how to remove reference library

Question

hi

We just got upgraded to office 2016. After upgrade, our access 2003 crashed, not being able to open at all. I checked around and realised the the reference library is pointing to "Microsoft Access 16.0 Object Library". Was not able to see "Microsoft Access Library 11.0 Object Library". 

Tried to remove the reference but could not, saying something is referencing it. I opened a new blank database, no tables, forms, reports etc. Tried to unreference it but wasn't able to do it. 

Someone says that it will corrupt other users with mde for their front end. Please help before it does more damage.

How to I fix this issue?

Thank you in advance

Richard

Answer 1

I'm assuming you reinstalled Access 2003? If so, then you may have had troubles with that installation. Try removing it again, reboot the machine, and then try to reference the correct libraries.

Remaking your references in Access 2003 won't have any impact on users running a .mde file you've already deployed. It may have an impact on any files you will deploy from this point forward, however.

In situations like this, where you have mismatched versions of Office products, it often best to use a virtual machine setup to run the odd program (like Access, in this case). Mismatched Office products tend to behave poorly together, especially with newer Office editions.

Answer 2

hi scott, many thanks for the advice. repaired office and returned to normal

Answer 3

I repaired office 2003, and all is well. Many thanks for your help.

Answer 4

First, when you say "our Access 2003 crashed", do you mean trying to run the app under Access 2003 or an app created with Access 2003? 

If you opened an app in 2016 and did anything that might have affected design, you could have corrupted the app for users of older versions. You should also use the lowest version your users have for development. 

On the other hand an mde shouldn't have been affected. However, if you try to make an mde from the mdb it may cause a problem. 

Do you have a backup of the front end? If so, I would redeploy from the backup. 

One other way to fix it, is to open in 2003 then browse to find the 2003 (in your Office11 folder) version of the library and add that as a reference. But I would do that only as a last resort.