Office November 2019 Updates are causing Access Error 3340

[German]Microsoft Office security updates released on Patchday (November 12, 2019) cause Access to fail to access databases. An error 3340 'Query is corrupted' will be dropped. Addendum: I reported the issue to Microsoft, a fix is in preparation – see inside. Addendum 2: A fix for Access 2016 is available.


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or a list of updates released for November 2019 for the MSI versions of Microsoft Office, see this Microsoft page.

Error 3340: "Query" is corrupted

Within my German blog I got this night the first comments from blog readers claiming an issue with Access, after installing Office security updates released on November 12, 2019.

Report #1: Error in Access 2010

German blog reader Ollat wrotes with reference to the Access 2010 he uses, the following:

Again something seems to have changed when accessing Access databases, this time Access 2010.

There was a similar problem last with 97'er DBs

Uninstalling Office 2010 Security Update seems to help the first customers.

This concerns Microsoft Access 2010 in a specific case – uninstalling Office 2010 Security Update KB4484127 fixed the error.

Error in Access 2010, 2013, and 2016

At the same time I received a message from Annette via e-mail reparting the same issue with Access. She wrote (I've translated the German texts within this English blog post):


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Do you already have information about the updates from 13.11.2019? I have received some messages that Access reports "3340 query is corrupted". I guess it concerns Office 2013 but I'm not sure.

What's certain is that it's not the database, it must be a bug that was introduced with the update..

She supposed that Office 2013 and its Access version is affected. But later Annette left another comment with further information:

if I just thought it concerns Office 2013, I now know that Office 2010 and 2016 are also affected.

At German site administrator.de there is this thread, where the Access error has been discussed also. Addendum: There are now also threads at Technet forum here and here.

Workaround: Uninstall Office security update

It appears that a security update for the CVE-2019-1402 vulnerability in each version of Microsoft Office causes this error. Here is the list of Office security updates that you can uninstall.

At least from what I've seen so far, uninstalling this security update seems to allow database access again. See also my addendum at the article's end – Microsoft will ship a fix and propose a workaround.

Addendum: Uninstalling the updates

Because it has been asked on both (German, English) blog posts, how to uninstall the update and prevent from reinstalling, here are some hints.

In Windows 7/8.1 go back to Windows Update window and use the context menu to hide the problematic update package for further installs (if you have automatic update installation enabled, change the settings to 'ask for update installation'). If you are using Windows 10 and may prevent Windows Update from re-installing uninstalled updates, try to block the update using wushowhide.diagcab (hope that works, I've never tested it). Another option may be the 'defere updates' option in Windows 10.

I'll see if I can get this reported to Microsoft. Addendum: I have reported the issue to US Microsoft support. There was the case number and the promise to take care of it.

Addendum: There is now a support article from Microsoft dealing with that – a fix is in progress and they propose a workaround.

Addenum 2: A fix for Access 2016 is available – read the details at Fix for Error 3340 in Access 2016 (Update KB4484198)

Addendum 3: There is a new article Addendum: Fixes for Access Error 3340 (Nov. 22, 2019) with additional information.


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48 Responses to Office November 2019 Updates are causing Access Error 3340

  1. guenni says:

    Received a comment within my German blog, that also Access for Office 365 drops the same error.

  2. David Wood says:

    I have the same issue with upgrade to Office 2019 on 12/11/2019.
    Urgent help required.

  3. Louis Jacobs says:

    You'll need to uninstall the latest security updates – until MS releases a fix.

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/office/ability-to-uninstall-office

  4. Nelson Teixeira says:

    Do you have the case number to hand by any chance??

    • guenni says:

      Of course – I've had published it within my German blog post -> Case Number 1000525654

      BTW: I got the feedback from my Chat support, where I provided the details:

      Microsoft Windows expert is commenting on an answer "Just like to report issues with Access, related with Nov 12, security updates see #####"

      Prafful S. said: "Please use the feedback hub application on your Windows 10 PC to report the issues…."

