Old MS Access database but no access to Access
December 16, 2024 12:27 PM Subscribe
I have an older (c. 2016-17, .mdb) MS Access database that my team would like to continue using - but our organization is no longer willing to pay an Access subscription. What are our options?
Ideally, I'd like to find an open source product we can collectively use to access this data - I am a database n00b, however, and don't know if this is realistic. Hivemind, any suggestions that don't involve me personally paying for a subscription and hauling my own laptop to work everyday will be greatly appreciated.
Ideally, I'd like to find an open source product we can collectively use to access this data - I am a database n00b, however, and don't know if this is realistic. Hivemind, any suggestions that don't involve me personally paying for a subscription and hauling my own laptop to work everyday will be greatly appreciated.
LibreOffice's Base is able to work with many access files, depending on what features you used in Access. It might be useful to try opening the old .mbd, but it might also work better fi you converted the file to a modern .accdb file in Access.
posted by advicepig at 12:41 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]
posted by advicepig at 12:41 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]
Is the database accessed online (by workers or public)?
I’m seeing less than $30 for a license for Access 2024, but when you say subscription, I wonder if I’m missing some details. Does subscription include services and not just a product license?
posted by Riverine at 12:59 PM on December 16
I’m seeing less than $30 for a license for Access 2024, but when you say subscription, I wonder if I’m missing some details. Does subscription include services and not just a product license?
posted by Riverine at 12:59 PM on December 16
An .mdb database is probably from 2007 and not 2017. Access 2007 is when the switch happened.
I would keep a copy of the mdb if you do try to upgrade it to an .accdb file. I use MS SQL Server, and we still have jobs importing mdb files to our database since the driver for that version just works better. I don't have direct experience with LibreOffice's Base, but that is where I would start. See if you can import tables from the mdb, then try queries, then anything else. I would expect some things to break or not work if they are more complicated than just a select query, and so you would want someone who can fix those or determine they are no longer needed.
posted by soelo at 1:19 PM on December 16 [2 favorites]
I would keep a copy of the mdb if you do try to upgrade it to an .accdb file. I use MS SQL Server, and we still have jobs importing mdb files to our database since the driver for that version just works better. I don't have direct experience with LibreOffice's Base, but that is where I would start. See if you can import tables from the mdb, then try queries, then anything else. I would expect some things to break or not work if they are more complicated than just a select query, and so you would want someone who can fix those or determine they are no longer needed.
posted by soelo at 1:19 PM on December 16 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Is the database accessed online (by workers or public)?
Workers only.
How complicated is this database?
Not entirely certain, but fairly simple from front-end appearance.
Why not just buy a standalone license for Access for one machine?
Short answer is that this is city government and doing anything small and specialized is way harder than doing anything big and ponderous. Also, ideally, everyone on our team (12 people, 2 locations) would have access to it.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:46 PM on December 16
Workers only.
How complicated is this database?
Not entirely certain, but fairly simple from front-end appearance.
Why not just buy a standalone license for Access for one machine?
Short answer is that this is city government and doing anything small and specialized is way harder than doing anything big and ponderous. Also, ideally, everyone on our team (12 people, 2 locations) would have access to it.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:46 PM on December 16
Many IT departments actively seek out Access databases as targets for conversion to something more in line with the organization's main IT tools - can you enlist the IT folks to help you import this data into an existing system - your financial system, or your ticket tracker, or something else? My IT dept has been tasked with this kind of thing many times, as random Access databases used for important work is a risk.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 1:50 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 1:50 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I’m seeing less than $30 for a license for Access 2024
Where are you seeing this?
posted by ryanshepard at 2:31 PM on December 16
Where are you seeing this?
posted by ryanshepard at 2:31 PM on December 16
I've been impressed by Grist, which is an open-source project with a self-hosted version or a paid cloud-hosted version.
They have a modern alternative to Microsoft Access page.
I don't see any indication that they directly import Access databases, but if you can export them to CSV or Excel, you should be able to import them.
posted by kristi at 4:13 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]
They have a modern alternative to Microsoft Access page.
I don't see any indication that they directly import Access databases, but if you can export them to CSV or Excel, you should be able to import them.
posted by kristi at 4:13 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]
Building on top of kristi's answer. You may be able to use mdbtools to extract the data to CSV. It's been awhile, but I had good luck with it.
posted by phil at 5:00 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]
posted by phil at 5:00 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]
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posted by mrgoldenbrown at 12:35 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]