System.InvalidOperationException: The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.

This error gets reported every now and then and this is my try to explain what is going on.

The scenario: You have written a .Net app that connects and interacts with Access 2007.

When you move it to an x64 machine, it stops working with the following error exception:

System.InvalidOperationException: The 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.

   at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbServicesWrapper.GetDataSource(OleDbConnectionString constr, DataSourceWrapper& datasrcWrapper)

   at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnectionInternal..ctor(OleDbConnectionString constr, OleDbConnection connection)

   at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnectionFactory.CreateConnection(DbConnectionOptions options, Object poolGroupProviderInfo, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection owningObject)

   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.CreateNonPooledConnection(DbConnection owningConnection, DbConnectionPoolGroup poolGroup)

   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection)

   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory)

   at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection.Open()

Ok, so first, let’s do this step by step.

.1 Create a new accdb file. So open up Access 2007 and create a new database in C:\Temp, call it Access2007.accdb

.2 Create some columns and rows like this:

ID FirstName LastName

2 Mike Spike

3 Steve Stevenson

4 John Johnson

.3 Save the table as AccessTable

.4 Start Visual Studio (on 64 bit machine) and create a new C# console application and replace the code in the main method with this:

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            string directory = @"C:\Temp";

            string file = "Access2007.accdb";

            string sql = "SELECT ID, FirstName, LastName FROM AccessTable";

            string cs = String.Format(@"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source={0}\{1};Persist Security Info=False;", directory, file);

           

   try

            {

                using(OleDbConnection connection = new OleDbConnection(cs))

                {

                    connection.Open();

                    using(OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand(sql, connection))

                {

                        OleDbDataReader rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();

                        while(rdr.Read())

                        {

                            Console.WriteLine("ID:{0}, FirstName: {1}, LastName: {2}", rdr[0], rdr[1], rdr[2]);

                        }

                    }

                    connection.Close();

                }

            }

            catch(Exception ex)

            {

                Console.WriteLine(ex);

            }

        }

.5 Run it and you should get the exception above.

So what is going on?

Well, there is currently no 64bit version of the Access driver, only a 32bit version.

To make a long story short, by default your .Net project will be compiled with the anycpu platform switch. This means that when Windows have examined the .exe header

it will (on a 64 bit machine) decide that this is a 64bit process. Of course, if you were running on a 32bit machine, Windows would decide that this is a 32 bit process.

But when running as a 64bit process, the 32bit driver will not be found.

So, since there is no 64 bit version of the Access driver, we need to run the .exe as a 32 bit (Wow64 application) process on the 64 bit machine.

This is easy to do.

.1 Right click your project and select Properties.

.2 Select Build and select x86 in the Platform Target dropdown.

.3 Save, Rebuild and run you project, you should now get the rows for the table.

"C# Language Reference - /platform (Specify Output Platform) (C# Compiler Options)"

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zekwfyz4.aspx

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 27, 2009
  PingBack from http://www.clickandsolve.com/?p=15657

• Anonymous
  June 09, 2010
  I have tried this fix...did not resolve the issue

• Anonymous
  June 20, 2010
  I have tried to troubleshoot why it is not displaying the records, found out here what's the reason. I am running Win 7 on  a 64bit machine. Thank you.

• Anonymous
  August 13, 2010
  I have also tried this.  I do have MS Access 2007 installed, and I have my DB Library class project as well as the test application project both selected as x86 and I still get the error when I attempt to open the OleDbConnection.  I am running Windows 7 home premium 64-bit using Visual Studio 2010.

• Anonymous
  March 08, 2011
  nice article keep posting this type of articles

• Anonymous
  March 10, 2012
  I have Access 2010 and your suggestion worked perfectly with VC 2010 C# program.