Q:

Repeatedly missing Microsoft Office references in Visual Basic

An Access database used by multiple people at my office occasionally flashes several error messages in quick succession and then loses some macro functionality.  The first time it happened, I researched the topic and found a solution - there were missing references in Visual Basic that had to be fixed.  Upon opening the reference list, 4 that were selected all read 'MISSING: Microsoft X 16.0 Object Library' where X is [Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook].  I deselected these references, scrolled down and selected the 15.0 Object Library references.  Things were back to normal, full macro functionality restored. 
However, the references keep reverting back to 16.0 Object Library ones that are still missing.  Sometimes it will be several weeks before I have to replace the missing references with the older version, sometimes it will happen the next day.  It's not a difficult fix at all, but it keeps happening, and most of the other users would not know what to do. 
I have to imagine the problem is persisting because the database is shared across multiple computers in the same office, though I believe all PCs have the same version of Microsoft Office installed.  Any thoughts? 

A:

Despite what you believe, I suspect that someone has a newer version of Office, perhaps Access 2016 or an Office 365 subscription.   I experience this problem at my office, but it is expected since I know that some computers have Access 2016 while I am using Office 2013. 
Creating a separate front-end database is already a best practice for many reason.   It would likely eliminate or reduce such problems with your shared database.   The shared back-end database can be stripped of all code modules and macros that might be dependent on a particular version.   The front-end can then be copied to each client.   As long as the front-end database is distributed (i.e. copied) from a lesser version (i.e. references last set to Office 15.0 for example) to each client, any newer versions of Access will automatically update the references of only its local copy.