Can't Edit Design of Forms

Question

I am working with a database that has suddenly stopped allowing anyone to edit certain forms.  Of the 11 forms in the database, only five can be edited in design view.  There are no fields exclusively common to the restricted forms.  Allow Edits is set to "Yes."  Multiple users have tried on multiple computers, but no one has been able to edit the design of these forms.  Attempts were made in both Office 2013 and 2010.  All users are using Windows 7.

When the form is closed after making changes, the box pops up asking if you would like to save the changes.  Clicking "Yes" removes the box, but the form stays open.  The only way to close the form is select "No" to saving the changes.

I was able to replace the forms with a backup from 4 months ago that allows edits, but I would like to figure out what the problem was in first place.  I saved a copy of the problematic database to test and experiment with.

Answer 1

As the database appears to be operating in a multi-user environment, is it split into front and back ends?  If so, is each user opening their own copy of the front end, either on their local machine, or in a location on the system personal to the user?

If the answer to either of the above questions is 'No', then corruption of objects in the database is not surprising.  In a multi-user environment it is imperative that the database be split, for which there is a built in wizard, and that every user be provided with their own front end file, which will include links to the single back end in a location to which all users have full permissions.  The front end can be distributed as .accde files, but the back end should be a .accdb file.  The database administrator, presumably you, should retain a master copy of the front end as a .accdb file in a secure location.

If, on the other hand, the database is split and each users opens a separate front end, then the corruption of the same objects in each copy of the front end would be unusual, to say the least.

Answer 2

Have you done a Compact and Repair on the database? Have you tried a Decompile/Compile? Have you tried saving the form as Text then reimporting them?

Answer 3

Try creating a new blank database and importing everything over.  Then compile your VBA code and compact and repair the database.  Then see how it behaves.