After seeing this one in forums numerous times over the years, and being contacted via my blog regarding this issue, I thought it was long time overdue that I briefly touch upon this error:
Cannot open a database created with a previous version
What Is This All About?
The short of it is that newer versions of Access no longer support older versions of the MDB file format. They only support the newest 2000 and 2002-2003 MDB file formats.
So if you get the above error message that indicates that your MDB is in an even earlier MDB format, ’97, … 2.0, …
What Are You To Do Then?
The only solution is to use an intermediary version of Access, such as Access 2010, to open the MDB and convert it to ACCDB file format. Once converted, then you will have no problem opening the file in the newer versions of Access.
That said, is it really in your interest to upgrade to a 20 year old format? Who knows when Microsoft will stop supporting it and you will be back at the same point needing to upgrade the file format once again. Why not bring it up-to-date properly once and be done with the issue altogether!
Obviously, after conversion you should ensure the VBA code compiles without any errors as sometimes coding needs to be fixed and then test it out to make sure everything is still fully functional.
Also, be careful as if you’ve gone from running an older 32-bit version of Access to a newer 64-bit version, then you’ll need to update your code in consequence, ActiveX controls, … So sometimes, there is more to the upgrade than just the file format itself. This is why testing is critical!
