FE app won't open because path to BE has changed

Question

I'm not a programmer but I play one at work. Seriously. I work for a small custom cabinet company and 20 years ago or so I used MS Access 97 to create a program to track all of ours jobs through the different stages of assembly and installation.

I put all of the forms and queries in one database (Frontend) and all the data tables in another database (Backend).

At some point years ago the system crashed and the frontend still worked but I was unable to open it in design mode to make changes. I had originally set the FE up with users and passwords but that stopped working and I think that is why I can't open it in design mode...

We recently bought a copy of MSAccess2016 and I copied the FE and BE to my laptop and brought them home to recreate the FE.

I would really like to recover those forms and queries so I don't have to relearn/recreate them all over again.

The problem I have right this minute is the when I try to open the FE it is still pointing to the BE data tables on our network at the office and since that path doesn't exist here at home...

Is there a way to open the open the FE with a parameter giving it a new path to the BE?

Any help (or even pity) would be appreciated at this time.

Answer 1

I f you hold down the shift key while opening the front end it should open while by-passing the start up options. You can then use the built in linked table manager to refresh the links to the new back end location. Alternatively take a look at Refresh.zip in my public databases folder at:

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=44CC60D7FEA42912&id=44CC60D7FEA42912!169

In the zip archive the RefreshLinksSingle_07.accdb file includes a frmUpdate_Links form, which you can copy into your database, along with the basBrowse module, as a simple alternative to the linked table manager.