I have an Access database created more than 10 yrs back.
I have very important data in it & I think it can be opened in Access 2007 or earlier version. Currently I have Access 2013 in my desktop and opening the file with this version results in the error "Cannot open a database created with a previous version of your application"
What is the solution for this issue? Is there any place where I can download the earlier version of MS Access?
I've just used Excel 2016 to open Access 2003 tables.
Open a new worksheet
Go to Data tab
Click on "From Access" menu item
Select the database's .mdb file
In the "Data Link Properties" box that opens, switch to the "Provider" tab
Select the "Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider"
Click on Next
Reselect the database's .mdb file (it forgets it when you change Provider)
Click OK
From the Select Table dialogue that appears, choose the table you want to import.
You can use MDB Viewer Plus from http://www.alexnolan.net/software/mdb_viewer_plus.htm to view or edit your old version database
As noted in another answer, the official word from Microsoft is to open an Access 97 file in Access 2003 and upgrade it to a newer file format. Unfortunately, from now on many people will have difficulty getting their hands on a legitimate copy of Access 2003 (or any other version prior to Access 2013, or whatever the latest version happens to be).
In that case, a possible workaround would be to
install a 32-bit version of SQL Server Express Edition, and then
have the SQL Server import utility use Jet* ODBC to import the tables into SQL Server.
I just tried that with a 32-bit version of SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition and it worked for me. Access 2013 adamantly refused to have anything to do with the Access 97 file, but SQL Server imported the tables without complaint.
At that point you could import the tables from SQL Server into an Access 2013 database. Or, if your goal was simply to get the data out of the Access 97 file then you could continue to work with it in SQL Server, or move it to some other platform, or whatever.
*Important: The import needs to be done using the older Jet ODBC driver ...
Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)
... which ships with Windows but is only available to 32-bit applications. The Access 2013 version of the newer Access Database Engine ("ACE") ODBC driver ...
Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)
also refuses to read Access 97 files (with the same error message cited in the question).
Non-Programming Answer: Download and install an older version of the Access Database Engine (2010 or 2007 for example, rather than 2013). Open Excel, navigate to the "Data" tab on the Ribbon and click "From Access". Import the data into Excel, and then Export to an accdb file or do whatever with it. NOTE! opening Access 2013 will trigger a re-install of the 2013 engine, so keep the 2007/2010 installation .exe around.
Programming Answer: Having installed an older version of Access Database Engine, you can use an OLEDB connection in multiple programming environments (C#, VBA, VBScript, etc.) to read/write and move Access data. Gord Thompson's answer also presents the option of jumping to SQL server and back.
See This post for a similar problem using an OLEDB connection
Connectionstrings.com is a great resource
See this post for how to setup an OLEDB connection using C#
You can do all these things but the underlying problem will be incompatibility with Windows updates of library files. Eventually you will have problems again. .ocx and .dll files will be clobbered and replaced: your database will not be able to cope with the new versions and it will not build or it will malfunction unexpectedly.
Instal Microsoft 2007 Access Runtime.
from https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=4438
Google Drive has an extension to open MDB files.
I'm not sure how well BLOBs work because I couldn't get my images to display but all the text came up.
NO, it does NOT work in Access 2013, only 2007/2010. There is no way to really convert an MDB to ACCDB in Access 2013.
If you're just seeking to pull the data out of tables contained in the mdb, use Excel and ODBC (DATA tab...Get External Data...From Other Sources...From Data Connection Wizard...Other/Advanced...Microsoft Jet X.X OLE DB Provider...pick your db...pick your table(s) and voila! Data imported. Then just save the workbook that then can be linked or imported into the newer version of Access to build a new database.
Dbeaver can open older Access .mdb and read Tables and Views. The ER diagram doesn't show the relationships though. However at least the table contents are easily extracted. It uses the UCanAcess driver, which if you say yes is automatically downloaded and installed when you first try and connect to an .mdb.
Note: Use "File >> Database >> New Database Connection" and not "File >> Open", else it just passes to the installed Access version and you'll get the same cannot open previous version error.
Here's a rediscovered mdb I opened today from cdrom not seen since 1999:
For a '97 Database...
Open the Access 97 database in Access 2003.
On the Tools menu, click Database Utilities, click Convert Database,
and then click to Access 2002-2003 file format.
Enter a name for the database, and then click Save.
Exit Access 2003.
Open the database in Access 2013.
On the File tab, click Save As, select Access Database (*.accdb),
and then click Save As. In the Save As dialog box, click Save.
All other versions:
To convert an Access 2000 or Access 2002 - 2003 database (.mdb) to the .accdb file format, you must first open the database by using Access 2007, Access 2010, or Access 2013, and then save it in the .accdb file format.
Click File, and then click Open.
Click the Access 2000 or Access 2002 - 2003 database (.mdb) that you
want to convert.
