How to open locked app in design mode?

Question

Our MS Access 2000 developer left the company a year ago. We need to open his app in design mode in order to make modifications. Double-clicking the .mdb file while holding the shift key doesn't work. When I do that the developer toolbar shows for a split second, then all toolbars go away and the app opens as users would see it. No toolbars show and only a basic dashboard is visible to run the app. I tried using the password recovery tool mentioned here but the tool says there is no password. Can someone tell me how I can open this app to make code modifications?

Answer 1

Beth's answer worked for myself and a co-worker. I've copied the solution here from the link in case the link dies.

"...To unlock the Access DB you can use the following if you know the full path to your database.

Copy the following function into a module in ANOTHER database and call the function. You will need to set the strPath to the path of your database."

Public Function ResetExternalDatabaseBypassKey _
 (Optional tfAllow As Boolean = True)

'Name:      ResetExternalDatabaseBypassKey (Function)
'Purpose:   Sets AllowByPassKey to true in another Access Database
'Author:    John Spencer UMBC-CHPDM
'Date:      May 02, 2000, 12:08:19 PM
'*******************************************
Dim dbs As Database
Dim strPath As String

On Error GoTo ResetExternalDatabaseBypassKey_ERROR

strPath = "C:/MyDatabases/SomeDataBaseName.mdb"

Set dbs = DBEngine.Workspaces(0).OpenDatabase(strPath)
dbs.Properties("AllowByPassKey") = tfAllow


ResetExternalDatabaseBypassKey_ERROR:
Select Case Err.Number
   Case 3270   'Property not found
      MsgBox "Allow Bypass Key property does not exist " & _
             "for the chosen database."
   Case Else
      MsgBox Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description
   End Select

End Function