Problems creating MDE to work with different versions

[JimmyN]

I have an MDB on a development machine running Access 2003. The database is in Access 2000 format. I need to create an MDE to distribute around machines running Access 2002. In MDB format the database works fine on all the machines running Access 2002.
I understand that I cannot create an MDE file whilst the database is in 2000 format, so I converted a copy of the database to 2002-2003 format and then created the MDE. This worked fine, and the MDE runs ok on the development machine. However, when I try to run the MDE on a machine running Access 2002 I get an "Unrecognized database format" error. Can anyone help please?

(Originally, I tried to create the MDE by opening the MDB in Access 2000 rather than 2003, but even though it is in Access 2000 format, it would not compile (wrong number of arguments in a DoCmd.OpenReport action))

 

[Hap007]

Dear JimmyN,

There are 4 ways to solve this problem. I listed them from the easiest and least costly to the most expensive.

1) When your app is ready, take your Access 2002 mdb (on your Access 2003 PC) to a machine with Access 2002 and create the 'mde' for distribution on that machine. Now distribute that version.

2) Install Access 2002 on your PC and then you can run 2002 or 2003 based on your needs.

3) You could create the mde using Access 2003, and create an install procedure to create a runtime package that installs Access 2003 runtime on those PC's that do not have the new version of Access 2003. This requires purchasing the Developer extensions product.

4) Update the other systems to Access 2003.

Good Luck,
Hap...

Access Developer

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[JimmyN]

Hap,

Thanks for your help. Option 1 worked fine. I guess I should have thought of this but Access 2003 offers you to convert to 2002-2003 format so I assumed this format would be compatible with 2002. Thanks again.