idea Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

RobertGraham — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 16:32:06 GMT

Since ArcGIS PRO currently does not have a native method for reading data from Microsoft access databases(.mdb) we need a tool at least to import the data into a file geodatabase. It would be best to natively read the personal geodatabases instead of importing.

Many companies still use the personal geodatabase because of the ease of development in MS access for forms and reports.

Please vote up this idea.Microsoft Access (.accdb) Support in ArcGIS Propug list #pug puc

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

KoryKramer — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 16:18:18 GMT

Are you currently using ArcMap? Just curious why the workflow wouldn't be to import the mdb contents into gdb in ArcMap/ArcCatalog. Then use the gdb in Pro?

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

MichaelVolz — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 16:30:44 GMT

That workflow might make ArcMap users NOT want to transition to Pro though where everything can be done in one application instead of two.

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

RobertGraham — Mon, 07 May 2018 14:11:01 GMT

Kory,

I do have ArcMap and ArcCatalog and could do the conversion. But many of us are interested in testing for full parity so we can transition to a PRO primarily production environment. This is one of those critical functionality missing from PRO that will have an impact on GIS users that ESRI may not recognize. The personal GDB is a good storage medium with access by other non-GIS applications that make it very useful without the need for synchronization of files to switch formats between applications.

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

JoabelBarbieri — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 13:08:06 GMT

This is extremely important. A python tool a GP or anything in PRO ...we need to be able to pull personal gdb into PRO without having to keep ArcGIS Desktop installed. Even a conversion tool that gets a mdb and converts into gdb or geopackage.

Some users are recurring to QGIS to read mdb. That shouldn't be acceptable from ESRI's standpoint.

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

LyonMNGIS — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 15:29:26 GMT

I would understand if ArcGIS Pro cannot read Personal Geodatabases or Access Databases.... but it would be nice if ESRI included a separate tool tool that will convert Personal Geodatabases to a File Geodatabase. For all I care the we could run a 32 bit tool outside of ArcGIS Pro... I just don't want to keep an old copy of ArcMap around so that I can access data that is stored in older formats.

Specifically my situation is that the NRCS web soil survey stores data in an access database. ArcMap can read that database and import the data into a File Geodatabase while ArcPro cannot.

Thanks!

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

LonnyRussell — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 15:34:49 GMT

Here we are so many years later into ArcGIS Pro and still no tool to convert .mdb to .gdb. Why? ESRI, please respond.

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

SSWoodward — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 01:12:10 GMT

Thanks everyone for your comments.

I'd like to bring awareness to a blog that folks finding themselves here might find useful. This blog, and others in its blog series, provide users some insight as to why these formats are no longer supported, and provide script tools to help migrate data from older formats to more modern file and mobile geodatabases.

Check it out and let us know if they help your process. If there are additions to the tools or questions about them, be sure to let us know in the comments of the blog.

Migrating Data: Tools to migrate a personal geodatabase to file geodatabase or mobile geodatabase

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

RobertoRossi — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 15:26:46 GMT

@SSWoodward, I think most of the people here is looking for (using @JoabelBarbieri words) "(...) a python tool a GP or anything in PRO ...we need to be able to pull personal gdb into PRO without having to keep ArcGIS Desktop installed!"

The Migrate Personal Geodatabases to File Geodatabases tool, recommended in the blog you suggest, needs ArcMap, and helps in a workflow which was already possible using ArcMap, and somehow even even in QGIS.

I think what everyone is aspecting is something that allow us to do without ArcMap and QGIS, and just use ArcGIS Pro. If it's not possible for 64 bit reasons, please try to devise some kind of stand alone tool...

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

SStopyak_BruceHarris — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 17:37:22 GMT

Whether or not ESRI wants to use MDBs for their own data output is irrelevant to the fact that there are still a ton of organizations out there who have data in Access (right, wrong, or indifferent) and it should be a supported input. Like Access MDBs, the shapefile and file geodatabase are also antiquated, problematic data formats but those are still supported in Pro. I have a workaround for data extraction from MDB, but it requires desktop remain installed. In my Python 3 scripting, I use os.system to call ArcGIS Desktop's 2.7 python.exe to run a quick little sidecar script that handles the mdb data transfer. Then I continue onwards in Python 3, processing the rest in Pro's environment. If you have a working Python 2 script you can call it into the Python 3 script like so:

os.system('C:\Python27\ArcGIS10.8\python.exe "G:\\Some\\Path\to\\yourPython27Script.py"')

*I don't know if the Python 3 script will wait for it to complete (probably not), so you might want to add sleep time to the script if next steps require the extract from the mdb as an input.

