Access – Runtime “The database you are trying to open requires a newer version of Microsoft Access.”

The Headache

Are you running Access 2016 Runtime and getting the error

The database you are trying to open requires a newer version of Microsoft Access.

when you try to run your database. Well, this may be caused by the use of the ‘Large Number’ (BigInt) field data type.

Sadly, Runtime does not support ‘Large Number’ . Yes, you heard right. So although Microsoft added it to the full version, it is not supported by runtime.

The Reason

From what I understand of the overall situation, and feel free to correct me if anyone knows otherwise, Microsoft has taken the stance of:

Only providing bug fixes to the Perpetual License versions (MSI, the umbreall under which the runtime version falls) – The actual MSI Access Runtime download was last updated on Microsoft’s site December 2015!
Providing updates and bug fixes to the Click-to-Run (CTR/C2R) version (so basically Office 365)

As such, the runtime version hasn’t seen the ‘Large Number’ feature added/updated into it.

The Solution

There are 2 possible solutions:

Change all the ‘Large Number’ data type fields to ‘Number’ data types.
Convert all your users away from runtime version. So provide them with the full version of Access. (Don’t forget that you call still simulate the runtime environment by using the /runtime command line switch) Of course this is less than ideal because this can have significant cost implications.

Microsoft, the company long known for having outstanding backwards compatibility where one can still open an mdb file more than a decade after the file format was superseded, has created within it own most recent version (CTR) an incompatibility with the MSI of the same version. <head smack /> < eye roll/> There are just no words!

One response on “Access – Runtime “The database you are trying to open requires a newer version of Microsoft Access.””

Klaus Bergmann July 25, 2018 at 5:57 pm

I have read on many places that Microsoft has released a C2R version of the Access 2016 Runtime. You mentioned it last year: https://www.devhut.net/2017/02/23/newsinfo-from-the-ms-access-dev-team/
And the Access Team has written about it many times on UserVoice. They never mentioned a download page but they said everytime that the C2R Runtime is available for Office 365 Subscribers.

I have recently discovered that the Office 2016 Deployment Tool includes the ProductID “AccessRuntimeRetail” which could be this runtime many developers are looking for. If this is the case the Runtime is only available to subscribers to Office 365 ProPlus but my question is: who really needs an Access Runtime that could be installed on a system with Office 365? Every plan that I know of includes Access so it makes much more sense to install the full version with all features. Or am I missing something here?

Klaus Bergmann July 25, 2018 at 5:57 pm

I have read on many places that Microsoft has released a C2R version of the Access 2016 Runtime. You mentioned it last year: https://www.devhut.net/2017/02/23/newsinfo-from-the-ms-access-dev-team/
And the Access Team has written about it many times on UserVoice. They never mentioned a download page but they said everytime that the C2R Runtime is available for Office 365 Subscribers.

I have recently discovered that the Office 2016 Deployment Tool includes the ProductID “AccessRuntimeRetail” which could be this runtime many developers are looking for. If this is the case the Runtime is only available to subscribers to Office 365 ProPlus but my question is: who really needs an Access Runtime that could be installed on a system with Office 365? Every plan that I know of includes Access so it makes much more sense to install the full version with all features. Or am I missing something here?