      How sick is this? I'm reporting an issue to support agents (using the virtual assistant of an Office kb article), and all Microsoft's supporter reply ist 'use the feedback hub' – really, are they kidding. The issue affects Office/Access, also on systems with Win 7. I'm definitely not going to fire up a Win 10 test machine, launch their silly feedback app and report again the issue – no way at all.

      What's Microsoft's credo? 'We value our customers feedback' – now we have proof, how they do that – unbelievable.

  5. Sam Smith says:

    Thank you so much for this! At least we can fix it now whilst MS resolves. How do I stop the KB going back on again? Thank you again – you are a hero! :)

    • guenni says:

      See my addendum, I've added above – after I read your question – hope that helps.

      • Sam Smith says:

        Thank you. Super hero! Annoying that MS are leaving this until next month to publish though.

  6. Jason Kalisher says:

    Thanks to All !!!! Once I uninstalled KB4484127 I was good to go !

  7. Liz Strickland says:

    OMG, Thank you SO much for this post!!!!! The uninstall fixed my issues.

  8. Duane K. Siebert says:

    WOW!

    Thank you, so much, for taking the time to document the cause of the problem and the fix!!!

    Please give me your PayPal email address as I would like to buy you a beer (or ten)!

    Duane

    ————–
    Duane; no need to buy a beer.

    BTW: I've removed your SEO link to your toner refill business – it didn't fit my policy. Thanks for your understanding.

  9. Matt Wood says:

    I had the error 3340 and removed:

    Office 2010: Description of the security update for Office 2010: November 12, 2019 (KB4484127)

    I had success the first time.
    Thank you all very much!

  10. Ricardo says:

    Same here.

    With the Office Deployment Tool and reverting O365 to 16.0.12026.20344 everything is working again.

  11. Paul Copeland says:

    We've had the same issue all day – and have now fixed it having found this post. Thank you to everyone who has contributed. Hopefully Microsoft will sort the root-cause of the problem soon…

  12. Pingback: Patch Tuesday arrives with Access error, 1909 in tow, and a promise of no more ‘optional’ patches this year | Computer World

  13. José Antonio says:

    Thanks for this post and all contributions! Great!
    Microsoft will delay the patch a few days. Incredible!
    https://support.office.com/en-us/article/access-error-query-is-corrupt-fad205a5-9fd4-49f1-be83-f21636caedec

    There's another solution in the link provided.

  14. Emmanuel Bouquet says:

    Solution tested on servers : it works !
    unsintall completely microsoft database engine x64
    install old version ( version august 2019 for example)

  15. Pingback: Access - Error 3340 - Query is corrupted | DEVelopers HUT

  16. Tyler Strobel says:

    Wow, an amazing oversight by Microsoft. We have 1,450+ client running Microsoft Access Applications and virtually all were effected, causing a complete shutdown to their business. Unprecedented error on MS that looks terribly on both the Microsoft Partners and Microsoft.

    Microsoft better release updated patches to all version of Access to correct "Query is corrupted" error ASAP. Our phones have been ringing off the hook ever sense 11/12/2019.

    Thank you for the post and we hope this makes it to Microsoft's Tech Team!

    Thank you for the feedback provided!

  17. Jose Franco says:

    Removing KB4484127 – Resolved the issue for me as well!

    Thanks!!

    • ClovisTDI says:

      Hi Jose,
      How exactly do you remove KB4484127? All of the instructions that I read didn't work. Thank you.

  18. LauXjpn says:

    I posted a VBA script on the Microsoft forum, that automatically implements Microsofts suggested workaround (using Queries instead of directly using the actual table):

    https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/7e7f24cc-f1f3-43f8-a9a2-45b77812b211/the-cve20191402-updates-kb4484119-etc-break-access-201020132016365-query-is-corrupt?forum=accessdev

  19. LauXjpn says:

    You can find the latest version of the automated workaround VBA script on my GitHub repository:

    https://github.com/lauxjpn/CurruptQueryAccessWorkaround

  20. PatSus says:

    Sorry if this is a dumb question but I have a large number of users with the update which was loaded by big fix. I want to create a script to uninstall the update but it requires a Patch list and a product code where can I get them?

