diff --git a/idlcr8hdf.pro b/idlcr8hdf.pro
index 66c24ce20792d22cfe5e4bf8453401714249477e..6a9b434fb4e249c734a0ebcb3003fd0f03bc1958 100644
--- a/idlcr8hdf.pro
+++ b/idlcr8hdf.pro
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-;Main Program Version: idlcr8hdf.pro v4.0b67, 20241218
+;Main Program Version: idlcr8hdf.pro v4.0b68, 20250124
 ;  Written by Ian Boyd for the EVDC/AVDC - iboyd@bryanscientific.org
 ;
 ;Sub-versions (refer to idlcr8hdf-v4.0_Readme.pdf for full history)
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ PRO intro, intype
 COMMON WIDGET_WIN
 
 nhdr=44 & errtxt=STRARR(nhdr)
-vertxt=['idlcr8hdf-v4.0_Readme.pdf','v4.0b67 December 2024']
+vertxt=['idlcr8hdf-v4.0_Readme.pdf','v4.0b68 January 2025']
 errtxt[1]='Welcome to IDLcr8HDF.  This program creates GEOMS compliant HDF4, HDF5 and netCDF files'
 errtxt[2]='(also refer to '+vertxt[0]+').'
 errtxt[4]='Inputs to the program (IDL Virtual Machine (VM) and IDL Licensed (LIC) Versions):'
@@ -5753,6 +5753,9 @@ PRO avdc_nc_write, hdffilename, natts, av, var_depend, var_size
 ;    20161230: Assign a dimension ID to STRING datasets with VAR_DEPEND=CONSTANT so that
 ;              the string length is correctly accounted for (previously only wrote the
 ;              first character of the string) - Version 4.0b41
+;    20250124: Stop pre-defined attributes being written to the file for BYTE datasets
+;              due to issues with the resulting values when trying to read NetCDF3 files
+;              that could not be resolved - Version 4.0b68
 ;
 ;  Inputs: hdffilename - a string holding the name of the netCDF file being created
 ;                        and written to
@@ -5920,7 +5923,9 @@ FOR i=0,nvn-1 DO BEGIN
     ninc=ninc+1 & j=j+1
   ENDWHILE
 
-  IF ndm[i,8] NE 6 THEN BEGIN
+  IF (ndm[i,8] NE 6) AND (ndm[i,8] NE 0) THEN BEGIN
+    ;do not write pre-defined attributes for string and byte datasets to the file 
+    ;(byte restriction added 20250124 due to issues with how the values were written to a NetCDF3 file)
     NCDF_ATTPUT,df_file_id,var_id,'units',vu[i]
     NCDF_ATTPUT,df_file_id,var_id,'valid_range',valid_range
     NCDF_ATTPUT,df_file_id,var_id,'_Fillvalue',fill_value
@@ -6188,7 +6193,7 @@ PRO idlcr8hdf, ga, sds, tav, odir, reterr, H5=o1, AVK=o2, LOG=o4, POPUP=o5, QA=o
 ;
 ;Program documentation, idlcr8hdf-v4.0_Readme.pdf, available from http://avdc.gsfc.nasa.gov.
 ;
-;Program sub-version 4.0b67 (20241218)
+;Program sub-version 4.0b68 (20250124)
 ; ----------
 ;Written by Ian Boyd for the EVDC/AVDC - iboyd@bryanscientific.org
 ;