Access 2013 - Dbase (.dbf) Table Import option

Still....

It is not so much a matter of 'how many', but rather 'who' is complaining.

That 'very small percentage' of Microsoft customers are; developers and consultants supporting various governmental and regulatory data publications / solutions; small business solution developers; long time 'power users'; etc ... etc... etc...

Perhaps various government regulatory agencies should be made aware of Microsoft's refusal to support the format in which their data is made available to the public .... hhhhhmmmm .....

Microsoft made a mistake ( not their first - won't be their last ).

They need to FIX IT!

As both Bob and I noted, this is a case where MS decided to invest development resources elsewhere.

I don't think it is accurate to say that they didn't consult their customers; it is probably more accurate to say that they decided not to invest resources in maintaining a feature used by a very small percentage of their customers. That's a significant difference. To those who have been working with .dbf files, of course, it is quite a bit of a hit. But truly, the percentage of .dbf users is not that great and the influence you can hope to wield is also not that great.

I do agree that the ability of Excel 2013 to directly OPEN .dbf files indicates that it would not have been a big deal to maintain the capability in Access.  Therefore, it's hard to understand why it went this way. Still, I assure you that Microsoft is not going to alter it's strategies on the basis of a relative handful of complaints.

No need to save as csv, just save as Excel workbook, then import directly into Access. Alternatively, if you have an earlier version of Access, import the dbf tables then save the database as .accdb. You can then work on it in Access 2013, but a nuisance if you need to update or add new dbf tables.

Nothing excuses Microsoft for not consulting their customers ( I see that they have now updated Windows 8 under customer pressure to make it look like Windows 7 for business/serious users) and the absurdity that Access 2013 can read dbf files, but with no direct import option.

Keep sticking it to MS through this and other forums!

As others have pointed out, the decision by the Access team to drop support for direct import of .dbf files reflects the need to prioritize resources as much as it does anything else. The major investment in Access 2013 was in web apps. It is sad that some valuable and useful features were sacrificed. However, there is a perfectly viable workaround, even if it's sort of klunky. Open the .dbf file in Excel and resave it as a .csv file.

On the other hand, it does seem disingenuous that Access can no longer support the .dbf format while Excel can. Makes one wonder, doesn't it?