Login/Register
Access 2013 - Cannot open a database created with a previous version of your application
Asked Answered
ms-accessms-access-2013
R

14

26

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?

Rosol answered 9/6, 2014 at 8:41 Comment(0)
S
22

I've just used Excel 2016 to open Access 2003 tables.

  1. Open a new worksheet
  2. Go to Data tab
  3. Click on "From Access" menu item
  4. Select the database's .mdb file
  5. In the "Data Link Properties" box that opens, switch to the "Provider" tab
  6. Select the "Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider"
  7. Click on Next
  8. Reselect the database's .mdb file (it forgets it when you change Provider)
  9. Click OK
  10. From the Select Table dialogue that appears, choose the table you want to import.
Solangesolano answered 15/4, 2016 at 17:23 Comment(3)
finally! I was trying to run a macro from an Excel I got from a friend that extracts data from an old .mdb and I could not run it with "Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0" provider, but I was able to run it with "Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider" – Desimone
It does not work for me in Excel 2016, it writes the same error like in Access. – Goldthread
In case someone stumbles upon the same problem. You can use MDB admin. Excel does not handle large files very well. In my experience it crashed with a 370mb file. – Papert
P
6

You can use MDB Viewer Plus from http://www.alexnolan.net/software/mdb_viewer_plus.htm to view or edit your old version database

Plagiarism answered 20/4, 2016 at 2:46 Comment(1)
This tool works well, I've used it successfully on Access 97 & 2000 databases I believe. It's GUI is slightly quirky but totally functional. – Monkhood
E
5

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).

Exurbia answered 9/6, 2014 at 15:55 Comment(0)
W
2

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#

Walli answered 2/6, 2015 at 21:6 Comment(0)
B
2

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.

Bateman answered 16/6, 2015 at 23:6 Comment(0)
G
2

Instal Microsoft 2007 Access Runtime.

from https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=4438

Goldthread answered 3/10, 2016 at 13:10 Comment(1)
The link does not work anymore, but you can google for it. Once you have installed it, try opening the database again from within your latest version of Access, and it will work. – Dinky
H
2

Google Drive has an extension to open MDB files.

enter image description here

I'm not sure how well BLOBs work because I couldn't get my images to display but all the text came up.

Hilleary answered 10/4, 2017 at 14:6 Comment(1)
This works only for files with a size of up to 40 MB – Anopheles
X
1

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.

Xanthus answered 28/8, 2014 at 8:28 Comment(0)
C
1

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.

Colter answered 29/7, 2015 at 19:29 Comment(0)
F
1

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:

enter image description here

Fazeli answered 28/10, 2022 at 18:39 Comment(0)
P
0

For a '97 Database...

  1. Open the Access 97 database in Access 2003.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Database Utilities, click Convert Database, and then click to Access 2002-2003 file format.
  3. Enter a name for the database, and then click Save.
  4. Exit Access 2003.
  5. Open the database in Access 2013.
  6. 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.

  1. Click File, and then click Open.

  2. 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.

  3. Click File, click Save As, and then click Save Database As.

  4. 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.

  1. 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

Purposeful answered 9/6, 2014 at 13:23 Comment(2)
This doesn't answer the question. The question talks about that they can't open the file in Access 2013. When you open the file (double click the .mdb), it then opens MS Access with an error that says: Cannot open a database created with a previous version of your application.. Pressing the Help button then goes to: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/… – Humiliating
Ok, could you then please explain your answer, because I am stuck on this too. To me, your answer says to open the database .... that's where the issue lies, you can't open the database, because it comes up with that error! – Humiliating
Q
0

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

Quantic answered 31/3, 2015 at 6:28 Comment(0)
A
0

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.

Aeneas answered 15/6, 2016 at 4:54 Comment(0)
S
-1

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

Scooter answered 10/7, 2017 at 1:37 Comment(0)

© 2022 - 2024 — McMap. All rights reserved.