Password Protect Access 2010 Database (Encrypt / Decrypt)
Encryption is the cryptographic phenomena which enables you to cipher the content through a special key, eventually preventing any external source to pry in to it. Access 2010 also provides it’s users to encrypt the database with a key, i.e, password. Security of the database must be the first thing you need to ensure about. By following a simple procedure, you can make your database more resilient which mitigates the probable risk of prying from any authenticated source.
For protecting database we need to open it exclusively. For this launch Access 2010 and On File menu click Open.
Now select the database file on which you want to add protection and from Open options click Open Exclusive, as shown in the screenshot below.
Now navigate to File tab and in backstage view click Encrypt With Password.
Now set a password to encrypt database and click OK.
On opening database you will be asked to enter the passphrase for verification purpose.
If user is authenticated, then he will be able to use database. For decrypting database, you need to open it again in exclusive mode. Once opened in exclusive mode, from backstage view click Decrypt Database.
Upon click, Unset Database Password dialog will appear asking for password to decrypt database. It’s that easy.
You can also check out previously reviewed guides on Applying Field Validation & Message and How to Create Index In Access 2010.
thanks that helped now i am having an issue. i need to insert a hyperlink to a shared drive on my computer. the hyperlink follows in access to local files but not shared files.
I am trying to upgrade my old database so that I can edit it in access 2010. But i can’t get rid of the password. I open it exclusively and under file>info> there isn’t a decrypt or encrypt with password button. Anyone know why?
what is “backstage view”? There is no file menu so I don’t see the options you’re referring to.
I set database password but now when I open it in Exclusive mode, I only see two options i.e. “Compact & Repair” and “Encrypt with Password”. You can see in the attached image that there is no Decrypt Database and other buttons. Moreover when I compact & repair database, Access ask me database password three times and then a message appear Invalid Password and then again ask for password and this time it opens the database but do not compact & repair the database. Any help in this regard will be highly appreciated. Thanks.