Category Archives: Total Access Admin

Feb 25

Breaking ACE out of the Bubble!

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An important announcement from the Microsoft Access team addresses the problems with connecting to Access ACCDB databases from other programs.

The ACCDB database format was introduced with Access 2007 and offered a new Access Database Engine (ACE) for external programs to connect to it. Connecting to the earlier MDB database format was never an issue because that requires Data Access Object (DAO) which is part of Windows.

Connecting to Microsoft Access Databases Outside of Access

ACE was available when Access 2007 and 2010 were installed. However, later Access versions sandboxed ACE so only Office could use it. It prevented other programs, including Microsoft programs such as PowerBI and the SQL Sever Migration Assistant (SSMA), from using it to support ACCDB databases.

The solution was to separately install the ACE Redistributable which provided ACE OLEDB (Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.16.0, or Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0). That was a hassle and complicated because

  • Not every user had permissions to install it
  • Installations were 32 or 64-bit specific
  • Even if it were installed, it could be out-of-sync with the Access version that is installed.

This was especially frustrating because when Access is installed on the machine, it includes ACE but simply didn’t allow other programs to use it. And because Access/Office 365 was constantly being updated, its version of ACE may support features that the redistributable didn’t, creating conflicts.

ACE is Now Available with Access

With this Microsoft announcement, ACE is now exposed and available for external programs to use it.

If you have Office 365, or click-to-run versions of Access 2016/2019 Consumer installed, you no longer need to install ACE to support external programs.

This change enables previously unsupported scenarios, including Microsoft programs, to connect to Access ACCDB databases without installing ACE. It eliminates incompatibility issues between different versions of ACE. It also helps our programs Total Access Admin, Total Access Startup, and Total Visual Agent connect to Access ACCDB databases directly.

Microsoft’s Official Announcement

Visit the announcement from the Microsoft Access program manager Ebo Quansah: Breaking ACE Out of the Bubble.

Feb 15

Total Access Admin 2016 Released

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We are excited to announce our release of Total Access Admin 2016! Total Access Admin is our administrator tool to help you monitor the users going in and out of your Microsoft Access databases (ACCDB and MDB formats) in real-time:

  • adminSee who is currently connected to your Microsoft Access database (you can manage multiple databases from one screen)
  • Monitor up to 150 databases at one time
  • Keep a log of users entering and exiting each database
  • Identify workstations or users disconnecting in a suspect manner which may be the source of database corruption
  • Compact your database when all users exit it
  • Prevent new users from logging into your database
  • Log off idle users
  • Communicate with your users in real-time

New Features

Total Access Admin 2016 is an update from the 2013 version and includes these enhancements:

  • Monitors ACCDB and MDB format databases created by Microsoft Access 2016 (32 or 64-bit version) and earlier versions of Access
  • Works in environments where Access 32 or 64-bit versions is installed, including installations from Microsoft Office365
  • Does not require Microsoft Access to be installed on the machine
  • Up to 150 databases can be monitored at one time (up from 100)
  • Setup program supports Windows 8 and 10, Server 2012 and later, with an option to launch the program after its installed

database-monitor

Download the free trial version today!

Existing customers can upgrade at a discounted price.

Jun 01

Total Access Admin 2003, Version 11.6 Ships

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adminThe release of Total Access Admin 2013 added many new features. Due to customer demand, we’ve updated Total Access Admin 2003 from version 11.5 to 11.6 to include the new features.

The primary difference between the 2003 and 2013 version is that the 2003 version doesn’t require installing Access 2007 or later on the machine in order to support the ACCDB database format. It supports Access databases in MDB formats and does not require Access to be installed on the PC.

Many New Features

Total Access Admin 2003 version 11.6 includes these enhancements:

  • Maintain a list to translate computer names to more friendly user names
  • Manage up to 100 database in one screen (up from 50)
  • Specify a time to close the program
  • More command line parameters
  • New forms to view the activity log, and more.

Read our New Features page for details.

Free Trial

Download the free, fully-functional Trial Version to see how helpful Total Access Admin can be for you.

Supports All Microsoft Access Versions

Total Access Admin 2003 supports MDB databases created in any version of Microsoft Access. Existing customers can upgrade at a discounted price.

Apr 24

Total Access Admin 2013 Ships

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adminTotal Access Admin lets you monitor users going in and out of your databases in real-time. See who’s currently in your database and who recently exited, create a log of connections and disconnects, compact the database after everyone exits, etc. Monitor all the databases across your network from one installation of Total Access Admin.

Many New Features
Total Access Admin 2013 includes many new features. You can now:

  • Maintain a list to translate computer names to more friendly user names
  • Manage up to 100 database in one screen (up from 50)
  • Specify a time to close the program
  • More command line parameters
  • New forms to view the activity log, and more.

Read our New Features page for details.

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Free Trial

Download the free, fully-functional Trial Version to see how helpful Total Access Admin can be for you.

Supports All Microsoft Access Versions

Total Access Admin 2013 supports ACCDB databases created in Microsoft Access 2013, 2010 and 2007, plus MDB databases created in any version of Access. Existing customers can upgrade at a discounted price.

Sep 07

Microsoft Access Error 3045 Could Not Use Database; File Already in Use

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Error Message

When you try to open a database, you may encounter this error message: Could not use [Database Name]; file already in use.

Explanation

This error occurs if another user (or instance of Access) has opened up the database exclusively and you try to open it. Maybe the other user opened the database in exclusive mode or made some modifications such as editing modules, which put the database in exclusive mode.

However, that may not be the case. This error can occur even if the other user has the database opened without opening it exclusively. What’s going on? Why would the second instance think it’s being opened exclusively?

