Access 2013 - Cannot open a database created with a previous version of your application

Question

I have an Access database created more than 10 yrs back    I have very important data in it  amp  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

User · Answer

You can use MDB Viewer Plus from http   www alexnolan net software mdb viewer plus htm to view or edit your old version database

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

Instal Microsoft 2007 Access Runtime   from https   www microsoft com en-US download details aspx id 4438

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

[ms-access] Access 2013 - Cannot open a database created with a previous version of your application

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