Design View* and click View|Properties on the menu bar. In the Description field, you will see the path and name of the database where Access will look for the table.

When you make a copy of a database or move a database, those references (paths and filenames) aren't affected. They stay the same. So when you mail a copy of a database to someone else, they'll have to have any referenced databases at the end of the same paths. In the case of linked tables, whether the path in either or both cases uses a mapped drive letter is irrelevant so long as the paths match. (At least in Access 97, using Tools|References in a VBA module to include code from another database causes other problems; you can use a mapped drive to specify the file location in the dialog, but Access immediatley translates a mapped drive letter into an absolute path. It doesn't remember the mapped drive letter at all.)

A database not referenced by anything can be put anywhere, but a database referenced by something else (shortcut, database, whatever) had best be where the something else thinks it is .

If you think things are okay, but Access says it can't find a file, you can check these things (and probably others):

A) A network drive mapping might not be correct.

B) A network connection might be down.

C) A directory or file name might be misspelled.

D) The path may exist, but the file might not be there.

E) (If the file is on a local drive) A local drive might be down -- C Vigil =)
(Before becoming a member, I also signed on several posts as
"JustPassingThru" and "QuickieBoy" -- as in "Giving Quick Answers&quot

 

[DavetheGolfer]

I had this problem and found out that the entire path including c: and all subdirectories and the file name with extension can not exceed a certain number of characters. I don't recall the exact number but I believe that it is around 40 or so.

 

[tlbroadbent]

CVigil and DaveTheGolfer,

You replied to a thread that is 20 months old. Terry L. Broadbent - DBA
Computing Links:

http://tlbroadbent.home.attbi.com/prog.htm

faq183-874 contains "Suggestions for Getting Quick and Appropriate Answers" to your questions.

 

[CVigil]

Sure we replied to a very old thread. Because we read a very old thread .

Speaking at least for myself, I actually replied to it because I wanted to clarify for other future readers some points that weren't immediately obvious when I first read through the posts in the thread. The facts that the thread is old and that elviajero already got his answer don't affect the facts that the thread could still answer the same or similar questions for someone else, or be interesting to someone else.

I was actually posting for the benefit of future readers, rather than for the benefit of the original or other previous posters; my questions above were rhetorical in nature. I didn't expect a response.

(That's the point behind *archiving* these questions & answers, of course, preserving the information for future readers as well as for the original correspondents . I don't think I've posted a question yet, but I've found lots of useful info already posted in the forums.)

Using the names found at the top of the posts is, in part, my way of making reference to the posts to which I am responding, as much as addressing the posters directly. I've found that posts I've read in multiple-respondent threads are clearer when they indicate which posts they are responding to, especially when they respond to other-than-the-most-recent by the time they actually appear in the thread (posts can even appear in a thread between the time one opens the thread and the time one submits a response.)

*In case* you pointed out this thread's age because you don't want to get notified about very old threads, you can turn off e-mail notification on individual threads when you've lost interest in them. Then you won't be bothered by them again. I've seen your posts throughout the forums I frequent, tlbroadbent, and benefited from them (thanks for sharing!). So I realise you must know about that feature, but it's worth pointing out again in case you just don't want to read additions to old threads.

So I think I've answered both of the reasons I can think of for pointing out the thread's age: "Who are you writing to/Why bother, after all this time?" and "I prefer not to hear about additions to old threads."

Frankly, if your post and this one both went away, this thread would be fine, but I figured it would be polite to respond to your point since you brought it up. See you around the forums .
-- C Vigil =)
(Before becoming a member, I also signed on several posts as
"JustPassingThru" and "QuickieBoy" -- as in "Giving Quick Answers&quot

 

[tlbroadbent]

CVigil,

My point was simple. Some people post to threads without realizing the age of the thread. This happens with newbies more than veteran forum members. Just trying to be helpful. I'll try to avoid policing the forums in the future. Terry L. Broadbent - DBA
Computing Links:

http://tlbroadbent.home.attbi.com/prog.htm

faq183-874 contains "Suggestions for Getting Quick and Appropriate Answers" to your questions.

 

[CVigil]

tlbroadbent, there aren't, and weren't, any problems . I'm still smiling as I type this. Again, I just didn't know *why* you were pointing out the age -- limitations of the written word, and brevity. Your stated reason seems to fall under the umbrella of the first of the two reasons I thought of. I can't speak for DaveTheGolfer; I don't usually miss a post's age (of course I do sometimes), but I do often post to old threads knowingly if I think I can make them more useful for future readers. I don't generally, in old threads, ask questions to which I'd want a reply -- just assuming that the same people probably aren't paying attention to the thread any more, after whatever amount of time has gone by.

And you don't need to avoid "policing the forums" , tlbroadbent. You weren't yelling at us or being mean, and you weren't upset. You were just trying to be helpful, letting us know, "Hi, guys. This thread is 20 months old, by the way ... just in case you thought you were going to be helping a timely issue or get replies from the original folks, stuff like that." You didn't type what I added after the ellipses (...). So we couldn't why you were communicating a simple piece of information: "The thread is 20 months old.". So I guessed and responded to what I thought *might* (or might not) be possible reasons. But it could have been a helpful note, so I don't discourage it. If you add the "why", it's more useful, letting someone know how to take it and giving them a better chance to respond appropriately. (People just awaiting-to-flame are a different matter, of course, having decided in advance how to take near everything ;-) . But at least we can tell them in advance how we meant to be taken.)

I just don't think that (knowingly) posting to old threads is, ummm, bad in any way. Expecting a reply from people attending the thread a while back might be pointless, but offering late help is still potentially useful to them and to the community. With Tek-Tips' search features, even the oldest posts are still likely to be read by someone new to the thread when they are found by topic/keyword. That's how I found this thread, trying to see if anyone already knows how to programmatically create an MDE *without getting the manual prompts* (before deciding whether or not to post the question myself). This thread came up in my search results and -- while not addressing my need -- is still interesting reading, and interesting enough to have just restated and eloaborated on the last post I'd found. (Not new info really, but making the same info clearer to save someone else the thinking I had had to do ;-) .)

Cool, have a good one my new friend, and I know I'll continue to "see" you around the forums .
-- C Vigil =)
(Before becoming a member, I also signed on several posts as
"JustPassingThru" and "QuickieBoy" -- as in "Giving Quick Answers&quot