Update DB from 2003 to 2016

[Rigodude]

My company has a DB built many years ago with Access 2003. We have worked with access 2003 and we've been able to skip any of the access updates until now.


Since we are doing the upgrade of our equipment my IT guy says we cannot longer use Access 2003 with Windows 10. But here is the problem, our former IT said that we couldn't update our DB from *.mdb to *.accdb.

We have a main DB (.mdb) in our server as a shared file and this DB uses other DBs in the server (also .mdb).

When we install any access from 2006 to 2016 the file just won't open, or at least that's what my IT guy says.

I would like to know if:

1. There is any restriction about using Access 2003 on windows 10
2. Is it possible that any "new" Access (2006 to 2016) not to open my files?


I trust my it guy, but I feel he's trying to rip me off.

[AccessPower]

He's wrong. When you perform a windows 10 installation, sometimes the file association is lost. Right click on the file, choose open with, check always open with this program (or whatever it says), click open.

Problem solved.

[Rigodude]

Thank you very much, I'll try that and post the result

[jwhite]

MS-Access 2003 runs fine on Windows 10 32bit, even as a .MDB.
We have a legacy app (C# version in the works) that runs Ac2000 with no problems on Win10.


Generally speaking, Ac2007,2010,2013,2016 can open and run a .MDB database.
If User Level Security is used, it will not work with Ac2013+, was deprecated in Ac2007.
As new platform versions are developed, sometimes we also have to modify code and/or libraries.


Get the IT guy to tell you WHY he says you can't use Ac2003 anymore.

[CJ_London]

this comment concerns me

We have a main DB (.mdb) in our server as a shared file and this DB uses other DBs in the server (also .mdb).

It doesn't change the other responses which I fully agree with, but implies that the shared mdb is a front end to the other dbs being used by a number of users.

It may be that is what your IT guy is saying - because although users can, they should not share the front end, each user should have their own copy located on their local drive. Users sharing the same front end multiplies the risks of corruption, and the corruption is insidious, everything is working fine one day, and the next, totally gone and reverting to backups does not always solve the problem. He may just be looking after your interests.

The other possibility is that part of the upgrade is upgrading office, and some office packages a) do not include access as standard (and no budget to purchase) or b) does, but they are installing the 64bit version which requires modification to API calls and will not run a .mde.