When using MS Access through IU Anyware in your web browser (i.e. the “light version” of IU Anyware), it’s important to recognize that MS Access is not running on your computer. It is running on an IU server somewhere. So if you have a database file on your computer that you need to open in Access, you need to upload it from your machine to the server. If you created or changed a database in Access and need that file on your computer so you can hand it on Canvas, you need to download it from the server to your computer. This page contains instructions for those two processes.

To upload from your computer to the IU Anyware server

  1. Start with Access open in IU Anyware in your browser.
  2. Navigate to the gray semicircle with the 3 lines in it (hamburger menu icon) in the middle top of your browser tab.

3. The semicircle will turn into a circle when your mouse pointer hovers over it.

4. Click the circle to see a menu of icons. Select the one with the up arrow to upload.

5. You’ll then get a file dialog for your computer. Using it navigate to the file(s) you want to upload and select it(them). There is a small limit to how many files you can upload at one time. The exact appearance of this dialog will depend on whether you are using Windows, MacOS, or Linux.

6. After selecting your file(s), you will see another dialog so you can select where to store them on the IU server. You should select somewhere convenient like Documents or Desktop so you can easily navigate to those files to open them from within Access.

7. After clicking OK, the files will upload.

To Download from your computer to the IU Anyware server

  1. Start with Access open in IU Anyware in your browser. Make sure you have saved (File > Save) any changes you made to the database in MS Access.
  2. Navigate to the gray semicircle with the 3 lines in it (hamburger menu icon) in the middle top of your browser tab.

3. The semicircle will turn into a circle when your mouse pointer hovers over it.

4. Click the circle to see a menu of icons. Select the one with the down arrow to upload.

5. A Windows File Dialog will appear for the IU server. Navigate to wherever you saved your Access file (most likely the Documents folder) and select it to download.

6. The file should appear in your default Downloads folder. One thing to be aware of is that the file may be renamed if a file of the same name already exists in your download folder. Lets say you upload “SuppliersParts.accdb” from your computer to IU Anyware to do an assignment in Access. When you download the file from IU Anyware with the changes you made, it may be renamed to “SuppliersParts 1.accdb” or something similar if the original file “SuppliersParts.accdb” is in your downloads folder. You have to be aware of this possibility, pay attention, and take care to upload the correct, newer file to Canvas. The name of the file you upload to Canvas doesn’t really matter, so just take care to upload the file that actually has your changes in it.