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Forum Discussion
Database reference links don't work for other people accessing them
I have an access database and a set of excel files. The database links to the Excel files for data to feed the database. The output from the database is via an Excel file that links back to the database.
It all works when I use it but the file references don't work for colleagues.
The links are in the form C:\Users\petes\ then the drop box details.
With a server I can replace the C: drive letter with the server name and share \\server\share however I don't appear to be able to do the same with dropbox.
the suggested answer is to make the drives the same on all the computers that use it.
So I would have to set my dropbox to be something generic C:\Databases\xxxx
4 Replies
- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey Stanners, thanks for reaching out to us.
The situation here is that in Excel, you can create links in a workbook to another workbook or file on your computer using a formula that references an external location.
When this link is created, it points to a location on your own hard drive.
When your workbook is downloaded onto another's computer, the locations that your formula points to are no longer there and it's why other users cannot access the reference links.
You can learn more about this here.
While we don't provide support for this, we suggest perhaps using wildcards in your formulas.
Wildcards, such as "%HOMEPATH%”, if other users have the Dropbox folder located in the default location, would let you point to a location without having to worry about different usernames in the path.
I hope this helps, but if you need anything else, let us know.
So in my case
I swap C:\Users\petes\
for %HOMEPATH%
This doesn't work \\%HOMEPATH%\Daimon Barber Dropbox\A1 DB SharedFolder
Is this the correct format?
for
Here is my link from the Excel file
DataFormat.Error: 'C:\Users\louis\Daimon Barber Dropbox\A1 DB SharedFolder\Costing_Pricing\Product Costs\BOMDatabase\BackOrders.xlsx' is not a valid path. Make sure that the path name is spelled correctly and that you are connected to the server on which the file resides.
Details:
Stock_V1.accdbC:\Users\louis on Louis
C:\Users\petes on my computer
How do I use the %HOMEPATH% to replace these
- Rich
Super User II
Stanners wrote:
This doesn't work \\%HOMEPATH%\Daimon Barber Dropbox\A1 DB SharedFolder
No \\ in the path. Just %HOMEPATH% and then the rest of the path after the username. So %HOMEPATH% would replace C:\Users\username.
But, even that might not work. Office has a bad habit of "helping" by trying to force absolute paths in links. Do a Google search for "Office relative links" and you'll find hundreds of posts spanning nearly two decades trying to resolve this issue, most with mixed results.
Office really expects absolute paths.
