# Cannot perform JOINs when querying from Microsoft Access

**URL:** <https://community.cdata.com/t/cannot-perform-joins-when-querying-from-microsoft-access/254>\
**Category:** Editions\
**Tags:** article, odbc, join, ms-access\
**Created:** [July 12, 2023, 8:38pm UTC](https://community.cdata.com/t/cannot-perform-joins-when-querying-from-microsoft-access/254 "2023-07-12T20:38:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dardi\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Dardi\_R](https://community.cdata.com/u/Dardi_R)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 8:38pm UTC](https://community.cdata.com/t/cannot-perform-joins-when-querying-from-microsoft-access/254/1 "2023-07-12T20:38:12Z")

</div>

Microsoft Access does consider Varchar types with a size greater than 255 as Memo objects. However, Memo objects cannot be used as JOIN conditions. In such scenarios the query will fail with the following error: _“Cannot JOIN on Memo, OLE or Hyperlink Object”._

 ![4980bd8e-3a79-40a5-b27d-43d36ea46347.png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/cdata/original/1X/dc09fe108b6cc2e1f24820e190016c7c26db0f36.png)

Depending on the provider you are using and your use case, there are a few options that would solve the issue:

- Setting the _DefaultColumnSize=255_ in the _Other_ connection property. This property will limit all column sizes to a maximum of 255 characters.

- Modifying the datatype size via custom schemas.

- Using Access passthrough mode.

_Additional details regarding enabling pass-through mode in Access can be found on the following link:_

[Create a pass-through query](https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/create-a-pass-through-query-b775ac23-8a6b-49b2-82e2-6dac62532a42)