Using 2003 mdb from Access 2010

[sgrace]

Hello all.

We have a 2003 mdb running with about 20 users who have Access 2003. It works fine but we're changing to a new application that's more secure and that runs on Access 2010.

The question is, can we go ahead and upgrade the users' PCs to Access 2010 now, and let them continue accessing the 2003 mdb, while we ramp up the new application, or will we have to flash cut from one version to the other?

I've tested accessing a copy of the 2003 mdb from a PC with 2010 installed and it appears to work fine.

Thanks in advance for your insights.

 

[David R]

As long as you're not using any arcane VBA libraries (and your test would seem to show that it's not), 2010 runs 2003 .mdb databases just fine in Compatibility Mode.

If possible, I would have one of your better users run in 2010 for a week before upgrading everybody, just to make sure some lurking little-used-feature doesn't explode suddenly in production week. But you should be fine.

 

[sgrace]

Thanks David.

On another forum someone suggested splitting the legacy mdb in order to help avoid data corruption. The users haven't had any data corruption issues over the past several years and I'm reluctant to start making changes if not needed. What's your opinion in the 2010 accessing mdb scenario? By the way, does splitting imply that I'd then have to have a copy of the FE on every PC or could they all use a shared version on the server?

A different question. In another post from a couple of years back, someone suggested that either all users should access the mdb from 2003 or all from the newer version, that mixing them 'could lead to problems'. Any insights? Needless to say, I'd rather try just converting one user as you suggest, and see if all goes well, instead of converting all 20 users and then possibly having to convert them all back if issues arise.

Thanks.

 

[David R]

re: "splitting the legacy mdb" - yes if all of your forms and data are in the same place, it is STRONGLY recommended to split the database. I'm astonished your users haven't encountered database locks or corrupted data already.

A 2010 .accdb FE can access a 2003 .mdb BE with no trouble, but not the other way around for what I hope are obvious reasons. However 2010 has some new and improved data types so you're better off upgrading both (eventually) if you can. I can't see any problems with a straightforward FE-BE connection using both MDB and ACCDB, but you'll have to be careful in the interim that you don't let your code/events on one get out of sync with the other...

As for all users sharing one FE off the server, that is probably making everyone's experience very slow (every time they load a new form, it's pulling across the network). When the FE is on each desktop, they are only pulling data across the network, which will be much faster.

For sanity's sake I also recommend our very own boblarson's AutoUpdater, which will introduce your FE to the concept of version control and make updating your users MUCH less painful. However it will not work for this mdb->accdb upgrade since it wants to replace the same filename, so that's a later step.