"Database error: 0x80004005: Microsoft Office cannot open or write to the file" Error

Issue

When performing a refresh of a view on Tableau Server or selecting an Access table in Tableau Desktop, you may see one of the following error messages:

com.tableausoftware.nativeapi.dll.DataSourceException: Database error 0x80004005: The Microsoft Office Access database engine cannot open or write to the file *. It is already opened exclusively by another user, or you need permission to view and write its data.

Unable to connect to the Microsoft Excel file "\\<file-path>.xlsx". Check that you have access privileges for the requested file and that it is not open in another application.

Access Database error: "Database error 0x80004005: The Microsoft Office Access database engine cannot open or write to the file [file location]. It is already opened exclusively by another user, or you need permission to view and write its data."

Environment

Tableau Desktop
Tableau Server
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel

Resolution

Ensure that the Tableau Server Run As User account or the user account of the computer running Tableau Desktop have permissions to access the location where the Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel file is saved. If the Access file has tables linking to another file, make sure the user accounts can access the location of the linked data sources as well. For more information, refer to the Run As Account Settings to Confirm topic in the Server Help.
If the Access file has tables linking to another file, ensure the path to the linked data source is correct.

Cause

This issue is typically caused by insufficient permissions given to the Tableau Server Run As User account or user account of the computer running Tableau Desktop.