ACC: How to Correctly Back Up Multiuser Databases

In order to back up a multiuser database correctly, you must make sure that you have exclusive access to the database. If you back up a database while others are using it, you risk damaging the backup database.

You must have exclusive access to a database in order to back it up correctly. If you back up a database that is being modified by other users, your backup copy of the database may be damaged or corrupted. When you open such a backup database in Microsoft Access, you may receive the error message "database is corrupted." If you repair and compact the database, you may find that data in the database is truncated.

The only way to ensure the integrity of your backup database is to achieve a static copy of the database. You must have exclusive access to all the tables in the database at the same time in order to do so. Once you have exclusive access to the database, you can copy or export the database, and then archive the copy or export.