The Database Owner

 

Every object (table, query, form, report, etc.) in a Microsoft Access database, including the database itself, has an owner. The owner is, by default, the user (by that I mean the logged on user) who created the object. The owner of an object has full permissions to modify that object. Furthermore, the owner of a database irrevocably has full permissions to ALL objects in the database. This is especially true of the database container itself. The person who created the database is the owner of the database and that fact can never be changed, at least within that database. Of course, this leads to some interesting situations.

 

A recent post in microsoft.public.access.security asked, “I'm trying to change the owner of the database and the "Change Owner" button on the change owner screen is greyed out---is there a way to change the owner of the database and what would be the implications of that”? The answer is that, since the owner can’t be changed, the change owner button will always be greyed out for the database object.

 

Obviously, because of this, if a database is created by the Admin user it will not be possible to fully secure that database, or it will be extremely difficult. If someone joins the default system.mdw file, opens Access and the, presumably, secured database, then they will find that the user has full permissions to everything in the database. Thus, to fully secure an Access database you must take steps to ensure that someone other than Admin is the owner of the database.

 

Another situation relates to the conversion of databases from one version to another. The Microsoft Conversion white paper, and all other Microsoft sources that I have seen up to this point, indicate that any user who has Administer permissions to all objects in a database should be able to convert the database. This is NOT true. Only the OWNER of the database can convert it. Thus, to convert a database to a later version it is also necessary to take steps to be sure that you are logged on as the owner. If you are not the owner and/or do not know the owner’s password you will need to follow the procedure below to make yourself the owner.

 

Changing The Owner

 

While I indicated above that the owner of a database can never be changed, there is a way around the problems associated with this fact. Following the procedure below will get  you where you need to be.

 
  1. Create a new blank database (for conversion purposes you should do this in the original version of the database).
  1. Import all objects from the original database into the new one.
  1. Voila! The user you have logged on as is now the owner of the new database.
  1. You will now need to take the time to add permissions to the appropriate groups, remember to remove all permissions to all objects for the Users group.

 

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