Changing the Ownership of Database object (1 Viewer)

I want to change the Ownership of a Database object, in MS Access 2003.

I have created a User in Admins Group, assigned it all the Permissions and assigned it the Owndership of all the objects, except for the Database.

On deleting the existing owner, it shows the Owner of Database object as Unknown.

Looking for help.

I had the same problem. I resorted to importing all of the db objects into a new db and started over. I could not get Access 2003 to change the ownership.

By default, only a member of the Admins group can change ownership of an object. If you have another admin group member, you can take ownership as needed from the permissions dialog box. one of the dropdowns shows you the class of object such as tables, queries, etc. it includes "database" as a member of the dropdown list.

If you deleted an owner and the object's owner now shows as Unknown, that seems to me to be correct behavior. It doesn't revert to previous owner because it doesn't remember who that is. (No field stores that anywhere. No "history" slots are kept.)

what is the security risk in leaving the Ownership of Database as Unknown

The button for changing the Ownership remain disabled, after selecting another member of the Admins group.

By the way, what is the security risk in leaving the Ownership of Database as
Unknown !

It is possible that in AC2003, you need to have exclusive access to make this work even though you are a member of Admins group. Lots of changes have occurred since AC97 and AC2K, where ownership of the overall DB was (slightly) less significant a security issue.

To get exclusive access, your admin account has to have the right to OpenExclusive in the permissions list for the database object. Then I believe you have to open the DB by opening Access first to get the DB selection dialog box; then you have to check "exclusive" or whatever it offers to that same effect. Then open the existing DB. OpenExcl will be denied you if anyone else is still in the DB at the time.

As to the rist of having a DB with the DB Object's owner "Unknown", that is a limited risk as long as you let the system generate new SIDs each time you create a user. (As opposed to manually choosing one each time.) That gives you a good chance that the SID (an internal binary number that identifies each individual username) remains unique. And if the owner SID is unique, having an unowned DB is not a problem short-term... as long as you still have access as an admin-class user.

Long-term, it is time to copy out the DB to another .MDB file and update the db object owner that way. But if you need to delay to a "convenient time" that is OK.