My MS Access can connect to Azure Synapse SQL Serverless Pool, but failed to obtain data.

Jason Wong 20 Reputation points
2025-10-31T04:54:56.94+00:00

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I connect from local MS Access File to Azure Synapse SQL Serverless Pool. I can connect to the db, and select the table and its column, but failed after select the column and got the error above.

And another error message said the process is occupied by other, but we are in development phase, I am the only one who is using.

Are there anyone who know how to solve it? Thanks.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | Development
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  1. Dora-T 7,550 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-10-31T09:02:09.8366667+00:00

    Hi @Jason Wong

    Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum and sharing your issue. 

    Based on my research, this error can sometimes occur when Synapse SQL serverless is unable to list or read the folder that the external table references, or when there are permission or authentication issues between Synapse and the underlying storage.

    You can review the following points to help identify and possibly resolve the issue: 

    • Confirm that the external table and data source are defined correctly and point to a valid folder or file path. 
    • Check that the Synapse workspace or its managed identity has permission to access the storage location. You can also refer to a similar discussion here for more details: External table 'dbo.V1' is not accessible because content of directory cannot be listed.
    • If your ODBC connection uses Azure Active Directory authentication, reconnecting Microsoft Access may help refresh the session if the token has expired. 

    For more information, you can refer to the Microsoft Learn article: Known issues - Azure Synapse Analytics | Microsoft Learn 

    I hope this helps. If the issue persists after checking these points, please feel free to let me know. 


    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. 


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