Search code examples
sql-serverssms

error when running any query in sql server management studio: the file exists


When I run any query in sql server management studio, I get the following error:

An error occurred while executing batch. Error message is: The file exists.

Restarting SSMS didn't help. Neither did rebooting the machine. The only thing I found on Google was someone saying "report the bug to microsoft" :P

(Windows XP Pro x64, SSMS 2005)


Solution

  • I've been struggling with this one for while and when I recently installed Toad for MySQL I got the same issue.

    I installed sysInternals process monitor tool to try and work out which file was causing the issue.

    The answer is temp files.

    Both SQL server management studio and toad use a similar naming convention for their temp files. Both use the temp directory under your user account in Documents and Settings. In my case, there were over 60 thousand *.tmp files in that directory.

    Watching the query execute through process monitor I could see the SQL IDE continually trying and failing to identify a temp file name which didn't exist until it finally gives up with a "The file exists" error.

    The solution is simply to clear out the *.tmp files in your local settings temp directory.

    Both SQL Management Studio and Toad for MySQL are now working fine on my machine.

    Hope this helps.