Access 32-bit Is Getting Large Address Aware (LAA)

It would seem that Microsoft has finally decided to make Access 32-bit Large Address Aware (LAA) thus enabling it to access 4GB of memory rather than just 2GB, if we can believe the updated roadmap:

Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365
The Microsoft 365 Roadmap lists updates that are currently planned for applicable subscribers. Check here for more information on the status of new features and updates.

It’s taken years! I can trace back a suggestion on UserVoice (remember that) from 2017 (6 years!) that had over 300 votes (that’s HUGE in terms of Access requests)!!! And there had been requests circulating even before that.

As they say, better late than never.

Does Not Change The 2GB Max File Size!
Note that this is an increase in allowable/accessible virtual memory available to the msaccess.exe process to perform operations (queries, …). It in no way changes the maximum allowable database file size of 2GB. That remains, as is, unchanged!

The Source Of The Problem

If you’re not familiar why this is needed, then I urge you to read my post on the matter:

Access - System Resource Exceeded
Today I thought I’d try and cover the subject of Access reporting back errors like: System Resource Exceeded There isn’t enough memory to perform this operation What’s the Source of the Problem? Many report these issues occurring on databases that were working fine for years and once they upgraded Access versions, the newer version would report such an error and then crash.

Or here’s another article from Mike Wolfe on the subject:

Large Address Aware Flag
Getting a lot of “Out of memory” errors in newer versions of Access? This trick can more than triple your available memory in 32-bit versions of Access.

and yet another from Philipp Stiefel:

The /LARGEADDRESSAWARE (LAA) flag - Remedy for out-of-memory errors
How to apply the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE (LAA) flag to the MsAccess.exe to get rid of out-of-memory and resources exceeded errors.

 

Availability Of The Update/Fix

Beta Testing

I believe this feature is already available to Insiders/Beta channel users, should you want to get in on early testing and provide feedback.

For this to be worthwhile of your time, you would need to already have very heavy queries/operations that previously triggered the “System Resource Exceeded” or “There isn’t enough memory to perform this operation” errors so you can validate the fix worked in resolving the issue.

For the Rest of Us Commoners

Based on the Roadmap, it will be released on the Current channel, thus Microsoft 365, in November 2023.

So it would seem 2016, 2019, 2021 (or earlier versions) will all be out of luck on this one!  Let’s hope I’m wrong about that, but these perpetual versions are known to never get feature updates, so it’s a good bet they won’t see any such improvement.

So sadly, the vast majority of the people who originally made the request and most need the fix will probably never have access to this feature/benefit/fix.

7 responses on “Access 32-bit Is Getting Large Address Aware (LAA)”

    1. Daniel Pineault Post author

      I’m aware of such tool and workarounds, but that’s not the point of the post. There are several such tools, but one shouldn’t need workarounds!

      Karl did a YouTube video demonstrating how to implement LAA (link in my article). Philipp’s webpage details a step-by-step implementation of LAA. So the knowledge has been available for years.

      This issue is this should have been addressed internally by Microsoft years ago!

      Furthermore, I also don’t like any business/website that collects information and forces me to opt-in to receiving e-mails from them. For that reason alone I have never tried the product.

      The point here is that Microsoft has had such capabilities for over a decade and they are finally going to implement it. At least moving forward workarounds won’t be necessary for users of Microsoft 365. For everyone running older version, well they can still apply LAA with one of many workaround (and reapply after ever update).

      1. Karl Donaubauer

        At my German Access conference AEK in mid October a presenter will show his tool that can automatically reset LAA after a Microsoft update. We discussed if this is still useful after Microsoft’s announcement (and the mentioned tool) and decided to do it anyway. Reasons:

        – We expect that not all affected Access versions and variants will get LAA.
        – Even if Microsoft can meet the planned rollout _start_ in November, it might take more time to deliver it to all channels and variants.
        – The tool can do more and in a more automated way than the one mentioned, and it does not need to be installed as an add-in.
        – We plan to make it freely available after the conference, without collecting email addresses. If there is still a need/demand, probably also in an English version.

        1. Daniel Pineault Post author

          I think that is great!

          The fix from Microsoft may help MS365 users, but it leaves all other users in the lurch! Furthermore, as you state, it will take months to roll out to the various channels.

          So I think your offering still has a very wide audience!

  2. John F Clark

    “There are several such tools, but one shouldn’t need workarounds!”
    “This issue is this should have been addressed internally by Microsoft years ago!”
    Amen, amen and A-MEN!

  3. Dogeron

    I’ve previously used Large Address Aware.exe to enable LAA.

    But in the last 24 hours both my clients (Office2019) and myself (Office2016) have sudddenly started getting 2GB memory error warnings again.

    It looks like the most recent updates has modified the MSACCESS.EXE executable – the new files size is greater than the previous original (MSACCESS_orig.exe) – see below

    01/11/2023 14:42 17,108,080 MSACCESS – Copy.EXE
    06/12/2023 09:26 17,108,080 MSACCESS.EXE
    10/10/2023 15:32 17,091,072 MSACCESS_orig.EXE

    Is any one else having the same issue?