Forum Discussion
Will Access 2019 Run an Acess 2000 mdb?
- My lack of naivete prevents me from saying flat out "it'll work", but that page is reassuring nonetheless. Having been around long enough, I will believe it completely when you report success.
It is true that later versions of Access are far less tolerant of ambiguities in code, and that, moreover, there are often improved ways to accomplish things.
For example, at one time a statement like this was quite acceptable in Access VBA.
Public Function DoThis()
Dim db as Database
---do something with db
End Function
In more recent versions, one would probably need to qualify that more carefully and explicitly.
Public Function DoThis()
Dim db as DAO.Database
---do something with db
End Function
The same is true of a number of other coding practices. Greater explicitness is more likely to compile and run cleanly.
In the end, though, as long as the existing solution meets your needs, that's what matters.
- Thanks for that advice! I've been coding since Access 97 was popular, and I'm usually very explicit in my code. But there is always the possibility that I've been sloppy here or there, and this is good advice.
I'm going to buy Office 2019 and see how it goes. So I may be back for more advice.Well, I bought 32 bit Office 2019 and the A2000 MDB format seems to work okay! All of mine decompiled the first time I ran them, but that is no big deal. I haven't run them much yet, so I can't swear that everything works, but it looks good.
I also took the time to figure out why my MDB's weren't converting well to accdb's. Access 2019 actually does the conversion quite well. What it doesn't do well is to retain the references to the dlls, ocx's - library files. So refer back to the unconverted MDB so that you can see where each one is stored on your harddrive, and reset them after you've converted to accdb!
One last note: If you've written your db to run under 32 bit Access, unless you really want to do a lot of recoding, stay away from Office / Access 2021. It appears that it is only available for 64 bit, and you will NOT be happy when you try to run your 32 bit code AT ALL! I am speaking from experience.
I bought Office 2021 and luckily the vendor allowed me remove it and gave me a license for the 32 bit version of Office 2019.SPOILER ALERT: Apparently there is a 32 bit version of Office 2021, but for some reason the vendor I purchased from did not offer that download.
Neuro-VISION
First, congratulations on the progress.
Apparently the first time you purchased the 64 bit version of Access for 2019. That is now more or less the default, but you CAN still obtain and use the 32 bit version, as you learned. I don't know which vendor you purchased from, but it seems they'd be aware of the situation and offer you a choice at purchase, although they did step up later.For a long time, 32 bit was still being offered as the default although 64 bit Access has been available for quite a well. Today, 64 bit Office is the default. Unfortunately, one has to be aware of the issue in order to make an informed choice at the time of initial installation.
All of that said, it is possible to convert your 32 bit Access accdbs to run properly under 64 bit Access. There are a lot of resources to help you with that in your VBA. In particular, I'm aware of at least 3 or 4 very good YouTube videos. Look for them under 32 bit vs 64 bit or similar terms. Colin Riddington (isladogs), who posted above, has at least one, for example.
However, many third-party OCX's and DLL's do not offer 64 bit versions of their tools, so it's not always possible to simply replace them. In some cases, you'll simply have to find another alternative that will run under 64 bit Access.
I guess in summary I'd say for the time being it's appropriate to stick with 32 bit Office but you should probably plan for shifting to 64 bit at some point.