Monday, October 29, 2012

How to Fix Access Database Error 3049


Access database 'error 3049' may occur either when you are trying to open mdb file or when you are trying to add data in your database.  




Reasons:

If you check the description of the error, you will find the two main causes of the error:


  • You tried to open another database, such as a dBASE, SQL database which is not linked to existing Microsoft Jet database. 
  • The error can occur when your mdb file has become corrupted.
  • One more reason that I have found that Access database single file size limit is 2 GB so if you tried to add data which get exceeds with 2 GB limit, this error get occur. 


PS: Before doing anything else, make a copy of the corrupted mdb file while Access is NOT running, and without overwriting any earlier backups. This lets you try different approaches and sequences if necessary.

Solutions:


  • Try the built-in compact & repair utility: Tools | Database Utilities | Compact/Repair. This option work in both cases. It helps in reduce the file size slightly and also work with corrupted database, and might even get rid of a corrupted access database object.
  • Once the compacting and repairing processes are finished, you will no longer receive this error message. 
  • If the database cannot be repaired through compact & repair utility then you should restore access database from a backup copy, or create a new database.
  • You can work around access database file size limitation by using a split database. The advantage of this feature is that a front-end database file can point to multiple back-end database files, each of which could be as large as 2GB.
  • If all above steps get failed to fix this error then you should use access repair software to repair corrupt access database


Compact & Repair utility helps users to make database in healthy condition. You should regularly or weekly run compact & repair utility to prevent your database from such type of errors. 

5 comments:

  1. Hi Adam,

    Thanks a lot for such a nice article, you have saved my life!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi,

    My database is corrupt, please suggest me how to get rid from this problem?

    Original size of database is 23 GB but after corruption, the file size is only 286 MB. I have tried Repair & Compact but it didn't help me. Is there any other method to repair corrupt Access database file?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Jim,

    Thanks for posting!!

    Have you maintained the backup of database? If yes then use it. Backup is the best method to recover data from corrupt file.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yep well done made troubleshooting very easy, only extra tip I'd add is to hit F12 when opening the file if it is protected and the Database Tools tab isn't showing.

    ReplyDelete