NOTE If the Database Enhancement dialog box appears, the database is using a file format that is earlier than Access 2000. To continue, see the section Convert an Access 97 database to the .accdb format.
Click File, click Save As, and then click Save Database As.
Choose the Access file type, and then click Save As.
If any database objects are open when you click Save As, Access prompts you to close them prior to creating the copy. Click Yes to make Access close the objects, or click No to cancel the entire process. If needed, Access will also prompt you to save any changes.
In the Save As dialog box, type a file name in the File name box,
and then click Save.
Access creates the copy of the database, and then opens the copy. Access automatically closes the original database.
Right from MS Office Documentation
In case you just need to dump the data you can use this clever script
http://youaccess.sourceforge.net . In case you are under linux / wine
you can try my procedure
Best solution would be to convert existing databases BEFORE upgrading to newer version/s of Access. Surely Microsoft should be warning users about this problem when upgrades are about to be installed.
To convert the data to a MySQL database, you can use the Bullzip Access to MySQL program. It's free and easy to use.
http://www.bullzip.com/products/a2m/info.php
I had created a MDE file from a MDB file. Now i want to use MDE file to enter/update any field on my table and store data in it. I just want that whatever i update in my MDE file should automatically update my parent MDB file. Please help me with steps. I tried link manager but it isn't working. Please help me with it.
Create a copy of your MDB.
Then run the wizard to split a database into frontend and backend.
Finally, create an MDE of the frontend.
Now both the MDE and the MDB will share the same backend.
I have a database in mdb format that will not open. When I try to open the file I get an error:
"The Microsoft Access database engine stopped the process because you and another user are attempting to change data at the same time"
I was the only user accessing the database and this occurred after a compact/repair.
Any ideas on how to get the db working again?
open the .ldb file with Notepad, its name is the same as your .mdb file and its located on the same folder, you'l see info about the person 'locking' this database.
TO bypass it all, just copy the .MDB and paste it in the same folder, the lockings are not copied with it, so you can continue working on the copy of the mdb regardless.
So we got an old program, from about 2006-2007.
that program uses a very large database.
the database is separated into 3 files:
(file extensions were renamed.)
1 of 1,061,758,976 bytes
1 of 1,062,225,920 bytes
and 1 of 423,604,224 bytes
(total about 2.4 GB).
what we want to do is get rid of that program and write our own, using the same database.
the only problem is that we don't know anything about those files. Rumors says that those files are access files - but we don't know how to confirm that.
also, the goal is to put this whole database into a mySQL database - which is another challenge.
Summarizing:
Determine database type
Converting to mySQL.
Any help will be much appreciated.
EDIT: File header:
Determine database type
The screenshot cited in the comments to the question indicate that the file is an Access .mdb database file. Access database files contain the following 15-character strings starting at byte offset 4:
Standard Jet DB ...for an .mdb file
Standard ACE DB ...for an .accdb file
Converting to mySQL.
The most straightforward way would be to install the MySQL ODBC driver, create an ODBC DSN to the target MySQL server, then open the .mdb file in Access and export the tables to MySQL via ODBC.
Exporting Access Data to MySQL
edit re: "You do not have the necessary permissions..." error
It appears that the database file was encrypted using the "User-Level Security" feature that Access offered for older .mdb files. If so, then to open the file you will need:
The associated Workgroup Security file (often called "Security.mdw", but may have a different name)
Login credentials (username and password) for a user that was created in that Workgroup file.
If you have both of those prerequisites then you should be able to open the file using something like the following from the command-line:
MSACCESS.EXE "C:\Users\Public\uls\db1.mdb" /WRKGRP "C:\Users\Public\uls\Security.mdw"
Search around to see if you can find the associated .mdw file (possibly renamed). Note that if if you find a file named System.mdw under %SystemRoot% or %APPDATA% it may not be the one you need. (Access creates a default Workgroup file for normal unprotected databases.) The file you are looking for should have a similar 15-character string starting at byte offset 4:
Jet System DB ...for an .mdw file (note that there are two trailing spaces to make 15 characters)
Any idea on why I open certain MS Access mdb file(abc.mdb), msgbox pop-up saying that it is READ ONLY, but in fact it is not when I right-click the mdb to view "Properties"?
The folder where mdb locates can write folder/txt files in it.
I copy a dummy mdb file into that folder and this READ ONLY msgbox does not pop-up in that dummy mdb. The READ ONLY issue seems only exist in ABC.mdb
I did not see any .ldb file in that folder.
Any idea on that?
Couple of suggestions (in order):
Check the security permissions in the File Properties dialog. Make sure Administrators or your login has full control.
Repair and Compact the database file. Run this command:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\MSACCESS.EXE" "DatabaseFile.mdb" /nostartup /repair /compact
Try opening in a different folder like your desktop.
If all else fails.. Create a new access database in the same folder and import all access objects from the Read Only database and test again.