MS Access: Creating a linked table in design guide view does not show the tables to link to? - oracle

Question

In MS Access 2010 I am trying to create a linked table to an Oracle table.
When I use the traditional way of doing it via the MS Access menus:
External Data > ODBC Database > Link to the data by creating a linked
table
I cannot see the tables on my Oracle server that I should be able to choose from. The form is empty, even though I know there are many tables at my server.
What is the problem here?
Could it be that the ODBC connection that I'm forced to use is System DSN inside the "ODBC Data Source Administrator" overview under control panel.
NB: The connection is working in other programs, so that is not the problem.
PS: I can off course do it via VBA code instead, which can be done as shown here:
Template code taken from here: https://www.techonthenet.com/access/modules/link_table.php
Here the template code from the link:
DoCmd.TransferDatabase acLink, "ODBC Database", "ODBC;DSN=AAAA;UID=BBBB;PWD=DDDD;SERVER=CCCC", acTable, "schema.table_name", "Access_table_name", False, False
And here the comments from the link:
Please note that you'll need to customize the above line of code, so
that:
AAAA is the name of the ODBC Data Source that you set up. BBBB is the
user name that you will use to log into Oracle. CCCC is the name of
your Oracle server. DDDD is the password that you will use to log into
Oracle. schema.table_name is the table in Oracle that you wish to link
to. For example, "collect.suppliers". Access_table_name is the name
that you'd like Access to assign to the linked table. For example,
"suppliers".

Answer 1

When using the menus, you need to pre-specify a database in the DSN (Dbq parameter in a connection string).
If you don't pre-specify a database, MS Access won't know in which database to look for tables, and it won't do all or all it has access to, so it just does none.

Answer 2

Make sure that the ODBC driver matches your Access version
32 bit Access <--> 32 bit ODBC
64 bit Access <--> 64 bit ODBC

Answer 3

You have some good comments here. If you launch the ODBC panel from the control panel, it will launch the x64 bit version of the ODBC manager. However, most versions of Access are x32 bits.
The most simple way to ensure that your using the correct bit size ODBC manager is to let Access launch the ODBC panel for you. (and it often helps if you right click on your access shortcut and choose run as administrator.
As others noted, when you setup the DSN, do two things:
Make sure during the creating of the connection, you select the database (the default is usually system and that will show a whole bunch of system tables, but none of the ones you want - you want to pick/choose your database. It should appear in the drop down.
The SQL server (not oracle) during the several panels will show this where you choose the database:
VERY important, you also want to check the "save password" box - this ONLY appears during the create of a new DSN - if you miss this, then re-linking will never prompt you for the password - so don't forget this option:
The above panel will show regardless of what ODBC you use - don't forget to check the save password.
Next up:
create a FILE DSN. The reason for this is that Access converts this to automatic to a DSN-less connection for you. That means you can move the database to other machines, or even delete the DSN you created. Access ONLY uses the DSN at link time - after that it not required (however, this advice ONLY applies to a FILE dsn - so that's what you want to create.