We are having issues with customers that when trying to connect to SQL Server the connection is rejected because the service is not running. It is set to Automatic. I had tested Automatic (Delayed start) and thought it helped but in the end the problem persists. I have tried just about everything on google (changing credentials the service runs under, reinstalling, upgrading to newer version, etc), none of it works. We have had this issue on Express and Developer, versions 2014 through 2017 (we do not wish to go older than that) and nothing seems to help. Has anyone else encountered this issue? If so was a solution or workaround found?
We have similar problem after each Windows 10 major upgrade, when locally installed SQL server (server running on end user's machine) would not start automatically. Usually starting it manually first time after upgrade helps and then it is started again automatically after reboot. Customers with reappearing problem got shortcut to SQL Configuration Manager on their desktop and are taught how to manually start service. In your case, you can't start service at all or just automatic start doesn't work?
It won't start automatically. So it likely isn't an issue wit the service account. Also, for some odd reason, the service will stop after some idle period without explanation. That one is pretty rare though. Starting it manually almost always works. The problem with the SQL Configuration Manager is that you have to be an admin to launch it. Most of our customer end users are not.
Hm, we didn't encounter this problem with a lot of users so I never looked to much into it. IDK what troubleshooting steps you've already taken. Personally I would start with event logs and go from there. I would also try to find common denominators (OS, other programs installed, AV...) and then try to rule them out one by one.
It's not extremely common but it is a major problem for the users that have it. We've been searching the event logs and trying to find something. Nothing so far appears to be related. We'll have to keep digging until we find something. Thanks for the replies.
