Network file path not opening in VBA/MSAccess - vba

Question

I'm using VBA in MS Access, and one of the subs takes a file path in a network, checks if the file exists or not, and write the result of a query on it.
The problem is that when I try to run the code, it gives me error 52 (Bad file name or number). But if I open the network path in windows explorer first, for example, after that the error doesn't happen anymore. Any ideas on what the problem might be?
Here is some of the code I'm running:
fpath = "\\networkpath\file.txt"
DeleteFile fpath
Sub DeleteFile(ByVal FileToDelete As String)
FileExists(FileToDelete) Then
SetAttr FileToDelete, vbNormal
FileToDelete
End If
End Sub
Function FileExists(ByVal FileToTest As String) As Boolean
FileExists = (Dir(FileToTest) <> "") 'this is where the error happens
End Function

Answer 1

Does the UNC path you use contain any non-Ascii characters, like accents? What is the exact path?
None of the file functions in VBA work well with Unicode anyway.
You could try to use the FileSystemObject to achieve the same a bit more reliably than the build-in VBA functions:
Public Function FileExists(filePath as string) as Boolean
Dim o As Object
Set o = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
FileExists = o.FileExists(filePath)
End Function
An alternative using the Win32 API tha works in 32 and 64 bit environments:
Private Const INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES As Long = -1
#If VBA7 Then ' Win API Declarations for 32 and 64 bit versions of Office 2010 and later
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GetFileAttributes Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetFileAttributesW" (ByVal lpFileName As LongPtr) As Long
#Else ' WIN API Declarations for Office 2007
Private Declare Function GetFileAttributes Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetFileAttributesW" (ByVal lpFileName As Long) As Long
#End If
Public Function FileExists(fname As Variant) As Boolean
If IsNull(fname) Or IsEmpty(fname) Then Exit Function
' Make sure that we can take care of paths longer than 260 characters
If Left$(fname, 2) = "\\" Then
FileExists = GetFileAttributes(StrPtr("\\?\UNC" & Mid$(fname, 2))) <> INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES
Else
FileExists = GetFileAttributes(StrPtr("\\?\" & fname)) <> INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES
End If
End Function