[Error] SQL Server closes automatically when trying to import files into a database

Question

Hello!

During the process of importing files into a database ("Tasks" > "Import flat file" > "Browse"), SQL closes automatically.

It doesn't display any error message, it just closes.

I've already uninstalled all the SQL Server and SSMS records from my laptop and installed them from scratch. Still, the error persists.

Technical specifications of the notebook:

Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz 2.42 GHz

Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable);

Windows 11 operating system, version 23H2.

SQL Server 2022 Express version (free).

Answer 1

First, SQL Server and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) are separate programs and installs. In your case, it is SSMS that is misbehaving, so there is no need to meddle with your SQL Server installation.

I can't say why SSMS is closing silently, but SSMS is a very complex product, and it is not unheard of users having problems with some parts of SSMS.

What you could try is to download and install SSMS 18.12.1, an older version that uses an older version of the Visual Studio Shell. Note that you do not need to uninstall SSMS 20, since different major versions of SSMS are installed in parallel.

If SSMS 18 also fails, you could try Azure Data Studio, which is a leaner tool, but which also has less dependencies. It does not seem to have a flat-file import, but it has an Import wizard.

Answer 2

Hi @Martin Mulloschadt ,

Thank you for your reaching out and welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

You can reference SQL user feedback for this issue (filter on Tooling under Groups) and to provide feedback to the product team. Hope teams will work to resolve it in a future release of SSMS. As Erland noted, you can use SSMS 18 to manage import. Installing SSMS 20.2 doesn't upgrade or replace SSMS 19.x and earlier versions.

Feel free to share your issues here if you have any concerns.

Best regards,

Lucy Chen

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Answer 3

Martin Mulloschadt

I tested this with SSMS 20.2 against SQL Server 2022 Express, and I did not have the same issue. Can you enable verbose logging and see if that provides any additional information? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/troubleshoot/ssms-troubleshoot?view=sql-server-ver16#enable-verbose-logging

Thank you,
Erin