MDE to MDB Conversion Service for Microsoft® Access

Have you lost your original .MDB file to your compiled .MDE file?

Most people in the Microsoft® Access industry will tell you that it's not possible to get back your VBA source code from a compiled MDE file. Let me tell you the truth: they are wrong. Even the professionals get it wrong sometimes.

We at EverythingAccess.com can reverse engineer compiled Access database applications back to the original source code format including the VBA code, and to a very high standard. We offer the only service worldwide for decompiling MDE files.

Supported formats:

MDE files are converted back to MDB format, including VBA source code

ADE files are converted back to ADP format, including VBA source code

ACCDE files are converted back to ACCDB format, including VBA source code

Quick links: Enquire Here Terms of service FAQs Example conversion The process

FAQ: What's the quality of the reverse engineered source code like?

Most of our clients are highly surprised at the quality of the reverse engineered source code that we obtain by reverse engineering compiled Access applications. Let's look at the facts;

We retain the original procedure names
We retain the original variable names and data types
The resultant source code is 100% functionally equivalent to the original code

Click here for an example of the quality of recovered VBA code

Although the resultant source code is very close to the original code, some minor cosmetic differences will occur. For example, if you originally wrote a 'Do... Loop' statement, it might be come back as a 'While... Wend' loop instead, although we always make sure that it functions exactly the same.

The one downside to this approach is that it is impossible to recover the original developer comments. These are no longer stored in the compiled file and therefore cannot be recovered by any means.

More Frequently Asked Questions

Legal & ethical restrictions

We are well aware that some developers assume that this service we offer is a threat to their development businesses. This is completely untrue. Put simply:

We only take on conversion projects when our clients can prove beyond any reasonable doubt that they are the true owners of any intellectual property and copyrights of the application in question.

We research our clients and the applications thoroughly. If there is any ambiguity as to who wrote the original application or who owns the IP or copyrights, then we simply refuse to take on the project.

In all circumstances every effort will be taken to contact the legal owner and/or original developer before reverse engineering a project. If we cannot get in touch with these people, then again we will refuse to take on such a project.

For concerned developers that want to prevent decompiling MDE files, please see our product MDE Source Code Protector

Featured Testimonials

Allen Browne (Access MVP) says:

Thank you very much - the service I received from EverythingAccess in converting an MDE to MDB was:

- courteous;
- ethical (verification of ownership);
- quick;
- good result.

Happy to recommend your services.

Karel @ Datamaat says:

After a severe hard drive crash and with backups having become corrupt, we lost many of our clients bespoke applications source code. We were left with the compiled MDE files but couldn't make changes for our clients.

Fortunately we found EverythingAccess.com on the internet and made arrangements with them to reverse engineer all of our MDE files back to MDB format.

After each conversion, all questions and minor issues were solved immediately... very good service.
Of course we have now changed the backup procedure so this can't happen again :)

We are very satisfied now that we've got our source code back and can now make changes again for our customers.

Kris @ Icarus says:

When best laid plans and hard drives fail and the only “current” copy of an Access program you have been developing for years is a complied Access database, is all lost? Well I'm here to tell you NO, you have a recourse to reverse engineer the .mde.

When this happened to me, I thought I would have to start from an old backup and rebuild but thanks to Wayne and his group, I was able to pickup right where the hard drive failure left me.

I hate to admit it but I had to use EverythingAccess for three .mde’s that were affected in the hard drive failure. When I got the .mdb’s back, everything worked, in fact I think the programs worked better than originally!

I can highly recommend EverythingAccess if you find yourself in a similar predicament…