Database Format Not Recognized

In today’s world, both large companies and family businesses need to have their database organized and structured in order to function correctly. For this, Microsoft Access is an essential and productive tool. However, we may encounter the error of The database format is not recognized.

This error prevents us from accessing our database normally and thus our work is interrupted, since we cannot manipulate the information and resources contained therein. But don’t worry, for this we will show you the causes and solutions to resolve this problem.

The database format is not recognized error can have multiple causes, mostly derived from compatibility problems between the files or some malfunction of the Microsoft Access or Visual Studio application. Here we will list the main causes of this error.

Inappropriate permissions for the database. When we update the Windows Server and determine the new parameters in relation to the permissions of the administrator and the rest of the users, we may have somehow made a bad configuration of it and this is what prevents us from accessing our database as we came. doing.
Using Access 2016 with Visual Studio 2012. When you try to open a database created with Microsoft Access 2016 in Visual Studio 2021, a due to the change in the online provider’s Microsoft Ace OLE DB. So you must update Server Explorer to have the Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0.
Open database in different versions. By having your database in different versions, you can create a compatibility error between them that prevents you from opening it. Likewise, if you abruptly close the database without allowing it to save completely, you may create a format error in the file.
Suffering from a virus attack. Databases are information coveted by hackers, so they are easy targets to be attacked by any virus that infects the computer or network where said database is shared.
Hardware problems. Your hard drive or server may have bad sectors where the database is hosted and therefore you cannot access it. It may also happen that the files are corrupt or there is some other hardware failure that prevents the computer from functioning correctly.

Beyond the causes of the database format not recognized message, here we will present the various solutions you can take to get rid of this problem.

Fix error database format is not recognized

Use automatic repair

Microsoft Access has among its options the tool to repair the database format by reconstructing its information. You can carry out this process as follows:

Import damaged database to a new one

If your database is corrupt or you simply cannot open it, you can try to import the information into a new database and thus not have the inconvenience of losing the valuable data it has. To do this, you just have to do this procedure:

Create a new database in Microsoft Access.
Then press External Data in the top tab and go to Access
In the window of Get External Data,
Press Examine and choose damaged database
Select all objects to import and save.

In many cases, this will allow you to recover information from your damaged database and save it as a new, fully functional file.

Assign the correct Microsoft Access permissions

If only the domain administrator can fully access the files, this will prevent the rest of the users from being able to open the files and you will receive the message that the database format is not recognized.

To do this, you must grant permissions to all users or assign administrator rights to everyone. In order to do this, the domain administrator must verify that all users are connected to the same network where the database is located and that they all have custom permissions according to the administrator’s needs.

Fix the frxque32.mdb file

The file frxque32.mdb It is a fundamental part of the operation of our database, so its malfunction may be the cause of the problem with access to our database. To solve this, just :

Open the database in previous versions

If you have created your database in a version of older than the one you have installed on your computer, the latest being Access 2019, it is very likely that you have compatibility problems between files and that is why you get the error that the database format is not recognized, since there is an indexed process that may be incompatible between versions.

To do this, the simplest solution is to try to open your file in the version of the program in which it was created or transfer the data to a recent Access file that you have installed and test if you can open the file.

Use third-party programs to recover database

If the previous alternatives do not provide a solution, you can try repairing your database with a third-party program. For this we recommend the program, which offers you a powerful tool to repair corrupt and damaged files, and is also compatible with the various versions of Access.