Access from multiple Computers

Question

Is it possible to access the same MS ACCESS database from multiple PCs? Perhaps with a password?

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible, so long as the database is on the same local network, accessible to all the PCs.  Access is designed to be multiuser, right out of the box.  However, there are a number of problems that come with having multiple PCs using the same database file.  Most of those problems are solved by splitting the database into a "back-end" database, containing only the tables, and a "front-end" database containing linked tables pointing to the back-end, along with all the queries, forms, reports, macros, and VBA modules.  The back-end database sits on the network share, and every user gets their own copy of the front-end, installed on their own PC.  That way, multiple users don't content for the same front-end, and only data gets sent back and forth across the network to the back-end. This split-database setup is the recommended way to share an Access database among multiple users.

As far as passwords go, you can password-protect an Access database (front-end and/or back-end), but if you want to have every user have their own separate password, you have to build that functionality yourself.  The older .mdb format, now superseded by the .accdb format, supported "user-level security" (AKA "workgroup security"), with separate usernames and passwords associated with permissions on various database objects.  Unfortunately, the newer .accdb format doesn't support user-level security. so unless you want to use the .mdb format, with the limitations that implies, you have to "roll your own" user-level security.

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Dirk Goldgar, MS Access MVP
Access tips: www.datagnostics.com/tips.html

Answer 2

Hi Nat Sierra,

please visit the links below to get the information regarding using MS Access Database on multiple pcs.

Ways to share an Access desktop database

Database - How do I use an Access database from multiple computers (in a network)?

Disclaimer: This response contains a reference to a third party World Wide Web site. Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. Microsoft does not control these sites and has not tested any software or information found on these sites; therefore, Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. There are inherent dangers in the use of any software found on the Internet, and Microsoft cautions you to make sure that you completely understand the risk before retrieving any software from the Internet.

Regards

Deepak

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Answer 3

Ways to share an Access desktop database

That article conflates some extremely different ways of "sharing a database", while not recognizing that three of the ways it describes are essentially the same.  What it describes as "Share a split database", "Share a database by linking to SharePoint lists", and "Share a database by using a server", are all variations on the split database method I already described, just using different types of databases as the back-end.  Note that linked Sharepoint lists are very limited.  By contrast, an Access Web Database is an entirely different thing from the familiar Access desktop database -- nice for making basic data available to web users, but with very limited functionality compared to the Access desktop database.

Database - How do I use an Access database from multiple computers (in a network)?

This article describes only the least-recommend way of sharing an Access database.

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Dirk Goldgar, MS Access MVP
Access tips: www.datagnostics.com/tips.html