layer merge

I am trying to merge two layers on a drawing (that came from someone else). I can go through all the steps and it even gives me the warning right before the merge. However, when complete nothing has merged. I have checked that all layers are unlocked. I have tried it on other layers that I didn't even want to merge and I have created new layers, placed geometry and tried to merge them. Nothing happens.

I opened a new drawing, created layers and geometry and the layer merge works fine. Is there some generic lock that could have been placed on the drawing to prevent layer merging.

I do have the ability to highlight objects and move them to a different layer in this drawing, but then purge will not delete the layer. And it doesn't seem to matter whether the object is a block or pure geometry. Sorry for the long narrative...just trying to give as much info as possible

Just one question:

The initial layer that you are trying to merge from, is that layer set to be current ?

It originally was not, although I tried both ways.

I have problems like this frequently when receiveing drawings from customers created in different Autocad versions.

I usually copy and paste the drawing into a "fresh" drawing started from scratch in my version of Acad, and the problems usually correct themselves. Give it a try.