topic Re: Having to uninstall and reinstall Access Database Engine 2-3x per month in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Having to uninstall and reinstall Access Database Engine 2-3x per month

KFunahashi_SSMMA — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 16:42:14 GMT

Having a strange issue with both my computer and my coworker's computer. Might be an issue beyond Esri software but thought I'd start here because I could barely find leads elsewhere.

I am having to uninstall and reinstall the Microsoft Access database engine to be able to open up Excel sheets on ArcGIS Pro. This happens at least twice a month and it's getting pretty annoying because we access Excel sheets on ArcGIS Pro on a regular basis. Updating to the most up-to-date version of ArcGIS Pro has not solved it.

I don't know if the following are related or separate, but might give some clues/context:

We also have Microsoft Office (Click-to-Run) 32-bit on our computers, so we do a quiet install of the 32-bit whenever the Access database engine decides to implode on itself.
No palpable issues with the Microsoft .NET Desktop so far.
I use standard license; coworker uses basic license.
I have noticed I randomly get logged off the software and also the portals; not sure if this is normal or not.

I cannot grasp any patterns with when/how the driver breaks. They are seemingly random, occurring different days of the month, but I do consistently run into this issue 2-3 times a month.

Any hints would be helpful and worth a try. Thanks!

Re: Having to uninstall and reinstall Access Database Engine 2-3x per month

Robert_LeClair — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 16:59:51 GMT

Hmmm...not sure exactly what's going on but this Driver Installation Decision Tree to work with Excel files is a good start - Install the drivers to work with Microsoft Excel files—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Re: Having to uninstall and reinstall Access Database Engine 2-3x per month

KFunahashi_SSMMA — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 16:09:23 GMT

Thanks for the tip Robert. I did not know there is a new version of the decision tree for the 3.4. It's a bit confusing.... does that mean I need both 32bit and 64bit Access engine types installed for ArcGIS Pro 3.4 (with MS Office Click-to-run 32bit)? I'll have to give it a shot and see if that does anything. Updating Pro from 3.2 to 3.3 didn't do resolve the issue last time, but worth a try.....

Re: Having to uninstall and reinstall Access Database Engine 2-3x per month

Robert_LeClair — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 16:32:26 GMT

It's a bit of a challenging decision tree, yes, but if I'm reading your scenario correctly (MS Office Click to to run 32-bit), then it does appear you need both the 32-bit and 64-bit Access types.

Re: Having to uninstall and reinstall Access Database Engine 2-3x per month

RichardDaniels — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 17:11:42 GMT

So, the Access Database Engine installer being used for ArcGIS is actually for Office 2016, this is a helper driver for ArcGIS to access Excel and other Office files. What often happens is someone will open Access 2019 or 2022 AND this would Upgrade the driver on first use. This would then break the ArcGIS <-> Office 2016 driver.