Upgrade .mdb to .accdb

[kevnaff]

Hello All,

At the end of every financial year, a copy of our front end and back end are stored in an archive folder. Up until 2020, they were all in .mdb and .mde format. The old database used a System file for user login and security.

Since upgrading to Office 365 in mid 2020, all of our access files were updated to the .accdb and .accde format.

I want to access the pre 2020 backend data, however I no longer have an older version of MS Access. If I try to open a new database and import the data in, because of the System file, I get a message stating I do not have the necessary permissions.

Is there a way to get around this System file or view the data?

I can see online that there are several viewers on converter tools, however they all have a max file size. My .mdb is 150MB.

 

[arnelgp]

maybe it has the old Workgroup security, then you need to have the associated .mdw file.

 

[Gasman]

Get IT to resinstall your previous version of Access, then save them all as accdb/de ?
You would still need that mdw file though.

 

[kevnaff]

@arnelgp @Gasman

Hi Both,

I always archived the .mdw file with the .mdb

As it will be painful getting IT to reinstall the older version, I will get hold of an old copy on my personal PC and try it there.

Thanks for your help.

 

[DaveT2001]

Hello All,

At the end of every financial year, a copy of our front end and back end are stored in an archive folder. Up until 2020, they were all in .mdb and .mde format. The old database used a System file for user login and security.

Since upgrading to Office 365 in mid 2020, all of our access files were updated to the .accdb and .accde format.

I want to access the pre 2020 backend data, however I no longer have an older version of MS Access. If I try to open a new database and import the data in, because of the System file, I get a message stating I do not have the necessary permissions.

View attachment 103796

Is there a way to get around this System file or view the data?

I can see online that there are several viewers on converter tools, however they all have a max file size. My .mdb is 150MB.

 

[DaveT2001]

I have found that old secure workgroup files (.mdw) can often be used with newer versions of Access (such as 2016) to open old secured apps by creating a shortcut such as:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\MSACCESS.EXE" E:\_Projects7\ClientXYZ\Prog\XYZProg.mdb /WRKGRP "S:\SERVER\Secured\Secured.mdw" /User XX /Pwd xxxx

 

[Pat Hartman]

Depending on how far back the files go, I would convert the .mdb's for the FE to .accdb's and then create .accde's from your latest version. MS eventually drops support for old file formats and it has been 22 years for A2K so you may find that those files stop working with the next release of O365 and there won't be any warning.