Extract text from Access queries (MAQ)
To convert MAQ queries to another format, you need Microsoft Access or other Database software.
To convert other file formats to the "Database Query Shortcut" file type, you need software like Microsoft Access or a similar tool.
The .MAQ file is a proprietary query shortcut used by Microsoft Access. It stores the precise SQL commands required to filter, sort, and retrieve specific records from a larger relational database. Users create these files to quickly run frequently used database queries without opening the full application interface.
This format has severe disadvantages. It is highly proprietary and tied entirely to the Microsoft Office ecosystem. Opening it requires a paid software subscription. Furthermore, .MAQ files are not supported by web browsers and are practically useless on macOS or Linux environments since Access is a Windows-only application. Crucially, these files do not contain actual database data - they only contain the instructions to fetch it.
Users typically need to convert the .MAQ query logic into standard SQL or TXT formats to migrate their database queries to modern systems like MySQL or PostgreSQL. If the goal is to extract the actual tabular data, the query must be executed first to generate a standard CSV or XLSX file.
Because .MAQ is a closed Microsoft format, standard online converters fail to process it. Usually, only the original software can properly read or export the data. If our analysis detects the underlying plain text commands, recovering your query logic is still possible without an active software license.
Convert.Guru analyzes your MAQ file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted ACCDB, MDT, ADP and BAR files.
If you want to convert MAQ file to BAR, DB, SQLITE, SQLITE3, MDB, ACCDB, DBF, ODB, FDB, GDB, MYD or FRM, you can use Microsoft Access or similar software from the "Database Query Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert NDF, SQLITE3, BAK, RDB, SQL, DB4, MDF, MDB, LDF, DB, DB3 or SQLITE files to MAQ, try Microsoft Access or another comparable tool in the "Database Query Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our MAQ converter.