This error can suddenly arise in a Microsoft Access database that has been in day to day use without problems for some time. This is a rare error in current versions of Microsoft Access, but began to appear in Access 2000.

The symptom is someone tries to open the database and it won't open and instead displays this message. If you check around and it appears no one has the database open and yet there is still a lock file for the database. (When a Microsoft Access database is opened, Access creates a small, 1 KB file in the same folder as the database itself with the same name but an extension of LDB instead of MDB. The LDB file should go away of its own when the last user shuts the database.)

Microsoft Access is inherently multi-user, and inherently handles multiple users entering data at the same time. This is not a normal problem of two people trying to edit the same record at the same time (which can also cause a conflict, but one that Access can typically resolve without locking the entire database).

Some odd conditions can cause the error described here. One is opening and then immediately closing the database very quickly, like you started to do some work in it, but immediately thought better of it. If you do change your mind about doing a bit of database work, please wait until the database has fully loaded, gone to the main menu, and settled down before closing it again.

Another condition could be from something like the opposite: opening the database, from the menu opening a main form that has tabs and sub forms on it (which is typical), and leaving it open and going away. If you are the only person in the database and have certain versions of Microsoft Office/Access, you may generate this error. It is important to close the database or at least close the data collection forms back to the main menu before walking away for lunch or at night.

(These errors could also be causes by the database designer not properly configuring Microsoft Access Workgroup Security. This will not usually be the problem from a Database Designs Access database since we at Database Designs rarely use workgroup security; we handle typical database user roles in other ways.)

To resolve this error, ideally you should be able to identify which computer has locked the database from the error message. It should reference a Windows computer name. Some offices stick with the default and not very descriptive computer names that Windows by default installs with; some offices give meaningful names. Either way, the network administrator should maintain a list of where each computer is.

If you go back to that desk and close the database, reopen it and then close it again, that should release the lock. If the database is not open on that desk, open it and close it. And if you can't open it there, try rebooting that computer and opening and closing the database. Along the way, you can try deleting the 1 kb LDB file for the database. Make sure you do not delete the MDB by mistake: make sure you have windows set to display file extensions.

If none of these work, please consult with the network administrator or the database developer. It may be necessary to release the lock from the network server, or otherwise check the condition of the database itself.