How to migrate from Microsoft access to Mysql

Why use mysql instead of access?

Cost. MySQL is free. Access is not. Mysql can also run on a variety of hardware and operating systems, which does not limit you to proprietary software.

Multiple-user access.
MySQL can handle many simultaneous users. It was designed from the ground up to run in a shared environment that is capable of taking on a large numbers of clients.

Management of large databases. MySQL can manage gigabytes of data, and more. This is possible in access, but not recommended.

Security. When Access tables are stored locally, anyone can run Access, and see your tables. It’s possible to assign a database a password, but many people forget to do this. When your tables are stored in MySQL, the MySQL server manages security. Anyonetrying to access your data must know the proper user
name and password.

Centralized backup location. If individual Access users each store their data locally, backups can be more complicated: 200 users means 200 table backups. While some sites address this problem through the use of network backups, others deal with it by making backups the responsibility of individual machine owners–which usually means no backups at all. Mysql allows you to have one centralized location that can be backed up on a regular basis by a system administrator or DBA.

Manually transferring your data

One way to transfer your data is export all the data from each table (using the file->export command) to a comma delimited text file (CSV). It can then be imported back into mysql using the following commands (from the mysql console client):

you could also use mysqlimport:

Applications

An application that can make the migration process much easier is called dbTools (free trial available here)