Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

The following was added to the Some Microsoft Access MDB Corruption Symptoms page

4b) 3011 - Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...  Notice the dbf file extension.  A dbf file name needs to be in 8.3 DOS name format.   It is quite possible that some machines can open the file with a longer file name and others it must be in 8.3 DOS name format.  Thanks to Marc L. Allen for this one.

Published Mon, Sep 10 2007 18:40 by Tony

Comments

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

This was true for Access 2007!

You'd think M$ would get their act together for long file names...

Tuesday, September 25, 2007 12:23 PM by DRWebMonkey

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

I changed the name of my DBF file and Access inorted it with no problem.

Solution was too easy :-)

Thanks if works :-)

Monday, January 07, 2008 9:04 AM by Dvir Noiman

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Dvir

Thanks for the feedback. Glad this was useful.  

Friday, January 11, 2008 7:25 PM by Tony

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Spot on. 8 character filename limit. Thanks!

Thursday, February 07, 2008 7:26 AM by Brooks

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Thank you very much for the information.  This has helped quite a bit!  Cheers!

Monday, February 25, 2008 9:02 AM by BlkWiz

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Wow, that did the trick, i never would have thought of that- thanks!!! It just seems so archaic. Maybe I should chisel my code on stone tablets while I'm at it.

Monday, March 31, 2008 3:47 PM by Miles

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

But why this doen't solve my problem.

Monday, April 14, 2008 12:52 AM by Cindy

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Had a similar issue with a file that had name.2ndname.txt and Access will not find it.  For whatever reason, it does not recognize or can not find a file that has two dots.  Thanks for the comment, though.  It helped send me looking in a differennt direction.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 3:20 PM by Scott

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Hello.. My 3011 error specifies engine not finding the database object.

The .mdb file was pulled from backup tape. File should have been closed when the tape ran through, but maybe not.

Need to recover the backup to get deleted records that happened the following day. So there was no real corruption event.

Any ideas. (PS.. where do I go to look for .dbf file?)

Thursday, September 25, 2008 3:10 PM by datatype13

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

datatype13.   I'd suggest getting some quotes from corruption repair services.

I'd also suggest kicking users out after 30 minutes of inactivity.

HOW TO: Detect User Idle Time or Inactivity in Access 2000 (Q210297)

support.microsoft.com

ACC: How to Detect User Idle Time or Inactivity (Q128814)

support.microsoft.com

However we found that the code which runs on the timer event must be disabled for the programmers.  Otherwise weird things start happening when you're editing code.  

Also print preview would sometimes not allow the users to run a menu item to export the report to Excel or others.  So you had to right click on the Previewed report to get some type of internal focus back on the report so they could then export it.  This was also helped by extending the timer to five minutes.

The downside to extending the timer to five minutes was if a person stays in the same form and at the same control for considerable parts of the day, ie someone doing the same inquiries, the routine didn't realize that they had actually done something.  I'll be putting in some logic sometime to reset this timer whenever they do something in the program.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008 8:35 PM by Tony

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

I've got something weird going on.  I am trying to open a database named "MMD Access", but the object the engine is unable to find it names as "databases" (this error shows when I try to open the database).  Now  *that* is more than 8 characters, but I don't know where this object is to fix/rename it.  HALP!

Thanks,

Naomi

>^,,^<

Thursday, October 16, 2008 1:56 PM by Naomi James

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

That problem sounds more like corruption. See the Microsoft Access Corruption FAQ at www.granite.ab.ca/.../corruptmdbs.htm

Monday, October 27, 2008 12:47 PM by Tony

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Note that Access 2003 supported long file names until SP 3. Once SP 3 was released it, apparently, reverted to an old default behavior.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 12:33 PM by Rich D

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object '*.dbf'...

Too bad the error message wasn't as useful as this post! Renaming the dbf file worked perfectly!

Thursday, May 28, 2009 12:41 PM by James

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Thanks! Changing the name solved my problem.

Friday, July 24, 2009 8:11 AM by Francisco

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

I get this message trying to use/query a (large) linked List in SharePoint; all the other lists (smaller) open just fine.

Is there a registry adjustment required?

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 10:21 AM by GeorgeInDallas

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Do they have a patch of some sort to allow for more than 8 character filenames?

Friday, February 26, 2010 11:55 AM by Shawn

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

You are AWESOME!  Thanks so much!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 7:42 AM by Shane Taylor

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Spot on! Just what I needed.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 7:31 PM by Chris

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

This solved my problem, however sometimes this works on other machines but not mine.  Why is this?

Thursday, October 21, 2010 10:14 AM by Justin

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Justin, no idea.  Sorry.

Thursday, October 21, 2010 3:24 PM by Tony

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

Tony,

I can't thank you enough... This tip helped my company meet a deadline of a 1M$+ contract. AND it makes me look good....

Thank you, God and Google... :)

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 2:21 AM by YoYo

# Cannot find DBF file in a given folder

Cannot find DBF file in a given folder

Tuesday, March 08, 2011 8:35 AM by Beyond web logs

# re: Microsoft jet database engine could not find object 'xyz.dbf'...

This happened in a SQL Server 2008 R2 SSIS package as well. I can access FoxPro tables fine from my own machine but when I store the package on the Server and execute from a job it could find the tables. I renamed one to 8.3 format and it was able to access after turning the ValidateExternalMetadata off.

Thanks for this post!

Wednesday, February 08, 2012 1:00 PM by David Gress

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