Decompile Microsoft Access Database

Reason

Microsoft Access sometimes tends to mess up the compiled code. By decompiling the database, you get a database that basically consists of source code without compiled code. Decompilation is not only a means of getting corrupted databases back to life, it also sometimes significantly decreases the size of the database.

Preliminaries

• End all instances of Microsoft Access; you can check the task manager for running MSACCESS.EXE tasks, in order to be safe.
• Make a backup of the corrupt database.
• Locate the file MSACCESS.EXE; it is usually found under %PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Office\OfficeNN where NN complies to your version of Microsoft Office.

Decompilation

• Press: Win + R (Run)
• Enter: your\path\to\MSACCESS.EXE /decompile
• Hold Shift (this suppresses the execution of code in your database)
• Open database
• Release Shift
• Press: Alt + F11 (this will open up the Visual Basic Editor (VBE))
• Choose Menu: Debug, choose menu item: Compile (this will compile all modules)

Clean up

• You can quit the "decompile version" of MSACCESS.EXE now.
• You can compact and repair your database file.