Recently, ODBC connections to our database in Azure no longer show all available tables.

Question

When trying to add a linked table to our Azure DB in Microsoft Access via ODBC, recently I've started getting the following error message:

OBDB--call failed.

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Reference to database and/or server name in 'master.sysdatabases' is not supported in this version of SQL Server. (#40515)

This comes up also when I try to re-link existing tables. Those tables still open fine, but I'm unable to add additional tables from the same database. How to solve?

I'm using the latest ODBC driver on an up-to-date Windows 11 machine.

Answer 1

Hi ,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

This error occurs because your Microsoft Access setup is trying to reference master.sysdatabases, which is not allowed in azure SQL db. Unlike on-premises SQL Server, azure SQL db does not support querying system objects like sysdatabases in the master database. Try using sys.databases in the master database or sys.objects within the target database. However, Access might be generating queries internally that you can't modify, so the following fixes may work better.

Try if any of the below gives you some progress in fixing the issue.

1. Try using ODBC Driver 17 instead of 18.
2. Check your Access version (Office 365 / 2019 / 2021).
3. Verify firewall settings in Azure SQL Server to allow your IP.

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