It sounds like the situation may be peculiar to the development environment. With a bit of luck, I won't see it at the client site tomorrow. This app doesn't have a data directory because there are no tables, only a DBC of remote views. The app does have a Start_In directory. On my LAN the Start_In directory is also the root of the development "tree" so it also contains a copy of the DBC. What I see happening on my LAN is this: the app loads and opens the correct copy of the DBC but then switches to the DBC in the Start_In directory as the main form loads. There won't be a DBC in the Start_In directory on the client's network so perhaps it will work as you describe.

An earlier version (VFP5?) of this app had a lot of trouble finding its data after the main form had been modified in any other environment -- and it didn't even use a DBC! All data was in 2x-style tables. I do NOT want to reintroduce that problem into the environment.

Just one question about your setup: what is in base.dbc? I'm assuming it's different from views.dbc...