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Advanced troubleshooting for SQL Server Management Studio

This article provides information on how to troubleshoot SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

Capture logs

There are multiple logs that can be captured within SSMS using the Output window.

  1. Go to Tools > Options > Output Window.
  2. Enable the relevant channels. For a description of the channels, see Options (Output Window - General).
  3. Select OK.
  4. If necessary, restart SSMS.
  5. Select View > Output to display the Output window.
  6. Complete the steps or task for which you want to capture logs.
  7. Save the output from each channel to its own .txt file.

Enable verbose logging

The information logged from SSMS doesn't always provide enough detail for troubleshooting, and verbose logging can be enabled to capture more details.

  1. Determine the location of the SSMS executable (ssms.exe). The default location for SSMS 21 is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 21\Release\Common7\IDE, but might be different on your machine.

  2. Open a command prompt and run the following two commands, using the ssms.exe location in the previous step for the second line.

    SET VsLogActivity=1
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 21\Release\Common7\IDE\ssms.exe"

  3. SSMS starts.

  4. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SSMS.

  5. Close SSMS to stop the verbose logging.

  6. Find the folder with the most recent date. Within that folder, inspect the ActivityLog.xml file, which now contains more details that can assist with troubleshooting.

Clear SSMS cache files

Data stored in cache files might unexpectedly interfere with SSMS behavior. To rule out this problem, you can clear the files manually.

  1. Close all instances of SSMS.

  2. Remove all files in the following folders, after making a copy of the RegSrvr*.xml file to retain any entries under Local Server Groups in Registered Servers.

    • %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio
    • %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio

  3. Start SSMS and observe if removing the cache files resolved the issue.

Clear Microsoft Entra ID token cache

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) caches Microsoft Entra ID tokens briefly. When a user is added to a Microsoft Entra ID group and immediately tries to authenticate from SSMS, the following error message is thrown:

Login failed for user '<token-identified principal>'.
(Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 18456)

If you recently obtained access to a server, you can clear the Microsoft Entra ID token cache from Help > Clear Entra ID Token Cache.

Screenshot of the Help menu, with the Clear Entra ID Token Cache option highlighted in red.

The following dialog describes why this option is useful if you recently received access to a server and require re-authentication.

Screenshot of dialog box requesting confirmation to clear the Microsoft Entra ID user token cache.

Share the information

  1. To share log information with the SSMS Team, create a feedback item on the SSMS user feedback site.

  2. Attach the log files to the feedback item. The files can be submitted using a private message so they aren't publicly available.

    Important

    Log files might contain sensitive information.

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