How to Resolve “Not a valid password” Error of MS Access Database

Are you getting “Not a valid password” error message while opening password protected MS access database? You get frustrated because MS access didn't taking correct password. In this post I will demonstrate why you are getting this error? And how you can resolve this problem?

Cause of the Problem: This error occurs when your password ends with backslash (\). Due to some unknowns reasons this error message pop up whenever you try to open ms access database with password which ends with backslash.

You can verify this error by following below written procedure.

1. Start MS access.
2. Create new database with name sample.mdb.
3. Now navigate Tools > Security > Set Database Password.
4. Write 123456\ (your selected password ends with backslash “\”) in password and verify box.
5. Click OK.
6. Now open this sample.mdb database and write 123456\ in password box and hit OK. You will get error “Not a valid password” error message.

Once you have verified that you are getting same error and reason is password ends with backslash. Now question remains how to remove or reset access database password?

In this case you know exact password but cannot access your file with it so access password recovery tools are not useful for you. Basically you want access of your important data right? You can import data from password-protected access database to newly created database.

Below written steps will help you to import data........

Note: This procedure need to reference the Microsoft DAO 3.6 Object Library.

1. Start MS access database.
2. Create new database importDB.mdb.
3. In the Database window, click Modules, and then click New.
4. Type code written in the following image. Please download image and zoom it for clear visibility.

5. Replace with actual password of your database in the following code.
6. Now in the View menu, click Immediate Window.
7. In immediate windows write following command and press Enter. ?ImportDb("")

If you follow each step correctly then this code will run successfully and your whole data will import to new database importDB.mdb. Because this database is not password-protected so you can access your valuable data.