ACCDB to Excel
Open an Access 2007 or later database as an Excel workbook, one sheet per table, right here on your device.
Conversion desk
On this device
Start with a file
Drop your file here or choose one from your device.
ACCDB · MDB · 5 files at a time, free
Its new format
FromACCDB
ToExcel
Converted on this device. Nothing is uploaded.
Your file's short trip
ACCDB to XLSX
Your file is next.
- Open
- Read tables
- Write the Excel file
- Ready
What to expect
Access only runs on Windows, but an .accdb file turns up everywhere: in a hand-over folder, an old project, an email from a client. Drop it here on a Mac, a Chromebook or any computer with a current browser, and you get an .xlsx workbook with one sheet per table. Nothing is installed and nothing is uploaded.
Column names become the first row of each sheet. Numbers, Yes/No values and dates arrive as real Excel values, so sorting, filters and formulas work straight away. An older .mdb file converts here too.
Three steps
- Drop the .accdb on the box at the top, or choose it from your device.
- If the database is encrypted, its row asks for the password; the next section explains how that works.
- Download the .xlsx once it's ready, then glance at "What changed" under the file for anything that didn't carry over exactly.
Encrypted databases
If the database was saved with Encrypt with Password, the file list asks for that password. Type it, choose Unlock, and the conversion runs again with it. The password stays in this tab for that one attempt; we don't send or store it, and it isn't added to anything we measure. If it's wrong, you can try again right there.
We read the AES encryption Access 2010 and later use by default, and it's the kind in our test databases. The older RC4 kind from Access 2007 is handled by the library we read with, but isn't in our tests yet. A few rare settings aren't supported; for those, remove the password in Access and convert again. In Access, open the database with Open Exclusive, then choose File › Info › Decrypt Database.
What's preserved, what changes
| What | Result |
|---|---|
| Every table | Preserved One sheet per table: 38 tables in our 28 test databases. |
| Access 2007 and later databases (.accdb) | Preserved Read without Access: our 17 test databases, 8 in the 2007 layout, 7 in 2010's and 2 in 2016's; 34 of 34 conversions to Excel and CSV finished. |
| Rows | Preserved Exported in full: in 56 of 56 test conversions, the rows written matched the row count stored in each table, as read by the same open-source library we convert with (46 rows in all). |
| Text, numbers, currency, Yes/No and dates | Preserved Numbers stay numbers, Yes/No becomes TRUE/FALSE and dates from 1 March 1900 on become real date cells. |
| Password-protected ACCDB files | Preserved Open with the right password, and stay closed without it (3 encrypted test databases). |
| Attachments | Approximated Listed by file name; the files themselves aren't exported (4 in our test databases). |
| OLE objects (pictures, documents) | Approximated Shown as [binary]; their content isn't exported. |
| Decimals with more digits than a spreadsheet number holds | Approximated Kept as text, so no digit is lost. |
| Large Number (BigInt) | Approximated Written as text, with every digit. |
| Times without a date, and dates before 1 March 1900 | Approximated Arrive as text, since Excel can't hold them safely as dates. A time Access stored on its own sits on 30 December 1899, so 09:30 arrives as 1899-12-30 09:30:00. |
| Text over 32,767 characters | Approximated Cut to Excel's cell limit, with a count in the notes. CSV keeps the whole text. |
| Tables over 1,048,575 rows | Approximated Split across sheets named after the table, such as "Orders (1)" and "Orders (2)". CSV keeps one file. |
| Queries, relationships, forms, reports, macros and modules | Not converted Stay in Access: only table data is exported, and every conversion says so in its notes. |
| Field formats, input masks, validation rules, lookups, keys and indexes | Not converted Stay in Access. Values come out as they are stored, so currency has no symbol and rows keep their stored order. |
| Linked tables | Not converted Not exported: their data lives in another file. |
| System and temporary tables | Not converted Left out (2 temporary tables in our test databases). |
| Databases over 8,000,000 cells | Not converted Too large for an XLSX made in the browser. CSV converts them. |
Preserved: arrives as it is. Approximated: arrives in a simpler form, as the row describes. Not converted: stays behind.
For an .accdb, two rows deserve a closer look. Attachments arrive as their names, like report.pdf; report.png, so you can see which record had which file, while the files themselves stay inside the database. Large Number arrives as text because Excel keeps only 15 significant digits, and a 19-digit ID stored as a number would come back changed. The "What changed" note under each file counts what was approximated or skipped in that database, so nothing goes missing quietly.
Newer field types
A few field types arrived with .accdb and have no exact match in a spreadsheet:
- Date/Time Extended: date cells, rounded to the millisecond (Access keeps 100 nanoseconds). The note counts the values that were rounded.
- Rich Text and Hyperlink fields: the text Access stores, with its tags or # marks.
- Multi-value fields: left empty when they can't be read, and the note names the field. The other columns are unaffected.
- Calculated fields: not in our test databases yet, so we can't promise how each one comes through.
Limits worth knowing
- One workbook holds up to 8,000,000 cells here (rows times columns, all tables together). Larger databases convert to CSV, one file per table, from the ACCDB page.
- Files over 25 MB can be slow and use a lot of memory; we'll check with you before starting.
- Linked tables point to data outside the file and aren't exported.
- Rows come in the order the file stores them, which can differ from Access's sorted datasheet. Sort the sheet if you need to.
If something goes wrong
- "That password didn't open it": passwords are case-sensitive, so check Caps Lock. It's the password set with Encrypt with Password, not the one for your Windows or Microsoft account.
- "This database uses a version or a kind of encryption we can't read yet": remove the password as described above, or ask whoever sent the file for an unencrypted copy.
- "This database has more cells than one workbook can hold here": open the ACCDB page and choose ACCDB to CSV.
- "This format isn't on our list yet" for an .accde: that's a locked copy made for handing out an Access app. Ask for the .accdb, or for the back-end file that holds the tables. A .laccdb next to a database is only its lock file.
- "This file looks damaged, or it isn't the format its name suggests": an email attachment saved before it finished downloading often looks like this. Save it again and retry.
Try it with a sample file
We don't have an .accdb sample to share yet. This page reads .mdb files as well, so the Access 97 test file sample-access97-types.mdb (116 KB) shows the same steps: drop it above and you get a workbook with four sheets. It comes from the open-source mdb-reader project; the sample notes give its license.
Plans
Free and Pro
The free plan is the real product, not a trial. Pro is for people who convert in bulk, and it isn't open yet.
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Single files | Free, no watermark, no wait | Same |
| Files at a time | Up to 5 | Up to 100 |
| ZIP and folder input | Pick the files instead | Yes |
| Large files | Works; may be slow on some devices | Built for them |
| Account | None needed | Optional |
| Where files go | Nowhere: converted on your device | Nowhere: converted on your device |
| Price | $0 | Week Pass $6 · Pro $7/month or $48/year · coming soon |
Privacy
Check it yourself
You don't have to take our word for it. Your browser can show you exactly what this page sends.
- Open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Option + Command + I on a Mac) and choose the Network tab.
- Convert a file on this page.
- Look through the requests. None of them carries your file: the page loads its code once, then the conversion runs in a Web Worker on your device.
- For a stronger test, turn off Wi-Fi after the page loads, then convert again. It still works.
The conversion worker runs under its own Content Security Policy, which blocks every network request:
default-src 'none'; script-src 'self'The page itself may only talk to this site and our cookieless analytics:
connect-src 'self' https://gateway.umami.is