Bob,
When I use Tools | Encrypt/decrypt on a secured AccessXP
database it appears to go through the process of
encrypting the database. However, if I open the encrypted
database there is nothing to indicate whether it is
encrypted or not,
That is true, but remember that encryption is totally meaningless when
you are within Access. Encryption has one merit and one merit alone.
It helps to obfuscate (yes, obfuscate - not protect) your database
file's contents if the file is opened in some program (like a hex
editor) that is NOT Access. Access itself opens, displays and
provides access to an encrypted file in exactly the same fashion as a
decrypted file.
and if I run Tools | Encrypt/decrypt
again it offers to encrypt the database again (rather than
decrypting as expected).
Well, it depends what you mean.
When you have no mdb open and you choose Tools -> Security ->
encrypt/decrypt, you are asked for a a source and destination file
name. The prompt for the source file is titled encrypt/decrypt (ie,
it is not specific to the state of the file yet to be specified, as
indeed must be the case), but when you choose the destination file,
the title of the dialog does indeed reflect the current state of the
source file (ie, it will say decrypt if the source file is encrypted,
and vis-versa).
However, if you choose this menu item with a file already open, it
does indeed result in incorrect behavior on Access' part. An
unecrypted file is indeed encrypted (as the dialog states) but an
encrypted file is not decrypted. Instead, the dialog is correct.
Access will only encrypt files (ie not decrypt them) regardless of
whether they are currently encrypted or decrypted if this option is
chosen while the db is open.
This is indeed a bug.
At least its a bug that results in greater security than intended, and
not the other way around. That may indeed be a first!
Peter Miller
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PK Solutions -- Data Recovery for Microsoft Access/Jet/SQL
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