Using Microsoft Access with File Sharing Services: Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.

In this video, I will explain why you should not use file sharing services such as OneDrive, Google Drive, or DropBox to run your Microsoft Access databases with multiple simultaneous users. You will end up with missing data at best, and a corrupted database at worst.

Lesly from Twin Falls, Idaho (a Platinum Member) asks: In your previous videos, you say not to run Microsoft Access on any file sharing services. I've been using Google Drive to host my Access database for years without any problems. Granted, there's only my secretary and I using the database, but it's a good solution for us and we haven't run into any problems. Why are you so against it?

Silver Members and up get access to an Extended Cut of this video. Members will see how to build a solution that will allow one user at a time to "check out" the Microsoft Access database, much like you would check a book out of a library. This will allow you to host your database on a file sharing service, provided only one user at a time is working with it.

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QUESTIONS:
Please feel free to post your questions or comments below. Thanks.

[JennRankine]

I'm a freelance web developer and working with both MacOS and Windows via virtual machine. Started using Access (I'm a newbie) to wrangle my personal and business documents and finances and OneDrive has been syncing everything. I kinda figured syncing Access was not a good idea but figured I'd cross that bridge when I got to it. Weeellll, I just got to that bridge and it's backed up with traffic and everyone's stuck! hehe. Poor OneDrive has been trying to keep up with me building a database and has been syncing for a while now and my Mac has been throttling like crazy which it hasn't done - ever. OneDrive finally crashed to the point I couldn't shut down or force quit the virtual machine so I had to shut down everything. So here I am googling for answers and ran into your video *hanging my head in shame*. Folks, I know this was a long story but I just wanted to reiterate Mr. Rost and everyone else's advice. Don't do it! I'm digitally paranoid so I have backups and backups of my backups from several services. I'm about to check to see if there's any damages so, here goes... *fingers crossed*

[jontrinder]

This is an excellent demo of some of the issues encountered (I have seen these happen but didn't really know why until now being an access newbie!) What are your thoughts on MS Dataverse? I looked at Sharepoint before but it doesn't handle relationships very well. Will you be doing a video on this? Thanks for all the content.

[ballaomer]

Can u tell me, What should we do if we want to used by more than 1 user, and share the back end file ?

[islammmi]

You are very organized .. I really like your videos

[SamA-jgvy]

Have things changed with the way that Microsoft Access works? I'm just curios because I have a split database, the back end data table is hosted on oneDrive, and I have multiple copies of the "front end" file (one copy distributed to each user) which contains the forms and reports. I have never had a problem with even as many as 8 people using the database simultaneously. Why does it seem to work for me?

[ptzzycool]

Thanks for all the advice provided in this tutorial regarding Access Sharing issues, pros, and cons.
I do have one question here and that is, how about sharing your split database using a mapped shared drive or folder on a wired LAN network? I am just curious. I actually tried doing that and managed to successfully share it with only two computers. With the rest, I am getting all kinds of error messages. I am asking this here because I'm thinking that if it works with at least one or two computers, why wouldn't it work with the others. I'd appreciate your response to this. Thanks.

[JesusJoaquinMorenoCarreño]

what is the link of your sharepoint seminar?

[SimplyAmazing]

Hello! I’m currently trying to convert my db online because my job got rid of our local servers in favor of one drive :/ my question is what’s the difference between using windows hosting and Apache hosting. Will I lose VBA functionality?

[johnrickparohinog]

what is the best to use? i have problem with that

[NeoQJ]

At around 1:10, for the text 番号 I think is miss translation for Japanese. 番号 means number in Japanese as 電話番号 means phone no. Not sure the proper translation for No in Japanese though.

[izuanheadstompvega]

What about links to files like pdf and pictures? I just want to share the pdf, docx and pictures to Google drive because lack of space on each user pc.

[ngoydho]

Hello, I would like to ask you about to share the Backend file with multi user in google driver but the problem with the syncing of google drive properties. So how do I do ?

[rabidfollower]

Maybe Access should simply forbid linking to online storage folders. Software design 101: if it allows the user to do something and it doesn't work, it's the software's fault, not the user's. For instance, in External Data -> New Data Source -> From Database -> Access -> Browse, simply not show all the OneDrive, Google Drive, etc. folders, so the user can't link to anything in them.

[nikolaradovic]

Hi guys, i have problem with acess database, he is created a few year ago (2) and multiple user can use them on sharefolder, but now when 2 user on same time want to acess give message dont have exlusive right to acess .If any know what is answer please reply, thanks 😊

[Byrkster]

My company is moving to a cloud platform. I was told that I cannot use Access on the CLOUD (AZURE). Is this true?

[indtak]

Sir I want public my ms acess it is possible.

[stuartround]

There's simply no reason to ever do this. If you need to share a database in multiple locations it makes far more sense to split the database and have the tables in mysql and copies of the front end on each user's local machine. Alternatively, you can use remote desktop to access the database on another PC.

[Stepan_H]

Old verstion of MS Access, mdb, support replication. New version, accdb, does'nt. I never used it, but it coud be programmed. I guess, It will be highly complicated and inefficient, but there are a lot of people, who are masochist... They would program the synchronization purely for fun ...