Plain-English Briefing
Your Access database won't stop working on 13 October. That's the problem.
On Tuesday 13 October, Microsoft ends support for Office 2021, and Access 2021 goes with it. There is no built-in shutdown on the day. Your database will probably open on the 14th much as it did on the 12th, and that is why this deadline is easy to ignore and worth not ignoring.
If you read our August note on the Microsoft 365 packaging update, this is the other half of the same story: Microsoft steering businesses off one-off licences and onto its current products. This note is about the small database sitting underneath a lot of Sussex businesses, which Access has quietly run for 15 years.
What actually happened
Microsoft has confirmed that support for Office LTSC 2021, the volume-licence version many businesses bought to avoid a subscription, ends on 13 October 2026. Access LTSC 2021 is on the same end-of-support list, and Microsoft's Office 2021 guidance gives the same date for its 2021 apps. After that date there are no more security updates, bug fixes or technical help for those versions. Microsoft's recommended routes are Microsoft 365 Apps, or Office LTSC 2024 if you need to stay on a one-off licence. Check that your chosen edition includes Access; Access LTSC 2024 and standalone Access 2024 are also available. Office LTSC 2024 is supported until October 2029.
This isn't the first wave. Office 2016 and 2019, and the Access that came with them, lost support in October last year. So if you're running either of those, you've been unsupported for almost a year.
Microsoft has not announced the end of Access itself. It is still available in selected Microsoft 365 plans, and a current standalone version exists. What is ending is support for specific old versions of it.
What it wasn't
It isn't "Access is being discontinued." You'll see that headline every few years. It has no basis here, and anyone using it to sell you something is overselling.
It isn't "your database stops working on the 14th." It may keep opening, running and saving as before. End of support means no new fixes, not that the software is switched off. The risk builds slowly, which is why it's easy to leave until something goes wrong.
It isn't only about Access 2021. The database file isn't the thing going out of support. The Office installation on the PC that opens it is. Check the Access version on every machine that opens the database; any unsupported installation needs attention.
What it means for a normal business
There are three things to think about, in rising order of importance.
First, security. Office programs are a favourite target because everyone has them and everyone opens files in them. Once support ends, any newly found flaw stays open. The PC that holds your customer, job or stock data is the last place you want that.
Second, who asks. If you hold Cyber Essentials, or a customer or insurer asks for it, check the current requirements. Software on an in-scope device must be licensed and supported; unsupported software must be removed or excluded through a defined, internet-isolated subset. Ask your assessor how this applies to your setup now rather than waiting until renewal.
Third, and bigger than either: the database itself. The date matters less than what it makes you look at. In my experience, an Access database that runs a business usually has some of these traits:
- One person built it, and that person has left or is the only one who understands it.
- It lives on one PC or a shared drive, backed up by habit rather than design.
- It has macros and custom code that nobody has read in years.
- Two or more people use it at once, and it occasionally corrupts or locks.
- Nobody can use it from home, from a van or from a phone, because Access runs only on Windows.
Upgrading Office doesn't touch any of that, and with macros and custom code, an upgrade isn't always a drop-in. It's worth testing on a copy first.
I'll be straight about my own side of this. We build replacement systems, so I'm the person with something to sell. The smaller claim I can defend is this: for many businesses, the right answer is to upgrade the licence, take a proper backup and leave a small, working database alone. If it's one person, a handful of tables and it does its job, don't let anyone talk you into a rebuild. Replacing it starts to make sense when more than one person needs it at once, when it needs to be reachable away from the office, when it runs something that stops the business if it fails (quotes, stock, jobs), or when one person is the only one who understands it.
Worth doing this week
- Find out what you have. Check the Office version on every machine that opens the database (File, then Account, in any Office program). Then search your file server for files ending
.accdband.mdb. You will probably find one or two that nobody mentioned. An.mdbfile points to an older file format, though it does not tell you when the data was last updated. - Take a dated backup, off the machine, and open it on a different PC. Do this before touching Office or updating anything. A backup you haven't opened isn't yet a backup.
- Write down who would fix it if it broke tomorrow. If the honest answer is "nobody" or "Dave, who left in 2019", that is your real finding. It's also the point to bring in someone to look at it, whether that's us or anyone else.
If you want to put numbers on it, the Time & Cost Calculator shows what an hour a week of re-keying and chasing costs. The Bespoke or Off the Shelf? guide helps you decide between upgrading, buying a package and building. And if you'd like to see what replacing an Access database involves, there's a plain-English page at Legacy Access Database Replacement.
Where this came from
- Microsoft Lifecycle: Office LTSC 2021 reaching end of support on 13 October 2026
- Microsoft Lifecycle: 2026 end-of-support list, including Access LTSC 2021; 2025 list, including Access 2016 and 2019
- Microsoft Support: Office 2021 end-of-support guidance and current Access 2024 editions
- NCSC: Cyber Essentials Requirements for IT Infrastructure v3.3, the current supported-software rule
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on an Access database, the first fifteen minutes are free. Bring the oldest one you've got, and we'll tell you honestly whether it needs replacing or just a backup.