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About choosing a record-locking strategy in an Access database in a multiuser environment

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This content is no longer actively maintained. It is provided as is, for anyone who may still be using these technologies, with no warranties or claims of accuracy with regard to the most recent product version or service release.

When you edit a record, Microsoft Access can automatically prevent other users from changing the record before you have finished editing it.

Giving one user exclusive access to a record is called locking. There are three locking strategies to choose from:

  • No Locks Microsoft Access does not lock the record you're editing. When you try to save changes to a record that another person has also changed, Microsoft Access displays a message giving you the options of overwriting the other user's changes to the record, copying your version of the record to the Clipboard, or discarding your changes. This strategy ensures that records can always be edited, but it can create editing conflicts between users.

  • Edited Records Microsoft Access locks the record you're editing, so no other user can change it. It might also lock other records that are stored nearby on your disk. If another user tries to edit a record that you've locked, Microsoft Access displays the locked record indicator aa172263(v=office.10).md in the other user's datasheet. This strategy ensures that you can always finish making changes that you start. It is a good choice if you don't have editing conflicts often.

  • All Records Microsoft Access locks all records in the form or datasheet (and underlying tables) you're editing for the entire time you have it open, so no one else can edit or lock the records. This strategy is very restrictive, so choose it only when you know you're the only person who needs to edit records at any one time.

For information on specifying one of these options, click aa218890(v=office.10).md.

Note   When you edit data in a linked SQL database table by using ODBC, Microsoft Access doesn't lock records; instead, the rules of that SQL database govern locking. In this instance, regardless of the record-locking setting you choose for your database, Microsoft Access always acts as though the No Locks setting has been selected.