jan001
Board Regular
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2004
- Messages
- 123
I inherited responsibility for a couple of databases about a year and a half ago. The one in question is in Access 2003, and contains +/- 150 records of active projects (as projects are closed, they're moved to a different db, but the last time that happened was the end of September). About 40 people have permission to use the db but only about 7 actually do so as a routine part of their jobs. Each record includes a Notes field where the users enter free text describing the project's progress.
A user (one of the 7 routine every-day users) reported yesterday that one of his records was suddenly missing all the notes he had typed in over the past many months. I opened the record and all that was in the Notes field was a series of about 12 # signs. I had to tell him that I wasn't aware of how the contents of just one field in one record could be deleted and then replaced by Access. He re-entered his notes, and then reported to my boss this morning that the same thing had happened again. (I learned that this afternoon; he didn't come back to me about it.)
My boss had him re-enter his notes again and has asked ITS whether they can tell who was doing what when in the db. I don't expect they'll be able to tell us that since there's no log-in required, hence no audit trail, but it's possible ITS has some kind of log of network activity and MIGHT be able to tell who opened the db and when, but I don't expect even that to be able to say who edited which record in which way.
I've checked the Notes field on the other records in the db and they all appear to be fine.
How like is it, in your opinions, that Access is somehow trashing this one field of this one record? I can't stop suspecting a human hand in this one, although I really hate to think like this, so I'm asking, to be sure. I don't want to stand up and say Access couldn't be responsible (never say never, etc.), until I check with people with more Access expertise than I have.
Thanks.
A user (one of the 7 routine every-day users) reported yesterday that one of his records was suddenly missing all the notes he had typed in over the past many months. I opened the record and all that was in the Notes field was a series of about 12 # signs. I had to tell him that I wasn't aware of how the contents of just one field in one record could be deleted and then replaced by Access. He re-entered his notes, and then reported to my boss this morning that the same thing had happened again. (I learned that this afternoon; he didn't come back to me about it.)
My boss had him re-enter his notes again and has asked ITS whether they can tell who was doing what when in the db. I don't expect they'll be able to tell us that since there's no log-in required, hence no audit trail, but it's possible ITS has some kind of log of network activity and MIGHT be able to tell who opened the db and when, but I don't expect even that to be able to say who edited which record in which way.
I've checked the Notes field on the other records in the db and they all appear to be fine.
How like is it, in your opinions, that Access is somehow trashing this one field of this one record? I can't stop suspecting a human hand in this one, although I really hate to think like this, so I'm asking, to be sure. I don't want to stand up and say Access couldn't be responsible (never say never, etc.), until I check with people with more Access expertise than I have.
Thanks.