Microsoft KB Archive/246033

= You receive a "Not a Valid Password" error message when you open an Access 97 database in Access 2000 =

Article ID: 246033

Article Last Modified on 1/26/2005

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Access 2000 Standard Edition

-



This article was previously published under Q246033





Novice: Requires knowledge of the user interface on single-user computers.

This article applies only to a Microsoft Access database (.mdb).



SYMPTOMS
When you open a Microsoft Access 97 database in Microsoft Access 2000, and if the database password has 14 or more characters, you may receive the following error message:

Not a valid password.



RESOLUTION
To work around this behavior, follow these steps:
 * 1) Start Microsoft Access 97.
 * 2) Open the database, and then type the password.
 * 3) On the Tools menu, click Security, and then click Unset Database Password.
 * 4) Type the password for the database, and then click OK.

The database no longer has a password. At this point, you can open the database in Access 2000 without a password, or you can continue with the following steps to set another password:
 * 1) In Access 97, on the Tools menu, click Security, and then click Set Database Password.
 * 2) Type a password that has fewer than 14 characters, and then click OK.
 * 3) Open the database in Access 2000 with the new password.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.



Steps to Reproduce Behavior
 Start Access 97. Create a new database. On the Tools menu, click Security, and then click Set Database Password Type any 14 characters (or more) for the password; for example, type one of the following:

 RANDYNUMANCARS</li> 1234567890123456789</li> AAAAAAAAAAAAAA</li></ul> </li> Quit Access 97.</li> Start Access 2000.</li> In Access 2000, open the Access 97 database that you created in step 2.</li> When prompted, type the correct password, and then click OK. Note that you receive the following error message:

Not a valid password.

</li></ol>

<div class="references_section">