Compabitility of Access 2013 with earlier versions of Access

[PaulA]

Hi, all -

I did a quick search but didn't find what I was looking for here -

What's the bottom line on Access 2013 opening .mdb or accdb (2007 or 2010) files? Will projects in those formats work in Access 2013?

Thanks!

 

[pbaldy]

It should open a 2007 file just fine. I doubt it will open a 2019 file...

 

[PaulA]

Thanks for catching the typo and for your response.

How about opening an mdb file?

 

[pbaldy]

My VM with 2013 on it isn't running, but it should open it fine. I just opened a 2000 mdb with 2010 with no problem.

 

[PaulA]

Thanks. Just to be certain, how about mdbs with user level security?

 

[pbaldy]

That I will plead ignorance on. I've never used user level security (typically using SQL Server security).

 

[gemma-the-husky]

I run A2003 mdbs mdes inA2013 with no problems at all.

we don't use ULS any more, though. I believe it would still work, though.

 

[HiTechCoach]

For Desktop databases there seams to be very little changed from Access 2010 from 2013 except for the look and a few things are not longer supported. I have not heard of any issues from client moving from 2010 to 2013.

See: Discontinued features and modified functionality in Access 2013

I have run Access 2003 mde's with Access 2007 and 2010 (full an runtime versions of each) without issues after some testing and tweaking to make them compatible. I did to have to make any adjustment for 2013.

Since I have always supported multiple version of Access with my front end I have learned coding techniques that made then very compatible with multiple versions.

I have helped clients whose developers codes and design things different that I do. Some ad a lot mores issue switching to a newer versions.

I have been able to use Access 2007, 2010, and 2013 to edit front ends in the ACE (.accdb) format. I still use Access 2003 to edit an MDB if it must maintain compatibly with Access 2003.


NOTE: You can compile a mdb into an MDE with Access 2007 and later. It will only be compatible with the version of Access used to create the MDE or a later version. Access 2007 later used to compile a MDB into an MDE is not compatible with Access 2003 and older.