Dealing with MS Access Error 80004005

There are various errors associated with MS Access database, when some kind of corruption occurs in the database. This article enlists problem, root cause and solution for MS Access error 80004005 –



"The Microsoft Jet database engine cannot open the file". While connecting to Microsoft Access database, one may get the following error message -



Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' "The Microsoft Jet database engine cannot open the file '(unknown)'". It is already opened exclusively by another user, or you need permission to view its data.



This error might prove fatal for MDB database, thus compelling the user going for Access Database Repair.



Following are the causes for this error message 80004005:

The account that MS Internet Information Server (IIS) is using is not having the correct Windows NT permissions for a file-based database or for the folder that contains the file.



The file and the data source name marked as Exclusive.

Another user is working on same Access database or some process is going on.



There is a delegation issue. Check the authentication provided, if any. If the connection string uses the Universal Naming Convention (UNC), try to use Basic authentication or an absolute path such as C:\Mydata\Data.mdb. This problem can occur even if the UNC points to a resource that is local to the IIS computer.



You are accessing a local MS Access database that is linked to a table where the table is in an Access database on a network server.



Not to worry, there are some troubleshooting steps that help in resolving this error and fixing up the corrupt MDB database and repair access data. Follow the given below steps:



Check the permissions on the file & the folder and create and/or destroy any temporary files. Temporary files are usually created in the same folder as the database, but the file may also be created in other folders such as the WINNT folder.



Make sure that the file and the data source name (DSN) are not marked as Exclusive.



The "other user" may be MS Visual InterDev. Close any Visual InterDev projects that contain a data connection to the database.



Use a System DSN that uses a local drive letter. If necessary, move the database to the local drive to test.



If above steps are performed then error '80004005' "The Microsoft Jet database engine cannot open the file '(unknown)'" gets resolved most of the times. But sometimes troubleshooting doesn’t serve the purpose. Access database .MDB gets damaged badly and you need to perform Access Database repair. Access Recovery tool is available that impeccably repairs the damaged .mdb file and recovers data from it. Objects like tables, queries, relationships, etc. get recovered easily within just few mouse clicks.