Backward Compatibility from Office 2016 to 2013

[BikeToWork]

I have an application that I designed and developed in MS Access 2013 that I have to install in a 2016 environment tomorrow. I have never used 2016 and don't know if Access 2016 is backward compatible with 2013 and if not, what I will need to change to make it so. Do others have any insight into this? Thanks in advance.

[NeoPa]

Mostly it should be fine (I think). Obviously, be very careful to make backup copies before you make any changes.

[jforbes]

I haven't had a lot of experience with 2016 yet, but most of my troubles have come from going from 2007 to 2016.

To try to make sure there is a clean upgrade/install, I use a clean test environment where the install can be performed and a regression test of all the functionality can be completed to minimize the problems during roll-out. I would highly recommend it. Even more so if you can get a business owner to do your regression testing.

[NeoPa]

No personal experience myself, but I've heard elsewhere that 2007 straight to 2016 is risky. In that situation I'd recommend upgrading version by version and checking that nothing's broken at each level before proceeding.

As 2013 is the immediately prior version though, and I've certainly not heard too many reports of problems at that level, I would suggest you should be ok as long as you follow the cautious and careful approach recommended here.

[BikeToWork]

Thus far everything went smoothly. I did not experience any compatibility issues between Office 2013 and Office 2016 in installing the application, but I will wait and see if users complain about anything regarding compatibility.