What if the Other User isn’t Opening it Exclusively?

It turns out that another cause of this error is not immediately obvious and is related to workgroup security files. This applies to MDB files (not ADP or ACCDB formats). If two instances of Microsoft Access (DAO database engine) are using different system MDW files, a conflict may occur where the database appears to be exclusively locked by the other instance. The MDW file used by your instance of Access can be checked in VBA by examining the value of DBEngine.SystemDB.

Another copy of Access or DAO may have that database opened using another MDW file causing this conflict. This can come from another instance of MS Access, a Microsoft Access add-in or library reference, a VBA Add-in, or other program such as VB6, .NET, etc. that’s connecting to that database.

To avoid this, if you’re using workgroup security, make sure every instance is pointing to the same shared MDW file. This is often defined in the shortcut used to launch Microsoft Access, or if you are opening a different database programmatically within your VBA code.

Additional Resources

Visit our Microsoft Access Error Number and Error Description Reference site for a complete list of Microsoft Access error numbers, many with links to resources explaining and resolving them.

total-access-admin[1]If you’re interested in seeing who’s going in and out of your database in real-time, check out our Total Access Admin program. It’ll let you monitor multiple databases across your network to see when users enter and exit your database and flag instances where connections are dropped suspiciously.

Jun 24

Microsoft Access Database System Administration

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Many people deploy Microsoft Access database applications and neglect to provide the system administration necessary to properly support and maintain them over time. This becomes critical as the data it contains grows and becomes mission critical. Often, when something goes wrong, IT “professionals” are brought in to discover basic system administration are not in place. Rather than blaming the people involved, the Microsoft Access technology is considered at fault. We can do better.

Here’s a response I recently provided related to this issue:

First, I hope you have a disaster recovery plan in place. You may want to read my paper, Creating a Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan for Microsoft Access Database Applications for what we consider best practices.

Second, Access/Jet databases need to be periodically compacted to minimize corruption and bloat, and for optimal performance. The back-end database with the data is what needs to be compacted. You can do that manually. We created a commercial program, Total Visual Agent, that does it on a schedule with auditing and email notification if something goes wrong.

Third, if you are experiencing corruption after regular database maintenance, it’s often caused by a suspect connection/user who disconnects in an improper manner. That can be very difficult to detect and replicate. We have a commercial product, Total Access Admin, that monitors the people going in and out of an Access database, logs that activity, and flags the people who exit improperly. If it’s happening with the same person, there may be a hardware or network problem causing the corruption.

Finally, it may be possible that the corruption and performance problems are due to the front-end application. Bad code and techniques, corrupt objects, and other issues may be causing crashes and problems that lead to corruption. We address this in a few ways:

  1. We adopt, implement, and detect/fix deviations recommended by Total Access Analyzer: Microsoft Access Best Practices Techniques
  2. We implement global error handling that records crashes by users to text files so we have evidence of what failed. In addition to the procedure call stack, current procedure, error number and description, we also want the line number. Read our paper on Pinpointing the Exact Line Where a Crash Occurs in VB6 or VBA. This makes it significantly easier and quicker to reproduce and fix bugs.

Overall, it’s about having a solid and repeatable process and checklist in place that evolves over time as new experiences are encountered.

Feb 15

Luke Chung Speaking at Portland Access User Group Conference in May

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FMS President Luke Chung will be attending and speaking at the three day Microsoft Access conference sponsored by the Portland Oregon Access User Group.  Join him and other guest speakers including Alison Balter from InfoTech Services Group Inc., Armen Stein from J Street Technology, and Kevin Bell from Microsoft.

Luke will be speaking on the following topics:

  • FMS Products for Microsoft Access Developers and How they Make You Money
  • Microsoft Access and Azure: Working in the Cloud
  • Microsoft Access Disaster Recovery Plans

For complete details visit PAUG 2011 Database Designer Conference and see you there May 14-16, 2011.

Jan 04

Total Access Admin for Microsoft Access 2010 is Shipping

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Total Access Admin lets you monitor your Microsoft Access databases to see who’s currently in it. It’s ideal for understanding who’s currently connected, compacting databases after everyone has exited it, and troubleshooting multi-user problems.

The Total Access Admin 2010 supports Microosft Access 2010 and 2007. In addition to supporting Access 2010, it now lets you monitor multiple databases in one screen. You can perform actions across all the databases, watch the activity in real time, log the users entering and exiting each database, and compact the database after everyone exits. Visit the New Features page for all the enhancements.

Total Access Admin 2003, version 11.5, is also released for Access 2003 and earlier.

Free Trial versions of both versions are available.

Apr 13

Microsoft Access 2010 Preview Version of Total Access Admin

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We are pleased to release a FREE preview version of Total Access Admin 2010 for your review. Total Access Admin lets you monitor Access databases in real time. Select any Access Jet database (MDB or ACCDB) across your network to view and log users as they enter and exit your database. It's particularly useful for documenting suspect connections that could be the source of database corruption. You can also perform a variety of tasks such as locking new users from opening your database, compacting the database after everyone has exited, etc. The existing version supports Access 2007 and earlier. This new version support Access 2010 for both 32 and 64 bit formats, along with databases from earlier version of MS Access. For more information and download instructions, visit Total Access Admin 2010 Preview.

Jul 13

Update of Total Access Admin 2007 Released

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Total Access Admin offers real-time monitoring of users entering and exiting any Microsoft Access database across your network. An update of Total Access Admin 2007 was recently released. All registered customers were notified of the update via email with download instructions. A free trial version is available if you are not familiar with Total Access Admin.