SQL Server object explorer forgets databases

Question

in VS 2012 "SQL Server object explorer"...

When I add a database by right clicking "SQL server" and select "add SQL server" option, I can add a connection to a database, these connections get remembered for next time I open Visual Studio which is really helpful, apart form every now and then it removes all the connections i'd previously added.

Can't figure out the pattern at the moment.

Firstly ... Is it supposed to remember all the databases you've added?

Thanks,

Mike G

Answer 1

Hi Mike,

I am sorry that I can't reproduce your issue on my machine. My VS2012 Ultimate RTM remembers the database connections in the Server Explorer. My machine is windows Server 2008 R2.

So, what edition of VS2012 you are using now? And what is the operation system you are working on?

Thanks.

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Vicky Song [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 2

I'm running VS 2012 Premium RTM

On windows 8 enterprise RTM

Although this did happen in the VS 2012 beta running on Win 8 Release Preview too.

So I open VS and most of the time the SQL servers I added show up in the SQL Server object explorer but every now and then they all disappear, apart from the (localDb) item that I didn't add in the first place anyway and that seems to be dynamically added each time.

Answer 3

Hi Mike,

I am sorry that I can't reproduce it on my machine. It seems that there is something wron with your VS IDE. Please first try the following commands to see if they are helpful:

1). Run Devenv /ResetSettings SettingsFile command to reset your VS to the default settings.
2). Run devenv /SafeMode command to prevent loading VS add-ins.
3). Run Devenv /ResetSkipPkgs command to skip loading added to VSPackages.

If the above commands still can't help you, please try to repaire your VS2012 Premium.

Thanks.

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Vicky Song [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 4

Hi Vicky,

When you say you can't replicate, how long have you been using the explorer for to attempt to replicate it? It only loses the connections every now and then, so in fact right now I can't replicate it either, but over the next few days I'm sure they will get reset again!

>>  It seems that there is something wrong with your VS IDE

It seems that this is a little bit unlikely as the same thing happened to me when I was running in VS 2012 beta running on Win 8 Release Preview too.

However I will try your suggestions and i'll see what happens, just to clarify are you saying that I run those commands once and then after that use VS as usual or are you saying that I try running in safe mode all the time?

Is reset settings same as the Import and Export settings->Reset All Settings menu item? (By the way I run with general development settings)

Anyone know where these connection settings are actually stored (registry, folder ...)?

Thanks,

Mike G

Answer 5

Aha.. think I've figured out what's happening.

-Open 2 instances of visual studio. (We'll call them VS 1 and VS 2)

-In VS 1 add a new Database connection

-Close VS 1

-Close VS 2

-Open VS again, now the connection added in VS 1- is gone

So it seems when you close VS saves it's full list of connections (even if there were no changes made)

Most developers I know (All developers at my work) constantly have many instances of VS open... So I think this is something you might want to fix. For now I'll just have to stay aware of the order in which I close VS instances.

Thanks,

Mike G

Answer 6

I would just like to add that this is not an issue specific to the OP. I've had the same thing happen to me, on more than one box, in both the RC and the RTM and on Windows 7 & Windows 8 RC.

Answer 7

Hi Mike, AndrewClear,

I am sorry that I still can't reproduce your issue on my machine even with the steps Mike offered above. I think you can consider submitting one feedback on the Microsoft Connect site here: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/CreateFeedback.aspx

Thanks.

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Vicky Song [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us