ACC2000: Running a Delete Query or Clicking Select All Records and Then Clicking Delete May Not Delete All Records (241969)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Access 2000
This article was previously published under Q241969
Advanced: Requires expert coding, interoperability, and multiuser skills.

This article applies only to a Microsoft Access database (.mdb).

SYMPTOMS

When you run a delete query, or when you open a table in Datasheet view, click Select All Records on the Edit menu, and then click Delete on the Edit menu, you may receive the following message:

You won't be able to undo this delete operation. The undo command won't be available because this operation is too large, or there isn't enough free memory. Do you want to delete these items?

When you click Yes, all records may not be deleted from the table.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a (SR-1/SR-1a).

To obtain SR-1/SR-1a, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

245025 OFF2000: How to Obtain and Install Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a (SR-1/SR-1a)

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1/SR-1a.

MORE INFORMATION

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

  1. Make a copy of the Order Details table in the sample database Northwind.mdb. Be sure to copy structure and data. Name the new table Order Details Copy. Remove the primary key from the table to allow the append query to run successfully. There are 2,155 records in the Order Details table in the original Northwind.mdb file.
  2. Create an append query and run it two times to append a total of 4,310 records to Order Details Copy table. At this point there should be a total of 6,465 records in the new table.
  3. WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

    NOTE: Before you complete the next step, make a note of the current value in the MaxLocksPerFile key before you change the value so that you can restore the initial value at the end of these steps.

    Set the value in the following registry key

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Jet 4.0\MaxLocksPerFile

    to a decimal value of 5,000.

    IMPORTANT: You must restart Microsoft Access after making this change.
  4. Open the Order Details Copy table in Datasheet view, hold down the CTRL key and press the A key to select all the records, and then click Delete.

    The behavior described in this article occurs only when you see the "You won't be able to undo this delete operation" warning. When prompted with this warning, click Yes.
  5. You are prompted with the following message:

    Do you want to suppress further error messages.

    Click either Yes or No; it won't change the results.

    With these actions, you would expect all records to be deleted from the table. When the delete operation is completed, however, the table still has one or more records remaining. As you lower the value for MaxLocksPerFile, the number of records remaining in the table is increased.
  6. Set the value in the following registry key

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Jet 4.0\MaxLocksPerFile

    back to the value that you noted in step 3.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/25/2002
Keywords:kbbug KB241969
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.