This forum may not be the best for pure Access applications. Most people who post here are working with SQL Server back-ends so they aren't that conversant with strictly Access applications. If I'm not able to assist you, I can suggest some other forums that may be able to.

This is probably a long shot, but is it possible that macros are being blocked by Access? There is option under the Trust Center that will do that. Also, Activation may not be the best choice for doing the refresh - OnCurrent may be a better choice. Unfortunately it does have more overhead. I frankly almost never use macros in Access because of the limited ability to debug them. If neither of those possibilities helps, can you post a sanitized and shrunken database that demonstrates the problem - be sure to compact it and then zip it.