Can't see anything wrong from what you've put so far. Have you tried any other databases on the problem pc?

You could also try pointing it to the absolute path rather than relative (Go into Linked table manager, and change the location of the back end file from S:\MyDBFolder\Database.accdb to \\MyServer\MyDBFolder\Database.accdb). I doubt it'll prove much but it'll rule out an issue with the network shortcut.

Process of elimination. I see you've already tried some of the steps like re-outputting the front end. Keep drilling away until you locate the problem. This might help Troubleshooter

The first thing is to check for hard drive failure on the problematic PC.  The fact that your Access back end is also on this PC is concerning.  A backend is where most of the hard drive activities are, because all the front end PCs connect to it and use its data.  Hence, its hard drive wears out the fastest.  You shouldn't burden that hard drive any further by using another front end on it, or using that PC at all.  PCs with server roles are usually left untouched except for PC maintenance work like backups and stuff.

Hard drives have finite lifespans.  In all my years of computing, hard drives and power supply units failed the most often, no matter the brands.  Hope you have decent backups.

So I changed the location to the absolute path as suggested and as predicted it didn't change anything. So the network shortcut is ruled out.

I guess I left out a bit in my first post.
The computer that the back end is on has two drives. C drive and a data drive D.
The back end is saved on the D drive while the front end is saved on the C drive.

I have programmed the database to create a backup copy of the backend on another external drive, E every time the user exits the database. Is this sufficient for backup?

Does having the backend on the second D drive satisfy the untouched PC used as the server role mentioned?
There is nothing on the D drive but old files that are rarely accessed, Quickbook Backups & now the back end of the database.
This drive was hardly ever accessed except for the Quickbook updates being saved there until I added the back end last week.

By the way, this is my first database, I have no programming or IT experience at all. I worked in HR for 10+ years until we decided to start our own service-based business almost 10 years ago. I have had to figure it all out on my own....I know there are lots of things I don't know and probably have done a lot of things wrong. So I welcome any and all feedback.

Hi Amanda, if you don't have a lot of concurrent users, it may be okay to use your front end on the same PC that has your back end.  As long as you use FE and BE on the same PC, it doesn't matter if they are stored on different drives.  They still take up resources on that same PC -- resources you want to fully dedicate to the BE, if you have lots of concurrent users.  

As I said, you still need to check on the health of the hard drive of the PC that has your BE (and the health of the PC itself).  Also, trying moving the BE to another PC and see if the problem still occurs.

No backup method for Access is adequate, sadly, because you can only backup all data or no data.  Even if you backup once a day, if a catastrophe happens, you may lose a whole day's work.  Backup twice a day, you could lose half a day's of work.  And if you backup several times a day, you disrupt the users.

A proper backup scheme is like the one used in SQL Server, which can backup only the data that have been changed, throughout the day, causing little to no disruption to users.  When a catastrophe occurs, you lose only a few minutes' or an hour's work instead of a whole day's.

Thank you for your reply, Kevin.

I was able to have an IT tech do a remote session with me to see if he could see what was going on. He confirmed as I had suspected, it was something with the software, either Windows or Access. We were able to find that others had the problem in the past by Googling the error from the event viewer. But he didn't have a solution.

As I was gathering build info from each of the three computers to compare them and do more research, I noticed for the first time (the IT guy had missed it too), that the user had signed themself up for the Office Insider program and had the Beta version of Access on their computer. I un-joined the insider program and voila, success! I asked the user probably 15 different times if they had made any changes or updated anything but they could not remember doing anything....now they remember....

I also have a backup button on the main menu of the DB so that after there is a large amount of data entered that the user can create a backup file. Which I realize isn't perfect, there are only a few of us using it so it is good enough for now. I am sure that will change in the future. Unfortunately, I need to learn more SQL before moving to an SQL server.

I really appreciate your time and input. Thanks again.

Hi Amanda, I'm glad you have that portion of the problem sorted out.  That's the downside of Access front ends: they still depend on each individual PC's own idiosyncrasies.  I switched to a web interface early in my career: no front ends on any PC, only web browsers, which are much less dependent on PC idiosyncrasies.  If users install new browsers on their PCs, the web interface will still work.  If they use browsers on smartphones or Mac, it still works.  It is much less headache-inducing.  That's because the web is designed to be platform-independent (mostly).

But I did have control over what applications my users could install or use on their PCs.  Installing apps on their own was usually a no-no for me.  As any admin knows, installing even a single tiny plugin or update into anything has to be thoroughly checked before deploying.  So you simply can't allow users to do that on their own.

Thanks, Kevin. That is definitely next on the agenda and the direction we are headed. Would you mind sharing the web interface you switched to? There are so many, and for someone with no background in programming or IT, it is a bit overwhelming.

I designed my web interface with ASP (now called ASP Classic).  Richard has some courses on ASP, but I don't know if they cover all you need for a full-scale web application.  A web app is like anything you use on the web that accepts user input: online application forms, shopping sites, messaging, forums like this one, etc.

Nowadays it is better to use the newer version of ASP, called ASP.Net.  You need Visual Studio to develop a web app with it.  Yes, it has just as much a learning curve as Access if not more.  But you could task someone to do it.  There should be no shortage of developers who use Visual Studio and ASP.Net since they are the current generation of development tools that Microsoft has been pushing for the last decade or so.  The advantage of a web app is that it doesn't just work in the Windows environment; it is cross-platform as I mentioned.

I was in the same boat as you and had no knowledge of much of these things.  I studied computer science in college, but when I graduated, computer tech advanced so much that it rendered what I had learned obsolete.  So I had to re-learn (and kept learning).  Everyone who works in tech fields knows that it is a lifetime of learning because tech constantly improves and changes.

Just want to add that, yes, you always run the risk of learning something that might be rendered obsolete someday0, and this is no truer than in tech fields.  A friend of mine learned print photography and opened a print shop just as digital photography took over big time and rendered his knowledge and business obsolete.  That's just the way it goes sometimes.  Sometimes you take bets.  To me, a web interface that (1) works on any platform (Windows, Mac, Android, IOS, even Playstation, anything that has a web browser), (2) is a worldwide industry standard, (3) doesn't depend on any company staying in business (if Microsoft, Google, etc. went out of business, the web would still remain), seems like a pretty good bet to build a business on.  In the 90s when I started using Access, it seemed like a sure thing; but now, not so much, as Microsoft clearly has better fish to fry.

I get asked all the time if Access is still going to be around in a year, two years, etc. Made a video about it. Is Microsoft Access Going Away? Bottom line is that I think Access is still going to be here for at least the foreseeable future. However, Kevin makes an excellent point. If you can build a web-based interface for your data, that would service a lot more users in a lot of different locations. So, the choice is ultimately yours. I'm actually working on a utility to take your Access database and create web forms out of it. I hope to have it ready for beta testing soon.

Richard, this sounds fantastic! I'll keep an eye out for it! Let me know if you need help beta testing! :)