Visual Studio and SQL Server . Cannot see Database into VIsual Studio

Question

So when I open Visual Studio 17 Community and try to add a new connection to a database , I hit Refresh but it doesnt detect my SQL Server Express Database.

In SQL Server Configuration Manager 2017 I see that it is running; I can also connect to the database in SQL Server Management Tool 17.

What's the problem?

Answer 1

There could be multiple reasons for that. You can just type .\SQLEXPRESS to connect (unless you changed the default instance name when you installed it). To try to find out why it is not listed and fixed this, you must check:

• is SQL Browser service running
• your firewall don't block UDP traffic on port 1434
• in SQL Server Configuration Manager is TCP/IP network protocol enabled and your server allow remote connections

For more information take a look at this article.