I have been working extensively with Access for a few years now, and I’ve learned that .mdb files will typically grow in size and need to be compacted periodically. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out why this happens nor does there seem to be any documentation that explains why. For awhile, it didn’t really matter, but my colleagues and I need to know exactly what is happening. We need to know the following:
1) Why does the .mdb file grow? What is actually getting bigger?
2) What is getting lost or ‘compacted’ when the database is compacted?
3) Is there any benefit to leaving the database UNCOMPACTED? If not, then why doesn’t it automatically compact itself when it closes? I know the option is there, but why is it even an option if there’s no benefit?
If anyone can answer these questions for me, I will be really grateful (and so will my colleagues). Thank you.