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

DenisLalonde — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 17:31:42 GMT

@SStopyak_BruceHarris, yes, exactly. Even the good old standalone dbf is still supported in Pro.

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

xingchenc — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 07:33:40 GMT

Any update？This ability is long overdue, you can't expect users to have ArcMap at their hands when they occasionally got some data in mdb format.

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

Wayne_Rennick — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 19:58:54 GMT

@RobertoRossi @SSWoodward Next month my IT department will uninstall ArcMap from my computer. So, this tool will be useless. I can search our network and find every *.mdb file and run it through this script over the coming weeks but even then, I'm sure to find an old Personal Geodatabase in an archive somewhere that will need to be accessed.

While this tool is nice, you (ESRI) have to make a tool that works in ArcGIS Pro or as a stand alone tool. If this functionality exists in other extensions (Data interoperability Extension?) then that should be leveraged to provide this for users without that specific extension (if you want to say that ArcGIS Pro has feature parity with ArcMap)

GP tool to import feature class from a personal geodatabase

Bud — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 06:33:36 GMT

Merged from a separate idea.

If I understand correctly, there isn't an OOTB geoprocessing tool in ArcGIS Pro that can import a personal geodatabase feature class to a file, mobile, or enterprise geodatabase.

Could such a tool be added to ArcGIS Pro?

Use Case: Soon, no one in my organization will have ArcMap. But inevitably, some more pgdbs will come out of the woodwork that will need to be migrated. What to do then?

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

PeterGavette — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 01:09:50 GMT

@MikeJensen I know I'm not the only one out there in the classic Catch-22 with personal geodatabases I can't open in Pro! Every option I've seen relies on ArcMap/ArcCatalog. Our organization no longer has access to either. I'm currently downloading QGIS, which I do have access to, to convert.

Does ESRI not have a solution to convert outside of ArcMap/ArcCatalog? I tried this solution but it didn't appear to me that the spatial data was available, just the ability to read the tables...?

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

xingchenc — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 09:57:53 GMT

@PeterGavette They would agrue it can be done via ArcGIS Pro Data Interoperability Extention. Though you have to pay a small fortune just for this easy task.

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

Wayne_Rennick — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 15:23:07 GMT

Is there a walkthrough of how to use the Data Interoperability Extension to import a personal geodatabase? Like @PeterGavette I no longer have access to ArcMap so any personal geodatabases I forgot to convert are now impossible to open. I do have the Data Interoperability Extension, but it's not intuitive how to use it. I shouldn't have to spend more than 2-minutes converting data from this format, especially if I'm already paying for the extension.

If someone would develop a tool to use it to convert a personal geodatabase that would be great.

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

Allen — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 19:06:34 GMT

I agree. Need a tool that can be used within Pro.

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

AlfredBaldenweck — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 19:33:19 GMT

Re: Personal GDB(.mdb) import tool

Alex_at_Exprodat — Wed, 14 May 2025 13:59:01 GMT

You can access MDB files directly in ArcGIS Pro. These steps (from Problem: Unable to Add Data from Personal Geodatabases in ArcGIS Pro) worked for me:

Create a new OLE DB connection in ArcGIS Pro: Work with OLE DB connections—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation
For the provider, I selected "Microsoft Office 12.0 Access Database Engine OLE DB Provider"
In the Connection tab, enter the full file path to the .mdb file, for example: C:\Users\arexroad\ArcGIS\PersonalGeodatabase.mdb
For the user name and password, I left both empty. This only applies if the database requires user credentials.
In the Advanced tab, I also set access permissions to "Read" only.

Test the connection to make sure it succeeds. Once added, I can view all of the database tables in the .mdb directly in the Catalog pane/view under Databases. The tables can be added to my maps and used in joins/relates/geoprocessing.

According to FAQ: Is It Possible to Connect to a Microsoft Access (.Accdb) Database in ArcGIS Pro? these steps should also work for .accdb database files.