Unrecognized Database Format Error Displays (1 Viewer)

[jmaty23]

My database is built in Access 2016. When I try to open it, I get the error message "Unrecognized Database Format" followed by the file path. When I click OK, the database closes. It wont let me compact and repair. Decompile switch does not change anything either.

The only thing I can think of that may be causing a problem is I copied a few forms from an MDB database that was developed in Access 2010 into the database. Could this be the problem?

Any assistance is appreciated....

 

[The_Doc_Man]

1. This is why you make frequent backups of your work, including using a "design master" concept. You can look that up so I won't belabor it here.

2. I vaguely remember that you can Open Access without naming a database, then from the file menu, click Compact & Repair, which then gives you the chance to select the file to be C&R'd. So COPY the file first just in case something you do damages it. That way, you have another copy on which to try something else.

I've had some luck with recalcitrant databases by repeatedly attempting the C&R trick more than once and it finally worked well enough to recover data via export.

3. If #2 doesn't work, open a blank database file and try to import stuff from the miscreant file.

4. If neither local C&R nor indirect C&R nor import to a new database works, you are done. There MIGHT be a few commercial products out there to do a Repair well enough to allow a repeat of #3, but that would take some web searching and no guarantees of anything out there that would do the trick for your case.

 

[CJ_London]

commenting on

I vaguely remember that you can Open Access without naming a database, then from the file menu, click Compact & Repair, which then gives you the chance to select the file to be C&R'd. So COPY the file first just in case something you do damages it. That way, you have another copy on which to try something else.

you can do it from a command line switch on access.exe - see this link

https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...1f5df9702bf1?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US&fromAR=1

Alternatively create a temporary new db and in a module create some code to use the Application.compactrepair method

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb237807(v=office.12).aspx

 

[jon_R]

When I try to open it, I get the error message "Unrecognized Database Format" followed by the file path.

If any Access user confronts this error message, "unrecognized database format", this means the Access database is corrupt. He/she should try the Compact and Repair utility. Also, Microsoft provides the JetComp.exe utility to fix corrupt Access database.

 

[jon_R]

I found this article containing some useful information - Unrecognized Database Format. How to Repair Access Database?

I hope this will help you.

 

[Ryuk]

I believe that the reason you have getting this error is because of the difference in version. This is very usual and there are several workaround to it.
Workaround 1
Steps
Click on Start button, and type Command. Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

Copy and paste the following into the command prompt window:

Exit the command prompt window.

After these steps, try to open your Access database. If you are still getting the ‘Access database in inconsistent state’ error, skip to the next solution.
Workaround 2 – Run ‘Compact and Repair’ Utility

Workaround 3 – Import Data to a New Database​

Steps
In MS Access, click on External Data tab in the top navigation menu and select the “Import Access Database” option.

• Select the ‘Import tables, forms, reports, macros, and modules into the current database’ option and press the OK button.
• In ‘Import Objects’ dialog box that opens, select the database objects you want to import into the new db and then click OK.

If this still doesn’t resolve your concern and if all of your files were not recovered this might mean that the data has been corrupted to a much higher level. In that case here is a solution which would help you like **************** for Access ( Personally verified )