Encrypt or decrypt a database

Encrypting a database compacts the database file, and makes it indecipherable by a utility program or word processor. Decrypting a database reverses the encryption.

1. Start Microsoft Access without opening a database.

   Important   You can't encrypt or decrypt a database when it is open. In a multiuser environment, the encrypt or decrypt operation fails if another user has the database open.

2. On the Tools menu, point to Security, and then click Encrypt/Decrypt Database.
   
   
3. Specify the database you want to encrypt or decrypt, and then click OK.
   
   
4. Specify a name, drive, and folder for the encrypted or decrypted database; and then click OK.

   If you use the same name, drive, and folder as the original database, and the database is encrypted or decrypted successfully, Microsoft Access automatically replaces the original file with the encrypted or decrypted version. If an error occurs, Microsoft Access doesn't delete the original file.

Notes

• If user-level security has been defined, to encrypt or decrypt a database, you must either be the owner of the database or a member of the Admins group and have Open Exclusive permission on the database. Otherwise, the encrypt or decrypt operation fails.
  
  
• If an object in a version 1.x database includes the backquote character (`) in its object name, you won't be able to encrypt the database. Use Microsoft Access version 1.x to rename it, and then change the references to that object in your queries, forms, reports, macros, and Access Basic code.
  
  
• Encrypting a database doesn't restrict access to objects. For more information on other security methods, click .
  
  
• The encrypt or decrypt operation fails if you don't have enough storage space on your disk for both the original and encrypted or decrypted versions of the database.