Microsoft Access Memory Issue after December 6 2022 Build15831 Office Update

I have the same problem, or perhaps only a similar problem. The Access program reports "out of memory" but there seems to be plenty of memory available. Windows reports 5% memory use - this is a machine with tons of memory. Access.mdb is linking via ODBC to both local and remote SQL Server instances. Popup message reports "Out of Memory".

Control/break at the error message brings up the "continue/debug" option. When I choose debug, I get another popup message that says "Unexpected error; quitting" with an OK button and a Help button. The Okay button makes the message go away but the program does not quit. It's not doing anything productive, either, I think it's frozen. Task Manager reports 340 MB memory in use by this instance of Access.

This is happening on a Windows Server 2016 VM with 368 GB RAM, using Microsoft 365 Apps for business, version 2211, build 15831.20190 Current Channel. Problem just started this week after an update. Program launched at 7:30 this morning and around 1:15 the error popped up. Kill the job, restart it and it's okay for at least several hours. Has happened 2 days in a row.

Unfortunately, after the first day on which I observed queries exhibiting this problem, I've been unable to replicate it since, using both remotely hosted SQL Server database tables and local SQL Server database tables.

Here's a link to the blog post describing my experience.

I'm not ready to conclude that there is no problem, or that it's the result of a bug in an Update. It's just that having failed to replicate it on several different occasions, I'm leaning more towards something that happened temporarily for some people.

Please keep this thread updated if you see the same problem appear, or re-appear.

Hi,

...The Access program reports "out of memory" but there seems to be plenty of memory available. Windows reports 5% memory use - this is a machine with tons of memory. Access.mdb is linking via ODBC to both local and remote SQL Server instances. Popup message reports "Out of Memory"...

The 5% Windows reports are about RAM. That's a different movie.

This kind of memory error message refers to the so called Virtual Memory. That's the abstracted memory an OS provides to processes/applications. If you use a 32 bit version of Access then Windows limits the virtual memory to 2 GB by default. I've once explained this in more detail (what, how to measure, workarounds etc.) in a presentation for AUG ET

. Others like Phil and Mike have then also written about it.

It doesn't matter how many RAM or whatever physical memory a system has. The virtual memory for the application stays at 2 GB if you don't set the LAA switch described in all 3 above mentioned sources.

We have documented the problem discussed in this thread in our new Access blog and will keep that article up-to-date. What we would still need for a really good bug report to Microsoft is a reliable reproduction scenario.

Servus

Karl

Thanks for the update. We had about a dozen sites get hit with the issue this week. We adjusted them to semi-annual or monthly update channel which rolls the update back and that resolves it.

I would add that I’ve observed that it tends to happen more when dealing with large datasets.

Hoping this resolved before the next round of updates hits more of my customers.

You’ve taken the prudent action by changing to the semi-annual update option, in my opinion. No point suffering continual “paper cuts” if there isn’t a need to be on the bleeding edge!