Multiple Users accessing the same ACCDB file

[MatthewGrace]

Hello!

I have an ACCDB file that works beautifully. It sits in my OneDrive directory, just like my Word and Excel documents. I wish to right click the icon in File Explorer and click "Share a Link" to this file so other people with MS Access can open it up. I always imagined that's how it would work for the simple reason that that's how all my other Office Documents work. So as expected, I create the long text link (It looks something like: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqMuGV0nbwQchLZi...Cv8eg?e=BNnitj) and email it to someone.

The trouble is, if they click on it, it will only allow them to download a hard copy of the .accdb file on their machine. This is weird, and not like the other Office applications to my knowledge.

Is there a way around this? Some way we can all just share the same Access file on my OneDrive or Dropbox? I'm not looking to "Split" the table or anything fancy if possible - just the simplest way to share.

Thanks!
Matt

[mike60smart]

Hi Matt

You cannot use OneDrive to share an Access database.

If you want o share the database with other users who are in different locations then you will need to use something like Remote Desktop.

https://www.yourofficeanywhere.co.uk...over-internet/

[Micron]

You cannot use OneDrive to share an Access database.

this implies it is not possible, but it certainly is? However if it means you must not, then I agree completely. Sharing a db among simultaneous users is bad enough; trying to use it over OneDrive is even worse.

[CJ_London]

I'm not looking to "Split" the table or anything fancy if possible - just the simplest way to share.

presume you mean the database. If you have multiple users, it is essential you split the application, tables in the backend in a shared location, everything else in the front end located on each users machine. Not doing this will ultimately lead to corruption and loss of data.

As already said, you cannot use onedrive, dropbox or similar because access allows data sharing.

This is weird, and not like the other Office applications to my knowledge.

on the contrary, they work the same, they download a copy of the file either to a local directory or perhaps just to memory. Point is, once they have their copy, it will not be automatically updated as a result of changes made by other users.

Simply, Access backends are not intended to be downloaded, they stay where they are, but onedrive etc doesn't know that and downloads the file.

If your access db is created and maintained by you, and other users only view the data, then I guess you could use dropbox as a sharing mechanism. Basically 'push and forget'. You'll just have a problem if your user, by design or accident, makes some changes and updates the file in dropbox. Any changes made by you since they downloaded it will be lost.

Do you still have a server that is shared by your users? if so, put the backend there?
Use terminal server or citrix
Use sql azure or similar for the backend
email them a copy

[MatthewGrace]

Thank you for all your help.
I see there is not a super easy answer I was overlooking.
I think I can figure it out from here though - based on your suggestions.
Thanks!
@Ajax: You're right, I did mean "database", not "table"