Justin came across your question, I needed something like this as well found something on the internet, It does seem to work but I would not be able to explain all the code so use at your own risk.

To create a timer event in Microsoft Access that shuts down the database if there is no activity for 10 minutes, you can follow these steps:
Open your Access database and open the form you want to monitor for activity.
Switch to the form's design view.

In the VBA editor, for the form insert the following code:

CODE-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Private lastActivityTime As Date
Private Const inactivityTimeout As Integer = 10 ' Timeout value in minutes

Private Sub Form_Timer()
    ' Check if the form has had any activity
    If DateDiff("n", lastActivityTime, Now) > inactivityTimeout Then
        ' No activity for the specified timeout, close the database
        DoCmd.Quit acQuitSaveNone
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub Form_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
    ' Update the last activity time when the form is clicked or the mouse is moved
    lastActivityTime = Now
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
    ' Initialize the last activity time when the form is loaded
    lastActivityTime = Now
    Me.TimerInterval = 60000 * 10 ' Set the timer interval to 10 minutes (60000 milliseconds * 10)
End Sub

CODE END ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Save the changes to the form's module and close the VBA editor.
Switch back to the form's design view.
In the form's property sheet, locate the "Timer Interval" property and set its value to 60000. This value represents the timer interval in milliseconds, so 60000 corresponds to 1 minute.

That's it! Now, whenever there is no activity on the form for 10 minutes (as defined by the inactivityTimeout constant), the database will automatically close. The Form_Timer event is triggered every minute, and if the time difference between the last activity and the current time exceeds the timeout value, the DoCmd.Quit command is executed to close the database without saving any changes.

Many thanks! I'll give this a try!

This looks useful. Let's hope Rost makes it the topic of a TechHelp vid (if he'd not already done so).

"Live short, yet prosper"
             -- Mrs. Spock

Brent's method won't work unfortunately, because a form's MouseMove event only runs when you point the mouse to specific spots on the form, such as the record selector or scroll bar.  You can't count on the user to always move the mouse there.

One way to detect user idleness is to create a form specifically for detecting idle user activity in all the forms, instead of having to code this for every single form.

We need to define what idleness means, since different people may have different definitions.  Here is mine: if the *active form* and the *active control* BOTH remain the same for N seconds or minutes, that means the user isn't doing anything.  "Active" means having the focus.  If MyForm1 has the focus, and Textbox1 on the form has the focus, and that remains unchanged for N amount of time, that indicates an idle user -- because a non-idle user would be navigating and changing focus among the controls on the form, and/or changing focus among different forms.  And when idleness is detected, the clock starts ticking, until it reaches the time of expiration, or not.

That is the idea behind this article from Microsoft:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/access/concepts/miscellaneous/detect-user-idle-time-or-inactivity

This is, of course, not a perfect solution, because the user could be typing in the *same* textbox for a long time (such as in a big memo field), and would be treated as an idle user with the method above.

It seems that your idea is like the device chess players use to end their turn. It is activated not by some mechanical assessment of activity on the playboard, but by an independent action of a player to mark his compliance with an agreed upon time allotment standard as well as to invite the opponent to begin their turn.

Naturally this depends on user action: user activity keeps the form active, and idleness starts the "countdown" to close the form.  The difference is that a chess timer clock (to use your analogy) does not reset the time to the beginning when the user resumes activity.

Yes. Your point is well taking. I think I was actually working with the idea that the user takes some action -- say a button press or "parking area" for the mouse cursor -- to trigger a count. Then any subsequent activity (mouse movement, keypress, etc. . .) would be like the little plunge button on a stopwatch. No time measuring until the next deliberate "reset" action. Should the period "time out" then the DB goes dormant -- perhaps a colour change or translucent cover. Then even a password awakening may be a further security step. I can see more than one approach.

You can't rely on the user to "tell" the system he is idle.  The system has to detect user idleness on its own.  If the user has to press a "button" to become idle, he will never be idle, because he may never push the button.  This is the whole point of having an "automated" way to detect idleness.  It needs to work regardless of what the user does -- if the user simply stares at the Access forms but doesn't do a thing, the database will and should shut down.

That makes sense. Why not a simple "no mouse movement" then -- or the automatic time countdown starting after each event triggered on the Form and then out of the loop until the next, say, input?

The user can tab around the form without having to use the mouse.  So the lack of mouse movement doesn't necessarily indicate idleness.  A form can be made without having a single event (i.e. no code).  So you can't count on form events either.  This is not an easy problem to solve, as I mentioned.  Even the workaround from Microsoft that I mentioned earlier doesn't perfectly detect idleness.

Ah. Of course. I often use the tab key to advance the focus to the next input. I am slowly learning the art of "thinking outside the box." Thanks.