Windows Task Scheduler and MS Access 2013 - ms-access

Question

I am trying to utilize windows task scheduler to distribute Access reports to End Users in my company.
All I am doing is triggering a macro that runs code from a module which exports a report to a PDF, prints it out, then exits access.
DoCmd.Quit acQuitSaveNone
That's what I've been using at the end of my code in VBA to close access after running a macro.
When I manually run the macro it works fine, but when scheduled on a task, it gets held up a lot and stuck.
I've checked event viewer to try and find any Microsoft Office alerts but do not see any.
It appears that Access is unable to quit many times when running through Task Scheduler. Would there be a VBS I can run, say, 5 minutes after the task to close down the .accdb file and MSACCESS.EXE or is there something I can do to make these Tasks actually work??
It seems maybe when running in the background through task scheduler.. the code is getting ahead of itself and trying to quit at the same instance that it is finishing the output to the printer, causing it to seem "busy" and unable to actually close?
I have an entire domino of code that shoots off after this but it stops dead in its tracks when it cannot finishing closing access.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Ian

Answer 1

Here is the gist of what I would do, I am just addressing the print on open and quit actions. You may need to tweak to ensure that you have validation etc in place.
First, make sure that your report has a default printer specified. (Report design-->Page Setup-->Page-->Use Specific Printer and then select your printer)
Create an Autoexec (auto execute) macro, this macro will be saved with the name Autoexec. Macros named Autoexec executes when Access is opened automatically. Note that once you have this macro, it will run each time you open Access, to prevent it from running, hold down the shift key and then open Access, this bypasses the Autoexec
First action in your Autoexec Macro is OpenReport and set the View to Print (report is printed when opened)
Next action in your Autoexec Macro is QuitAccess with options set to SaveAll.
When you run an application from the scheduler, it runs with different credentials. You want to make sure that you choose the appropriate options here.

Answer 2

Fixed it. Very glad as I've seen many with this issue and hope this gets to them.
If anyone has any issues regarding access macros and task scheduler and this doesn't work - I'll be happy to help as best as I can as the frustration of wanting to remove administrative tasks through automation that don't work out is just terrible.
Since I needed the task scheduler to wake the computer up, log me in, and open access databases on network drives that reference SQL servers.. there was a couple things I had to make sure were set up.
First is trusted locations. Any network drives you are access should probably be in the trusted locations.
Secondly, my last command on the macro is DoCmd.RunCommand.Close (I believe.. if im wrong Ill change tomorrow when I'm back in the office)
Third, use the root path to the network folder and not a mapped drive as they may not map when your logged off... so instead U:\file path... would have to be \computer1\filepath\ etc..
This path should be made with all linked tables or databases among the network especially if you have code calling for those files.
Fourth, I ended up having to do it the less preferred way and have a folder called "accessjobs" where I put shortcuts to Access Macros which triggered code and simply ran that path in task scheduler with "start in:" the folder the macro shortcut is in.
Fifth I had to run with highest privileges, and selected "run whether user is logged on or not"
A couple of these things may be coincidental that they work, but I am not about to spend even more time with trial and error to see which settings are benine as I spent TOOO long figuring this all out. But now it is solved and the sky is the limit now!
Thanks for the help!
Ian