Opening Esri Personal Geodatabase (*.mdb) using QGIS

Question

I wanted to open an ESRI personal database (.mdb format) into 64-bit QGIS 2.18.14 on a 64-bit Windows 7 laptop with 64-bit MS Office 2010 installed. On my all 32- bit desktop, all I have to do is drag and drop the file into the QGIS browser window to add it to my project. Not so on the 64-bit system, where I get a "Layer is not valid" error.

I followed the directions at Opening Esri Personal Geodatabase (*.mdb) using QGIS?, installing the Access Database Engine and adding the lines from Step 2 into qgis.bat, but when I try to drag and drop the database into the project, I get the same "Layer is not valid" error.

I can add the database following the multi-step procedure outlined in http://www.northrivergeographic.com/qgis-accessing-personal-geodatabase, but this is a lot of work compared to simply dragging and dropping the database.

Is there something else I need to do to be able to drag and drop ESRI Personal Databases into 64-bit QGIS?

Answer 1

As commented by @Vince:

You need a 64-cross-32-bit driver. Searching for one is a little like a snipe hunt, but the driver is much more elusive. Esri doesn't support Personal Geodatabase with 64-bit Server or Desktop products because obtaining fully functional Jet drivers in 64-bit proved so difficult. If you're wedded to Access, you should probably stick to 32-bit applications.