MDB to CSV Converter for Mac: Export Access Tables

What you get

One CSV file per table, named after the table. The first row holds the column names. Values that contain the separator, a quote or a line break are quoted, so a multi-line memo field stays in one row.

Next to the CSV files, the app writes a summary of the run. It lists every table with its row count, plus anything it could not read. The summary is saved three ways: a text file to read, and JSON and CSV versions for scripts.

Export of 237 Access tables to CSV, each file listed with its row count

Converting a database

Open the database. Choose the file, drag it onto the window, or use Open With in Finder. An encrypted .accdb asks for its password.
Check the data. Open a table and scroll through it before you export. A table with 600,000 rows opens in a couple of seconds.
Pick the tables. Search the list by name, then tick the tables you need or select them all.
Choose the CSV options. Pick a separator, and decide whether to add a UTF-8 BOM.
Export. Choose a folder. The CSV files and the summary land there.

If you only need the table on screen, export it from the viewer without going back to the list.

Which separator to pick

Comma	The default for most tools, and for Excel in English-speaking countries.
Semicolon	Excel in countries that write decimals with a comma, such as Germany and France. A comma-separated file opens there as one long column.
Tab	Saved as `.tsv`. Useful for tools that expect tab-separated text.

How Access values come out

CSV is plain text, so every value has to become a string. This is what the app writes:

Date/Time	`2003-01-02 12:00:00`. Spreadsheets read this as a date.
Yes/No	`true` or `false`.
Currency and Decimal	The exact digits stored in Access, such as `123.4500`. Nothing is rounded.
Empty (Null)	An empty field. CSV cannot tell a Null from empty text.
OLE Object and binary	A placeholder such as `<binary:2048 bytes>`, not the data.

The last two rows are limits of CSV itself. If Nulls or embedded files matter, export to SQLite instead. It keeps Nulls as Nulls and stores binary data as it is.

A folder of databases

Drop a folder and the app converts every database in it, including those in subfolders. Each database exports into its own folder, with its own summary.

A database that cannot be opened is skipped and named in the summary. A batch of 100 files never hides the 9 it could not read.

The free route: mdbtools

mdbtools exports CSV from the command line. Install it with Homebrew, then loop over the tables:

brew install mdbtools
mdb-tables -1 database.mdb | while read -r t; do
  mdb-export database.mdb "$t" > "$t.csv"
done

It is free and stays offline. It cannot open an encrypted .accdb. Date format, quoting and line endings are set with flags, which man mdb-export lists.

Taking the CSV files into Excel has its own traps. Open an MDB file in Excel covers them.

Questions

Can I convert every table at once?

Yes. Select all tables in the list before you export. To convert several databases, drop the whole folder. Each database gets its own output folder.

Does the CSV include queries, forms or relationships?

No. CSV holds table data only. Saved queries are not run, and forms, reports, macros, relationships and indexes are not exported.

Why does Excel show broken characters in my CSV?

Excel guesses the encoding of a CSV file, and it often guesses wrong for UTF-8. Turn on the UTF-8 BOM option before you export. The BOM tells Excel which encoding to use, so accents and non-Latin text come through intact.

Can I convert ACCDB to CSV the same way?

Yes. .mdb, .accdb, .mde and .accde files all export the same way. An encrypted .accdb asks for its password when you open it.