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Corruption Notes

Microsoft Access database files can become corrupted from time to time. There are a number of possible reasons for corruption, including network performance issues and outages, computers shutting down unexpectedly, problem installations, and Access bugs, just to name a few. In general, I have found that daily compact and repair of back-end database files using our Application Starter utility works wonders and resolves a lot of corruption issues.

But just in case you HAVE an Access database that is corrupted, or that you suspect MIGHT be corrupted, here is a list of corruption symptoms sorted by error number, and the resoltions I have found that worked for me.

PLEASE NOTE: Always MAKE A BACKUP of your database file before attempting any of the suggested solutions here.

Error Code

Message

Possible Resolution


Search Key was not found in any record.

Compact and repair of back-end may fix this. If not then probably there are some bad records corrupting the table. Look for "chinese" characters in text fields. You can't delete these records unless you temporarily remove the table indexes, delete the records, then replace the indexes afterwards.


The database cannot be opened because the VBA project contained in it cannot be read.

Could be a trusted location issue. Make sure any accde file is opened from a trusted location.

Error -1524

Reserved error (-1524); there is no message for this error

Could be due to a corrupted record in a table or control characters in a text field. Control characters will look like little squares. Corrupted data will look like "chinese" characters in your data fields. Delete the corrupted record to resolve this issue. Also, please be aware that there may be more than one corrupted record.

Error 35

Sub, Function, or Property not defined

An Access installation repair fixed this problem.

Error 459

Object or class does not support the set of events

A decompile will usually fix this.

Error 3001

Invalid Argument

Could be a corrupted record. Find table with the problem record. It will have "ERROR" in many fields, or "chinese" characters. Compact and repair database. Now the record can be deleted. It will have lots of "##########"'s in it instead of the junk that was there before.

Error 3049

Cannot open database ''. It may not be a database that your application recognizes, or the file may be corrupt.

A compact and repair of the FRONT-END database file using Access 2007 may fix this problem.

Error 3070

Cannot modify the design of table ''. It is in a read-only database.

Could be due to a corrupted record in a table or control characters in a text field. Control characters will look like little squares. Corrupted data will look like "chinese" characters in your data fields. Delete the corrupted record to resolve this issue. Also, please be aware that there may be more than one corrupted record.

Error 3071

This expression is typed incorrectly, or it is too complex to be evaluated. For example, a numeric expression may contain too many complicated elements. Try simplifying the expression by assigning parts of the expression to variables.

A compact and repair of the data back-end should resolve this.
Error 3343 Unrecognized database format ''. A compact and repair of the database file should resolve this.

Error 3799

The field '' was not found. Could not find field ''.

Occurred when compacting a database on a drive with little space left on it. Freed up space, did a defrag, and then compact and repair worked and error was resolved.


If the error you are seeing is not in this list, please see our page on How to Fix Mysterious Errors.