Hi Rob, tried taking a copy of the database to a new folder, creating new project and running the code but still get the "cannot open database etc".

Looks like a doozy mate. Not a problem and I appreciate your efforts. if you want to walk away from this one I can't fault you! if wev'e hit the end of the road could you do me one last huge favour? please could you configure the code toi sit behind an Access form and I'll just run a form with no ingress to the database for the user. When I say code I'm referring to the copying object and re-naming, saving etc.

Cheers, Lol