I am trying to keep a copy of an activity table synchronized between a

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Asked: May 24, 20262026-05-24T11:02:53+00:00 2026-05-24T11:02:53+00:00

I am trying to keep a copy of an activity table synchronized between a

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I am trying to keep a copy of an activity table synchronized between a SQL Server Express table and the production Access version. In other tables, I am able to wipe the contents of the SQL Server table, and insert the whole mess back in to capture all of the changes. However, when I attempt to do that with this table – I get the information – but the Autonumber field increments from the last unused number from the previous iteration. After a dozen or so ‘sync’ operations, I am dangerously close to running out of autonumbers for this field.

I have tried issuing the ‘DBCC CHECKIDENT’ from the Microsoft Access front end application, which throws an error that the statement didn’t start with SELECT, DELETE, PROCEDURE, DROP, ALTER or something like that. This command DOES work when issued from the SQL Server management console (a tool I do have access to in the current test environment, but will NOT when the application goes production).

I then tried the ‘TRUNCATE TABLE’ query using the DoCmd.RunSQL command and it threw the error that the operation isn’t supported on linked tables (approximately). This table is linked to the Microsoft Access front-end (the back end table is on SQL Server Express).

So, for a quick summary:

Front End is an Microsoft Access VBA application
Data is stored on SQL Server Express on a remote machine
Data tables are linked in the front end application
I will NOT be able to use SQL Server Management Console commands when this application goes production, it needs to run it’s housekeeping on it’s own.
DoCmd.RunSQL and CurrentDB.Execute do not seem to allow the use of the TRUNCATE TABLE -or- the ‘DBCC CHECKIDENT’ command.
Both of the aforementioned functions -DO- work when issued from the SQL Server Management Console – see above as to why this isn’t a viable option.
-ALL- other tables behave the way I’d expect them to besides this one, resetting their indentity fields as appropriate.

— Edited 08/08/2011 @ 15:08 —

Alright – I have tried a number of attempts at a VBA-based pass-through query, all resulting in an ODBC — call failed error. Here is the code for the module I created to handle pass-throughs (borrowed the code from dbforums.com):

Function RunPassThrough(ByVal ConnectionString As String, ByVal SQL As String, Optional ByVal QueryName As String)

    Dim dbs As DAO.Database
    Dim qdf As DAO.QueryDef

    Set dbs = CurrentDb
    Set qdf = dbs.CreateQueryDef
    With qdf
        .Name = QueryName
        .Connect = ConnectionString
        .SQL = SQL
        .ReturnsRecords = (Len(QueryName) > 0)
        If .ReturnsRecords = False Then
            .Execute
        Else
            If Not IsNull(dbs.QueryDefs(QueryName).Name) Then dbs.QueryDefs.Delete QueryName
            dbs.QueryDefs.Append qdf
        End If
        .Close
    End With
    Set qdf = Nothing
    Set dbs = Nothing

End Function

As such, I need to specify a connection string to the database; all of the following have failed:

strConnect = "ODBC;DRIVER={SQL Server};SERVER=ENV980-067\ENVIRON_TEST;DATABASE=instkeeper_test;Uid=<my username>;Pwd=<my password>;"