Opening Access 2003 database with Access 2016

Hi Barry,

You can try the following methods to check the outcome:

a. After editing in Access 2016 > File > Save As > Save Database As > Access 2002-2203 Database (*.mdb) > Save As.

b. Open Access > File > Info > Compact & Repair Database. Please refer to: Compact and repair a database.

If the issue persists, please let us know the following information so we can better understand the issue:

1. Open Access 2016 > File > Account > Capture a screenshot of the part under "Product Information".

2. The screenshot of the error message and the system of the Access 2003 computer.

Regards,

Jared

When developing an Access application, one should always use the lowest version of Access that the users will use. This means all development should be done in 2003.

If you were having issues with 2003 working in Win 10, use a Virtual Machine (VM) running Win 7 with Access 2003 installed and do your development there.

You can try what Jared suggested, since the conversion back to mdb should take out any newer features, it might work.

By the way, you refer to not corrupting the data. Your database should be split into a front end and back end (containing only the tables). Unless you are changing the table structure, you shouldn't be working with the back end.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I tried but it made no difference. I may have mislead when I asked if it can be done "without corrupting the data" as it's not actually the data that is being corrupted, it is features of the forms we use as interfaces.

As Scottgem pointed out, its the front end that has the problems if we open one with 2016, then open the same one with 2003 afterwards.

I've decided to have two versions of the front end, one for 2003 and one for 2016. Changes to the 2003 front end will be done with Access 2003 and changes to the 2016 will be done with 2016.

I would be inclined to have one front end under 2003 until everyone has been moved up.

I would be inclined to have one front end under 2003 until everyone has been moved up.

I would prefer that too, but it won't work well in our situation.

I'm curious as to why you feel that way?

Hi,

Not sure if this is still relevant to anyone but I just had the exact same problem with Access 2002 and 2016 interfering with each other and was able to resolve it so wanted to post it just in case.

So, also here, several PC's with windows 10 had Access 2002 on them.  When I downloaded Access 2016 and opened the MDB database with it it worked fine but then when I tried to open again with Access 2002 I received the same error message as above and Access 2002 was no longer able to open any MDB files on that PC.  With some PC's the problem did not happen and the only difference I found compared with the PC's with the problem was the default App setting for ".MDN" extension files: if default program was Access 2002 then there was no problem.  If default program was Access 2016 then there was a problem.

Windows 10 did not give an option to change the default app from Access 2016 to 2002 so from control panel "Unistall or Change a Program" I Right clicked on Access 2002 and chose option to repair.  Once that was completed the default App for MDN files was changed to Access 2002 and the MDB database was opening fine with both Access 2016 and 2002.

Hope this helps if someone still has this problem.

Hi,

Not sure if this is still relevant to anyone but I just had the exact same problem with Access 2002 and 2016 interfering with each other and was able to resolve it so wanted to post it just in case.

So, also here, several PC's with windows 10 had Access 2002 on them.....

Thanks for the info. I imagine that would have solved the problems for us too, but we have now migrated all computers over to using 2016. Interestingly though we do still have some niggly problems related to the upgrades to 2016. There were missing libraries. Some features in our forms no longer work. Sometimes we get messages where 2016 is still trying to access things from 2003, and there are failed Windows updates for 2003 even though we are all on 2016 now. We still fear Microsoft updates. You never know what what new problems are going to emerge after the restart. Constant harassment to use Microsoft Teams is annoying too, and the integration of our installations of 2016 under the one Microsoft account is buggy.