Can an Ms Access database create a backup of itself while it's open using vba?

Question

Background: I have a process that links Quickbooks to Ms Access. If a button is pressed, some information will be queried from Quickbooks and then updates M

Answer 1

The users "save as" does a different thing than just copying a file, it actually creates a new database, and exports everything to it. You can do the same if you wish (if there are no locked records), but it does require some coding.

The "backup database" is unavailable from the save as menu if the file is opened by other users (and closes all open objects when used).

You can, of course, create a new file, and then iterate through all tables, queries, forms, reports, macros and modules to copy them, and then iterate through all relationships to add them to the copy. Then you can copy all database properties to the new database. But that requires some work.

See the following code to create a backup that ignores relationships and database properties

Public Sub BackupDatabase(newLocation As String)
    'Make sure there isn't already a file with the name of the new database
    If Dir(newLocation) <> "" Then Kill newLocation
    'Create a new database using the default workspace
    'dbVersion30 = Jet 3, dbVersion40 = Jet4, dbVersion120 = 2007 accdb, dbVersion150 = 2013 accdb
    DBEngine.Workspaces(0).CreateDatabase newLocation, dbLangGeneral, Option:=dbVersion150

    'Iterate through common object collections, put the files in
    Dim iterator As Variant
    For Each iterator In CurrentDb.TableDefs
        If Not iterator.Name Like "MSys*" Then
            DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", newLocation, acTable, iterator.Name, iterator.Name
        End If
    Next iterator
    For Each iterator In CurrentDb.QueryDefs
        If Not iterator.Name Like "~sq_*" Then
            DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", newLocation, acQuery, iterator.Name, iterator.Name
        End If
    Next iterator
    For Each iterator In CurrentProject.AllForms
         DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", newLocation, acForm, iterator.Name, iterator.Name
    Next iterator
    For Each iterator In CurrentProject.AllReports
        DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", newLocation, acReport, iterator.Name, iterator.Name
    Next iterator
    For Each iterator In CurrentProject.AllMacros
        DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", newLocation, acMacro, iterator.Name, iterator.Name
    Next iterator
    For Each iterator In CurrentProject.AllModules
        DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", newLocation, acModule, iterator.Name, iterator.Name
    Next iterator
End Sub

Note that, depending on your security settings, you might get a lot of security popups.