Access Random Row Deletion

[Shaggy Hiker]

I have a program that has been working for several years on several computers. I was just informed of a strange error message. After following many dead ends, it was eventually tracked down: A single row in one of the pick list tables which hadn't changed in years, was showing #DELETED for all fields. The DB in question was local to one specific computer. The owner of that computer didn't even know the password for the database, so he couldn't have been tinkering with it, and he wouldn't have anyways. Additionally, nothing in the program ever deletes a row from a pick list table. This strongly suggests that some kind of corruption occured in the table. I have never seen the #DELETED in all fields of a row except in cases of corruption.

I guess what I am looking for is two things:

1) Under what circumstances does the #DELETED thing happen?

2) Are there any odd conditions that I ought to look for that don't have anything to do with any specific program, but are related to Access itself?

I will review my code to make sure there is nothing spurious in there that could delete a row from a pick list, but that should be easy, as it just isn't done. Better yet, a deleted row isn't in the database anymore, it doesn't show up as #DELETED.

[jggtz]

Are You using linked tables?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291546/en-us

Also
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-47.html
http://repairaccess.blogspot.mx/2010...ms-access.html

[Shaggy Hiker]

Interesting stuff. None of it appears to directly apply, but I can't be quite certain. The last article lists a series of potential causes for this issue, and I think I can rule out all but one. On the other hand, the table is linked to a second table that uses a unique ID primary key, and the first link suggests that that could be the source of the problem. However, it has happened only one time in three years across a few dozen installations, so that seem unlikely to be the cause.

It is likely that no specific cause will ever be identified, but those links are suggestive.