Forum Discussion
Power BI does not support 32 bit Access DB
Tried to import some Access DataBase queries into Power BI dataset but got reminded it does not support 32 bit Access.
Is this an attention to work this way or it is a bug can be fixed?
Hi all,
Both 32-bit and 64-bit are supported when it comes to importing Access files. The only requirement is to have the ACE OLEDB provider installed on your machine, in a bit-ness that matches the one of your Power BI Desktop installation.
If you have Office installed in your machine, the ACE OLEDB provider comes with it and it matches the bitness of Office. This might be an issue if you're running 32-bit Office in a 64-bit environment as there is no way to overwrite the version of the ACE OLEDB provider and, by default, Power BI Desktop will be installed in 64-bit.
Your options are either to install 64-bit Office (not likely, I assume, due to other dependencies), or to install Power BI Desktop 32-bit. You can pick the exact bitness and language that you want from our Advanced Download page:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45331
We're currently looking at other solutions that don't require a change to your installation, but don't have a timeline to share at this stage.
Hope this helps.
M.
20 Replies
Are you doing this through the Service or Designer?
I am talking about the Power BI desktop. So i assume it is the designer in your word?
Yes.
Hi,
Are you using 32k/64k version of power BI?
I had a problem similar to you (I think) - I have 32K oracle db and when tried to connect to power bi 64K got the same err msg you have/
Try to download the 32k version of power BI hope it will help you like it helped me.
nirrobi thanks for the advice. I think this is prossibly the reason. When I downloaded it, it is defaulted to 64 bit. Do you know if there is any 32 bit available? Cheers.
I realize this is an old post - but I didn't see a suggestion that I think is important:
* the 32 bit install of Office is widely recommended and still most common
* the 64 bit install of Power BI is most common
I think the idea of altering either to not be the most practical approach to this dilemma.
An alternative, if it is at all feasible, is to export the Access tables out to excel. They can then be brought into Power BI without a problem.
A side benefit to this is that, if one knows the Access data, a simple query can define which data gets exported - and so you can perform the first step of Power BI work as part of this as well by not exporting unneeded fields and also delimiting the range of records.
As of 7/31/2025, Power BI 32-bit is no longer supported by Microsoft. It warned me about this in the app. I have Office 32-bit installed on my computer and need it to support legacy COM objects. What is the recommended method of having Power BI 64-bit on my computer and allow it to link to Access database files?
I've seen the AccessDatabaseEngine.exe /passive suggestion but it also says use at your own risk. My company does not allow me to have permission to create restore points in Windows. What is a safe method of getting this to work?
