Connected App same realm

I have an Employee database and a database that houses all our company records,

These two apps were connected years ago and worked great. I used it for two fields -two  sale rep field that was connected.    I copied over the database to start a new company. Some roles can not see these two fields. Even though i opened up all permissions on the table where the fields were being used. 

When I tested the role on my end it showed that they could use it, but user continued to show me proof that they could not. It was greyed out or the drop down was blank.

I tried all sorts of things, even removed her user and gave her a new role. Nothing. I was going to go live in a day and couldn't get these two fields to work and went into a different direction - QB would not help because of the two apps connected. said it was beyond their scoop of help and I should upgrade to get better tech support -hahahah ( which I eventually did) waste of money and i am only 3 days into this new package but that is another story.

I started to use another table that was connected with quickbase connect for another project. however that has since bitten me, because when we remove an employee from the database because they quit or got fired ( we have lots of turnover) it removes their name from ALL tables. We can not have missing data and I was told this will always happen. 

So I am back to the orinal problem. trying to get these two fields to work on other users roles. Which will cause a great deal of work for me changing hundreds for reports with those two fields. Reports that go out automatically ever day. I have no other choice. 

So I have looked at the field permissions on each field - they are open wide - no restrictions. I can't even get a couple of the related fields to show on the form on the other role 

What the hell am I missing. I don't know what else to check if all permissions are full on the role and no restrictions on the field it's self - what else?

sorry for the long post 

When I