Microsoft Access Repair

Database frozen, corrupt, or refusing to open? Ring ☎.

In most cases the file can be repaired back to a working state. Where it can’t, we recover as many tables and records as possible and merge them into a clean database that your existing front end will open, so people can carry on working while we sort the rest.

We’ve been doing this on Access databases since 1999. You’ll speak to someone who has seen your error message before.

Before you ring, do these three things

1. Stop using it. Get everyone out of the database now. Every further write into a damaged file makes recovery harder and can overwrite the records still intact.

2. Take a copy of the file before anything else. Copy the back end file somewhere safe and leave that copy alone. If you only do one thing on this list, do this one.

3. Don’t run Compact and Repair on your only copy. Access’s built-in repair works often enough that it’s worth trying, but when it fails it can leave the file in a worse state than it found it. Run it on a copy, never the original.

Then ring ☎ and tell us what the error says.

What we deal with

• Databases that won’t open at all, or open and immediately close
• “Unrecognized database format” and inconsistent-state errors
• Records showing #Error or #Deleted where the data used to be
• Corruption after a network drop, a power cut, or a PC crashing mid-save
• A back end that’s hit the 2GB ceiling and stopped accepting writes
• Corrupt VBA projects: forms that won’t open in design view, code that won’t compile after a crash
• AutoNumber fields that have gone haywire and broken the relationships
• .laccdb lock files left behind, blocking everyone out
• Old .mdb files nothing on a current PC will open
• Accidental deletions, and the “someone overwrote the file with last month’s” phone call
• Backups that turn out not to restore, which is usually how people find out

 How recovery actually works

[IMG-2] — Right-aligned, half column. Genuine recovery output: a table-by-table log with record counts recovered, or a before/after reconciliation. Redacted. Proof this is methodical rather than a repair tool being pointed at a file.
Alt: Microsoft Access data recovery, records recovered by table

We work on copies. The original file you send us is never the one we operate on.

First we establish what’s actually damaged, which is usually one table or one object rather than the whole database. Then we work through the recovery routes in order of how much they preserve: repair in place, import into a clean database, object-by-object extraction, and where the file structure itself is damaged, reading the data out record by record and rebuilding around what comes back.

What you get back is a working database with your front end attached to it, plus a straight account of what was recovered and anything that wasn’t. We’ll tell you early if something isn’t coming back rather than at the end.

Most jobs are dealt with over remote support the same day.

Why it corrupted, and stopping it happening again

Access databases rarely corrupt for no reason. The usual causes:

• Unsplit database with several users in it. One file doing two jobs, with everyone writing to it at once. The single most common cause we see, and the fix is permanent → Access migration and upgrades
• Back end on wifi, a NAS or a VPN. Access wants a stable wired connection to the file. A dropped packet mid-write is how corruption starts.
• Antivirus scanning the database file while it’s open, which the software vendors never mention.
• The 2GB limit creeping up on you. Attachments and images stored inside the database will get you there faster than records ever will.
• Backups that have never been tested. A backup you haven’t restored is a hope, not a backup.

Once you’re back up, a health check will tell you which of those applies to you. It’s the cheapest hour you’ll spend on this.

If it’s not corruption

If the database opens fine and the problem is that everything’s stopped and nobody can work, that’s emergency Access support — ring ☎ rather than email.

If it’s a fault, an error or something that’s broken since an update, that’s Access support and development.

For recovery on SQL Server, MySQL or a bespoke system rather than Access: database recovery and data rescue.