Connecting to a 2007 Microsoft Access database (.accdb) in ArcGIS

Microsoft Office 2007 introduced a new Microsoft Access database format, accdb, which is the new default format in Access 2007 when saving or creating a database. Without using OLE DB, ArcGIS cannot directly read or write to the new Microsoft Access format; this includes accessing accdb files directly through the Add Data dialog box.

1. If Microsoft Office 2007 is installed on the same machine as ArcGIS, skip to step 2. If attempting to connect to an .accdb file on a machine that does not have Microsoft Office 2007, you will need to install the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable driver.
2. Add the OLE DB Connection command as a button to a toolbar in ArcCatalog.
   1. Click Customize on the main menu and click Customize mode.

      The Customize dialog box opens.

   2. Click the Commands tab.

      

   3. Choose ArcCatalog from the Categories list.
   4. Drag Add OLE DB Connection from the Commands list onto a toolbar in ArcCatalog.

   The Add OLE DB Connection button is added to the toolbar.

3. Click the Add OLE DB Connection button.

   The Data Link Properties dialog box appears in which you can create an OLE DB connection.

   

4. Click the Provider tab.
5. Click Microsoft Office 12.0 Access Database Engine OLE DB Provider.
6. Click Next.
7. On the Connection tab, specify the database or browse to it in section one. If the database has a password, enter that information in section two.
8. Click Test Connection to verify that you can connect to the database.
9. Click OK if the connection test was successful.
10. Type a new name for the connection and press ENTER.
11. To use the Access table, browse to the table through the OLE DB connection and add it to ArcMap.

Note:

Linked tables in Access are not viewable through an OLE DB connection, although Access queries are available. To use the linked table, create a query in Access that references the linked table and connect to the linked table through the query in the OLE DB connection.

Note:

Because OLE DB connections do not have an Object ID field, which is a field maintained by ArcGIS that guarantees a unique ID for each row in the table, you won't be able to perform certain operations in ArcMap. These include selecting the features in the layer on the map in any way, applying a definition query, creating full relates, or editing the attributes. For more information about working with tables that lack Object IDs, see Fundamentals of Object ID fields.