You cannot edit a database that was saved in Access 2010 if you open the database in Office Access 2007

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    Access 2010, Microsoft Office Access 2007

Original KB number:   982277

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

  • You create and then save a database in Microsoft Office Access 2007.
  • You open the database in Microsoft Access 2010, add a data macro to a table in the database, and then save the changes to the database.
  • You open the database in Office Access 2007, and then try to edit the table.

In this scenario, you cannot edit the table. Additionally, you receive the following error message:

In Office Access 2007 together with the 2007 Microsoft Office system Service Pack 2 installed

This database uses some features which may be incompatible with the current version of Microsoft Office Access.

In Office Access 2007 together with the 2007 Microsoft Office system Service Pack 1 installed or in the RTM release version of Office Access 2007

Unrecognized database format 'path\file_name'.

Cause

This issue occurs because a new feature that is not supported in Office Access 2007 was added to the database in Access 2010.

Workaround

To work around this issue, use one of the following methods.

Method 1

Install Access 2010, and then edit the database.

Method 2

To edit the database in Office Access 2007, follow these steps:

  1. Open the database in Access 2010.
  2. Delete the new feature, such as the data macro, from the database.
  3. Create a new database in Access 2010, and then import all objects from the old database into the new database.
  4. Save the new database in Access 2010, and then edit the new database in Office Access 2007.