Hi Jim,

Thank you for the input. It's good to review the documentation.

From the VFP command line I opened an initial copy of the .DBF permitting updating and a second copy AGAIN NOUPDATE under a different alias. As one would expect the first can be written to and the second cannot. Apparently the second copy inherits any limitations of the first but the second may be further restricted.

For whatever reason I am not seeing this "pattern" in our application. Of course in an actual application who knows how many other things could come into play and interact? Still investigating. Thanks.

Spence