Unable to connect LocalDB from Visual Studio 2019

Question

I had recently installed Visual Studio 2019. I wanted to add a database connection in VS but unfortunately, the VS does not detect the default instance of LocalDB, which I assume comes out of the box when installing VS (as it used to come with earlier version of VS).

I was trying to use the localdb to work with entity framework. I had no issue with VisualStuio 2017 but with new installation I cannot list out the localdb instance in database connection window.

I tried running the command SQLLOCALDB INFO in command line, where I got MSSQLLOCALDB as a result. I even tried running the command SQLLOCALDB START MSSQLLOCALDB . After execution of the command, I get the result that " LocalDB instance "MSSQLLocalDB " started.". However, I am still not able to list/connect it via VS (Tools>>Connect to database).

Is there any additional steps specific to VS2019 that I need to follow in order to establish the connection with LocalDB or do I need to explicitly install the express version of MSSQL server.

Answer 1

Use (localdb)\MMSQLLocalDB also (localdb)\ProjectsV13