Efficient ways to open and read MDB files without Microsoft Access
Facing difficulty in opening MDB file? Don’t have MS Access installed on your system? No need to worry. In this technical script, I’ll introduce the methods and tools that can be used to open MDB files without MS Access. So, read this blog till the end and you’ll get to know about a lot of methods.
What’s an MDB file?
MDB is a Microsoft Access database file. Microsoft Access .mdb file extension as its default file format. However, the current version that is being used by Access is ACCDB file format. MDB files contain tables, database queries and some other files in the database that are used to link other applications such as SharePoint, Excel and files like XML, HTML etc.
Open MDB files without Access
There are many scenarios when the users are required to open and view MDB files but they don’t have Microsoft Access installed on their system. So, there should be some alternatives for opening the MDB files for these users. Let’s discuss the various methods to open, edit and view MDB/ ACCDB files without MS Access installed on the system.
Tools for opening MDB files
You can go through the following tools if you don’t have Access installed on your system.
Using MS Excel
You can use Microsoft Excel for opening ACCDB/ MDB files on your system if you don’t have MS Access installed on your system. It is a common practice to use Excel when Microsoft Access do not work. It can be done by importing the .mdb file into MS Excel. But, the data may be saved into spreadsheets most probably.
Libreoffice
Using Libreoffice Base, you can create, view and edit MDB files easily. Also, it is helpful in opening other types of MDB files. You can also sort, modify, search, filter, import and export MDB files.
Oxygen Professional Base
It is also an important tool for viewing MDB files. If you are not able to view and open .mdb files using Libreoffice, it is a good option to use Oxygen Professional base to create, edit and view .mdb and .accdb files. You can also use this tool to import/export MDB files.
Using Apache OpenOffice Base
This tool helps the users to view and edit MDB files after opening it in the absence of Microsoft Access. It can also be used to import and export MDB and ACCDB database files.
Using DB Tool
Similar to other Access database tools, DB Tool supports various database file formats like such as ACCDB, MDB, XML, HTML and many more. It is a free tool but that doesn’t affect its functionality in any way to open, edit and create MDB files.
Using RIA Media Viewer
RIA media viewer is an effective tool that not only supports MDB and ACCDB files but also several other file formats such as FLV, PDF, DBF, SWDF, JPG, XML, HTML and others. It is also a convenient method to open MDB files without Access in a quick manner.
NotePad
Many times the content in MDB files is text based irrespective of the file extension and can be opened using Notepad. However, it may or may not be able to open and display the contents in the MDB file. But, users must give a try using Notepad or some other text editor tool.
Using MDB Viewer
It is a freeware tool that can be used to open, view and read the contents of MDB file without having installed the MS Access. There is a plenty of MDB file viewers but you need to employ an efficient and reliable viewer. I am suggesting one such efficient viewer for opening MDB files i.e. SysInfo MDB File Viewer.
Open corrupt MDB files
Sometimes, you are not able to open and view the contents of the .mdb file even after using the above methods. There are chances that your MDB files have been corrupted. So, in order to fix this corruption, you need to use an MS Access Recovery Tool. This tool is efficient enough to open MDB files without Access and also it repairs the corruptions in the files at the same time. Using it, one can easily recover the corrupt .mdb file and its databases such as tables, keys, data, queries
You may also read: Repair Access Database via Compact and Repair Database Tool
Bottom Lines
I hope you got all the info which you were trying to find. I have mentioned all the methods to open MDB and ACCDB files without the use of Microsoft Access. Also, you can use Access repair software for corrupted MDB files. Hope this helps.
