Not sure how many versions are affected, but I see similar behavior on my beta machine:
Win 11 Home Insider Preview build 29648.1000 - 260807-1623
Microsoft(R) Access(R) for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2610 Build 16.0.20515.20000) 64-bit

Donald Ouch. Thanks for posting, much appreciated.

(And to edit my original post's grammar wince: OS its running on --> OS it's running on.)

Yeah, this definitely looks like the Option Group Wizard itself is misbehaving. I went back and checked the lesson, and at that point the wizard should display the Option Values page normally, followed by the page where you select which field will store the value. If that grid is showing up on the wrong page and covering the controls underneath it, that's not normal behavior.

Donald's seeing something similar on a newer Insider build too, so I'm leaning toward this being an Access wizard/display issue rather than something specific you're doing wrong. I haven't found anything from Microsoft confirming this exact problem yet, though, so I don't want to call it a known Access 2021 bug just yet.

As a quick test, try creating a brand-new blank database with a simple table containing an AutoNumber ID and a Number field. Make a form and try creating an Option Group there. If the wizard is messed up in the new database too, that strongly points toward the Access installation/build rather than your database. If it works correctly there, then I'd try a Compact & Repair on your original database, and possibly import everything into a fresh database if necessary.

You can also completely bypass the wizard. Turn Control Wizards off, add the Option Group manually, add your Option Buttons inside it, set each button's Option Value property, and set the Option Group frame's Control Source to the field where you want the value stored. That's ultimately all the wizard is doing for you anyway.

As for the "Record is deleted" message, that's definitely not something the Option Group Wizard should normally be producing. Since the wizard UI is already obviously malfunctioning, I'd first see whether that error also disappears when you test this in a clean database.

Let us know what happens with the blank database test. That should tell us quite a bit.

Just tested again on another beta machine:
Microsoft(R) Access(R) for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2610 Build 16.0.20515.20000) 64-bit running on Windows 11 25H2  build 26200.9457

An image of the option dialog where you're supposed to be able to enter values to follow

Richard Thanks for posting! I did the test table and form as you described.

(FWIW, I didn't customize any options -- e.g. I left the database's document window option in the default Tabbed Documents mode.)

I put 5 records into the table, assigning values either -1, 0, or 1 to the Number field.

Running the wizard, the option assignment screen appears exactly as Donald has kindly posted above -- no assignment datasheet.

As before, the missing assignment datasheet appears in the next step, covering the radio buttons that select what to do with the value. That stray datasheet can't be moved out of the way, but it can be used to assign values to the radio buttons as it was intended.

However, in this bare bones test, when the wizard ends, the "Record is deleted" popup did not appear.

Ha! New info: I added a second Option Group (in order to take a screenshot of the stray assignment datasheet) and guess what? When the wizard finished, this time the "Record is deleted" popup popped up!

I just checked, and all 5 records in the table are still present.

Thanks, Constance. That pretty much confirms this is not anything in your database. The fact that it happens in a brand-new test database, and Donald can reproduce the misplaced grid on a current Microsoft 365 Insider build, makes this look like an Access Option Group Wizard bug.

The fact that the "Record is deleted" message appears after adding the second Option Group, yet all five table records remain intact, is especially telling. I think the wizard is likely doing some internal cleanup involving one of its temporary records or objects, then incorrectly displaying that generic message. Annoying and confusing, but it does not appear to be deleting one of your actual table records.

At this point, I would treat the wizard as unreliable on that build. You can still use it if you can work around the misplaced grid, but honestly I would probably just create the Option Group manually or build the first one and then copy/paste/edit the Option Buttons as needed. Once the controls are on the form, the wizard is no longer involved.

Donald, thanks for testing and posting the screenshot. It is helpful to know this is occurring on a completely different machine and Access channel too.

Thanks, Constance. I did a little more digging into this, and it definitely appears to be an Access bug rather than anything specific to your database.

The important part is that Donald was able to reproduce the misplaced Option Values grid on Access 365 Version 2610 Build 20515.20000, and you're seeing the same basic behavior in Access 2021. Between that and your clean-database test, we've got a pretty solid reproducible case.

I haven't found an official Microsoft acknowledgment of this exact issue yet, so I'm going to report it to the Access MVP team and see if anyone there is already aware of it or can get it in front of the right people at Microsoft.

Thanks again to both of you for testing and documenting it. This is exactly the kind of information that makes a bug report useful.

Richard Excellent! *Thank you* for reporting this to your MVP team.

Donald, *thank you* for confirming and documenting this issue.

Yes, I agree, reproducible bugs have a much better chance of getting fixes. I'm crossing fingers on this one.