Why Do Bmp Images Crash Microsoft Access Database on Certain Computers?

Uncompressed BMP images can sometimes cause problems with Access databases.

If the use of BMP image files within your Microsoft Access database is causing Access to crash on certain machines, it is likely the image file sizes are proving too big for lower-performance PCs to cope with. There are some alternative ways to deal with images within Access that can resolve the problem.

Background

Bitmap (BMP) files are uncompressed image files. As they are uncompressed, the storage space they take up can be significant. Microsoft Access allows BMP files to be used within databases and embeds the image within the database files. Using a large number of images within a database in this way can cause the database files to become large and unwieldy --- causing crashes.

Alternatives

Microsoft provides two suggestions to resolve this problem. The first is to store the images separately on a storage device or network drive and link to the images from the database, rather than embedding them in the database itself. The second option involves using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code to show the images. Although this requires more technical knowledge to configure, it offers more eventual flexibility and allows you to use compressed images with much smaller file sizes with your database.

Warning

Although it can cause performance problems, storing images embedded in your database does have the benefit that all images become a permanent part of the database. If you link to the images externally, you must update the path to where the images are stored if you move the database onto another drive or system.

References

• Microsoft Access: Store images in a database