Too many controls??

[apryor]

I have a form in my Access database that after trying to add another field to it today, I get the error "Microsoft Access can't create any more controls on this form or report."

I'm guessing I reached some type of limit that I was not aware of. How can I get around this?

 

[Mile-O]

There's a limit of about 750 controls on a form. If you have anywhere near that many controls then there is something very very very wrong with your table structure.

 

[apryor]

I'm not even close to 750. Is there a way to fix this? Reset a counter, etc?

 

[Mile-O]

Try compacting and repairing (Tools menu) your database.

 

[apryor]

Tried that, but no luck. Can I go in and manually change something?

 

[Mile-O]

I've never seen this problem before. Another thing to try is to create a new database and import all the objects from the old one into it.

 

[apryor]

Think I found a way around it. I copied the form and pasted it with a new name, deleted the original, then renamed the copied version with the previous name.

After opening this form in Design view, I was able to add a new control. Thanks for you help.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

I read something about this sort of problem somewhere. I am a bit Woolly on it, my recollection is that if you add controls to a form, and then delete them, they still remain in the collection, so if you're not careful, if you add lots of controls to a form, and then delete them, you can reach the limit, but only apparently have a few controls on the form.

That is my recollection of the problem, I don't know how much truth there is to it, I can't believe that somebody could add and delete that many controls!

I would be interested to know if my recollection is correct, or some sort of drug Induced delusion.

 

[apryor]

That makes sense to me.

Although in my case, I can't imagine that 750 controls were added to this form since its recent creation, but I did delete and re-add things a few times.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Well then, it might be worth an experiment! Who's up for it?

 

[boblarson]

According to my Access (2K3) help file, a form can have 754 controls over the life of the form.

So, copying the form and then deleting the old one, might be fine. Otherwise, you would need to import everything into a clean database.