Sorry Matthew, but I don't understand. Can you walk me through it step by step? What do you mean by "close to make a backup copy?" Are you saying that when you shut the database down and restart it, your combo box doesn't have any values in it? I'm confused.

when i built the combo box originally and drop down the list and I type a b for example it goes to the first item in the list that starts with the letter b.
but when I close the database down . and then reopen the form to add records and start typing in the combo box i have to scroll to b (does not jump to the first b when I enter it in the box).

That's very strange. I've never seen this behavior before. Of course, first run down the Access Troubleshooter and see if it's something that might have been fixed by an Office Update. Could be a bug. I could see if you were having this problem after you add records to the form that the combo box is on (maybe in the header) and then those new records aren't updating in the combo box because you need to requery it. But what you're describing is just weird. When you close and reopen the database, and open that form, the list of values in that box should repopulate automatically. I couldn't tell without looking at your database. If you want to send it to me, see my Consulting page.