End of support for Access 2016 and Access 2019 nears
Your product will still work, but when Microsoft says a product has reached "end of support", it means the product will no longer receive: Security updates Non-security updates Bug fixes New features Assisted support (free or paid) What this means for Access users: No more updates: Customers will not receive any new builds, patches, or improvements—even if vulnerabilities are discovered. No support: Microsoft will no longer provide technical support or troubleshooting assistance. Increased risk: Continued use of unsupported software can expose systems to security threats and compliance issues. Migration encouraged: Customers are advised to upgrade to a supported version or product to maintain security and functionality. We strongly encourage all Access users with perpetual licenses to upgrade to a Microsoft 365 Apps subscription. Subscription users get more out of the same Office desktop apps with artificial intelligence (AI) backed design ideas and analytic insights, rich contents and templates, cloud powered connected experiences and more. They also enjoy additional benefits beyond capabilities in Office apps, such as 1TB storage, Office on multiple devices and mobile, Microsoft Family Safey app, etc. I've noticed many perpetual users are "subscription adverse." I hear "I've used the desktop version forever and prefer not to switch to the cloud." Migrating to subscription does not mean that you'll get a different version of Access. You'll still get the desktop version you know and love, plus all the premium Office features a subscription provides. My favorites are Editor in Word, Money in Excel, and all the extra OneDrive storage. Check with Microsoft Sales Support to see if you're eligible for upgrade incentives depending on your region or organization type. (Yes, we know the Access icon does not appear with the other Office apps. You'll find it directly below the icons in the alphabetized apps list.) Sources: End of support for Office 2016 and 2019 Overview - Product End of Support and Retirements - Microsoft Lifecycle Access 2016 - Microsoft Lifecycle Access 2019 - Microsoft LifecycleAccess announces removal of Salesforce ODBC driver in October 2025
MS Access 2019 (and newer) ships a licensed Salesforce ODBC driver from InsightSoftware that will lose sustaining support after June 30th, 2026. But because we can no longer provide updates for the driver, the Access team has decided to accelerate the removal of this driver and remove it from the product in October 2025. Applies to: Access 2019 volume licensed and Enterprise plans Access 2021, Access 2024, and Microsoft 365 subscriptions Access 2021 and Access 2024 as part of the Office 2021 and Office 2024 perpetual licenses (standalone versions) The Salesforce ODBC driver bundled with Office includes shared libraries such as: libcurl.dll libcrypto-3.dll libssl-3.dll These libraries are located under the following path: Program Files\Microsoft Office\ODBC Drivers\Salesforce. They may also be present in different locations. Drivers installed by Office and used to access your Salesforce data will be removed on permanently on October 28, if you are using Access as part of a Microsoft 365 Apps monthly version and on November 11 if you are on the semi-annual release. For customers using perpetual Access 2019, 2021, or 2024, the drivers will be removed on November 11. You do not need to manually remove the drivers. Access currently doesn't have a way to talk directly to the Salesforce APIs so customers must continue to use the standardized ODBC driver framework that we currently support. Customers can independently purchase the Simba.DLL driver if needed from InsightSoftware. There are also other vendors that offer a Salesforce driver. Simba driver from InsightsSoftware https://insightsoftware.com/simba/ ODBC driver from devart https://www.devart.com/odbc/salesforce/ Salesforce integration from boomi https://boomi.com/solutions/application/salesforce/ Salesforce driver from cdata https://www.cdata.com/drivers/salesforce Once you purchase and install the driver, Access can connect to your Salesforce external data source. On the External Data ribbon, choose New Data Source > From Other Sources > ODBC Database We will provide more updates when available.Access releases bug fixes in version 2506
Bug Name Issue Fixed Error when trying to run append query When an update/append query qualified column references (e.g., Table1.Field1) the reference might fail to resolve and produce an error reading “The INSERT INTO statement contains the following unknown field name: Table1.Field1” Error when trying to save or run a query containing certain characters For queries containing some Unicode characters, attempting to run or save the query could generate the error “The SQL statement is invalid.” Can't create a query directly in SQL view We have now added a button to the Queries section of the Create ribbon to allow you to create a new query opened to the SQL editor, rather than the QBE (Query-By-Example) designer Exporting data to a text file might export some characters incorrectly When exporting data containing some Unicode characters and choosing the “Export data with formatting and layout” option, invalid characters would sometimes be output to the text file. Using the clipboard to transfer data from tables/queries to text did not work for some Unicode characters Access was not rendering text from tables/queries with the CF_UNICODETEXT format so when you copied a table/query from the Navigation Pane, then pasted into a destination that accepted text, Unicode characters might not be preserved When exporting to Email using the HTML format Unicode characters might not be preserved Some characters would be replaced by question marks rather than preserving the original content when exporting to HTML Email When exporting a table with a relationship but no lookup defined Access may hang during the validation step During export Access tries to create a lookup in Dataverse that corresponds to a lookup defined in Access for related tables. However, if a relationship was defined but there was no lookup defined for the foreign key, then Access could hang during the export process. If the Display Form option is set in the Options dialog, then any time the Options dialog is closed you incorrectly get a message saying that you must close and reopen the database for changes to take effect This could happen even if no changes were made. Access will now only generate this message if you really do need to close and reopen the database for changes to take effect.Access Releases 7 Issue Fixes in Version 2310 (Released October 25th, 2023)
Our newest round of Access bug fixes was released on October 25th, 2023. In this blog post, we highlight some of the fixed issues that our Access engineers released in the current monthly channel. If you see a bug that impacts you, and if you are on the current monthly channel Version 2310, you should have these fixes. Make sure you are on Access Build # 16.0.16924.20106 or greater.