  21. Dave Spilker says:

    We use Desktop Central, and we were able to correct the problem by just uninstalling ace2013-kb4484119-fullfile-x86-glb.exe

  22. Frank Schwab says:

    For Click2Run-Installation you can revert back to the previous version by issuing the following command:

    officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.12130.20272

    This made the error disappear on my Office 365 installation.

    It is really a pitty that Microsoft no longer seems to have a quality assurance in the Office group since Mr. Nadella took over. Updating a table is a *really, really* basic task and they did not catch this totally disastrous bug.

  23. Pingback: SANS Daily Network Security Podcast (Stormcast) for Monday, November 18th 2019

  24. Carl says:

    Many thanks for posting this!!
    My company relies on an Access app and this brought everything to a halt.

    You have saved our behinds, unlike MS who threw us in the fire!

  25. Les Sullivan says:

    This is how fixed the problem on my network:

    A solution to the Microsoft Visual Basic Run-Time Error 3340
    for example – query 'qryupdatecaldue' is corrupt

    Start Access

    Click on "Account"
    Office Updates – Disable Automatic Updates!!
    About Access – note current version v1910 build 12130.20344 Nov 12th this appears to be the faulty version.
    What's New – Previous version was v1910 build 12130.20272 Oct 30th This is the version to roll back to.
    Actual version (proper name) is 16.0.12130.20272

    Close Access – best not to have anything running in the background.

    Start an elevated command prompt (run).

    Type:
    C:\WINDOWS\system32>cd %programfiles%\common files\microsoft shared\clicktorun

    Type:
    C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun>officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.12130.20272

    The earlier version should now download and install automatically.

    Problem appears to be fixed.
    Microsoft have announced new patch for Nov 24th and update Dec 10th. Need to re-enable updates.

  26. Lotta says:

    Thanks so much for this! Uninstalling the security update for Office 2010 (KB4484127) fixed the issue we were having with queries not updating correctly (no error message).

    I uninstalled the security update, rebooted, then used wushowhide.diagcab to prevent the update from installing again. Works like a charm.

    Thanks again, much appreciated.

  27. Thomas Keller says:

    @Les Sullivan: you saved my day with this short instruction. Thx.

  28. Rob says:

    Hi, I have a client who got the error today however they don't have Office installed, instead they are using the 2016 Access Runtime.

    They only had 2 updates on Nov 13 but they were security update related to windows and nothing for MS Office obviously. They uninstalled one of the updates which didn't solve the problem and Windows 10 wouldn't allow them to remove the other update.

    Now I don't know where to go, any chance anyone might know the answer?

    Thanks
    Rob

    • guenni says:

      I read a comment from a German blog reader who blame the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) for the damage. But I don't have a proof.

      Addendum: It wasn't the MSRT, this guy have had a Click to run install, that has been updated. In this case no kumulative Update as mentioned will be applied.

  29. Marc says:

    Seit dem 18. November ist Korrektur verfügbar.

    Wenn nur die Runtime Access 2016 installiert ist, dann über
    Systemsteuerung
    – Programme und Features
    – auswählen Mcrosoft Access Runtime 2016 mit rechter Maustaste
    – Aendern auswählen
    – Onlinereparatur auswählen
    und nach etwas warten läuft Access runtime wieder ohne Error 3340

    Springe selber seit dem 13. Nov. 2019 meinen Kunden nach, damit diese wieder produktiv arbeiten können.

  30. Pingback: Issue #91 – Volume XXI – SANS Newsbites – November 19th, 2019 | OSINT

  31. Jack Vickery says:

    Running windows 7 pro and Office 2013 Pro.
    Uninstalled KB4484127 and our problem went away.
    Thank you very much!

  32. Pingback: Patch Tuesday comes with Access Error, 1909 in tow, and the promise not to have optional patches this year - zuludecor

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