You receive a "Microsoft Access Was Unable to Create an MDE Database" error message in Access 2002 (289686)

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

This article applies only to a Microsoft Access database (.mdb).

For a Microsoft Access 97 version of this article, see 177620.

For a Microsoft Access 2000 version of this article, see 202304.

SYMPTOMS

When you try to save a Microsoft Access database as an MDE file, you may receive the following error message:

Can't open any more tables.

When you click OK, you receive the message:

Out of memory.

When you click OK again, you receive the message

Microsoft Access was unable to create an MDE database.

and the MDE file is not created.

CAUSE

The Microsoft Jet database engine version 4.0 allows a maximum of 2048 open TableIDs at one time. The process of saving a database as an MDE may cause this number to be exceeded if the database contains a large number of objects.

MORE INFORMATION

There is no accurate method to estimate the number of TableIDs that the Jet database engine uses during the process of saving a particular database as an MDE. Each module uses one TableID, and saving the database as an MDE involves the Visual Basic for Applications project of the database as well as the project of the MDE. As a result, if your database contains 500 forms, and each form's HasModule property is set to Yes, you may use as many as 1000 TableIDs when saving the database as an MDE.

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior

Open a database that contains a total of more than 700 forms and reports whose HasModule properties are set to Yes.
On the Tools menu, point to Database Utilities, and then click Make MDE file.
In the Save MDE As dialog box, click Save.

Note that Microsoft Access tries to complete the process of saving the database as an MDE, but eventually you receive the error messages that are mentioned in the "Symptoms" section of this article.

REFERENCES

For more information about lightweight forms and reports, click Microsoft Access Help on the Help menu, type hasmodule property in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.