If I had a pound (or a dollar) every time I hear that Microsoft Access isn’t good enough when it comes to multiple ‘simultaneous’ users and that performance degradation and crashing issues are the main symptoms when trying to share a database Access data; I could retire and dedicate more time to the society that really needs my help!

In 2004, I was asked to create an access database that would handle over 30 users to use and place orders, process them, and have products fulfilled by other members in a manufacturing module. First of all, I had to establish not how many users but how much competitor The users were expected to use the Microsoft Access database application, which the customer confirmed would require 25-30 users to access the same database at the same time.

There are many opinions about whether Microsoft Access can really handle multiple users and large volumes of data, and there sure are. professionals Y imbeciles (which will not be covered here), there is a saying in any field of expertise “Put 7 experts in a room and ask them for an opinion and you will get 21 different answers.“

My point of view is simple; try Microsoft Access first, and then at least if you need to move on to a larger app, you can carry on knowing you at least tried.

So, to help you, here are 5 reasons to deal with and get rid of the myth why Access can be used in a multi-user environment.

1. The most popular action to take is to split the Access database into two parts. Have all the tables in one database and the remaining objects in another. Be sure to store the ‘Tables’ database (commonly known as BE- Rear) on the server or network folder shared with the other database (commonly known as FE – Interface) on each user’s desktop that has a link to the BE database.
2. When designing your tables, learn how to set indexing for commonly used fields and not just set the ‘Principal’ key on a table. The other type of key that is often overlooked is known as a ‘Foreign’ key. All of this helps with performance and speeds up queries in Microsoft Access.
3. Loading forms can consume a lot of memory, and to help performance and avoid blocking, consider opening a form like ‘Without consolidating’ to the data source. You can then fill in the data through a macro or VBA code to handle the data when needed.
4. The use of forms and reports is an overhead that can be easily controlled (and is one of the reasons they are stored on the desktop). Keep the number of controls to a minimum, which means fewer tab pages and unnecessary text boxes to hold calculations and other hidden values. There are better ways to handle this, but it will require a simple knowledge of VBA code.
5. spent’local‘ temporary tables to handle offline processing which can then be sent to the BE database when needed to help keep traffic as free as possible.

There are other techniques that can be added to help handle multiple ‘competitorBut first-time users say that you can use a Microsoft Access database over a network as a simulated client/server database application.