I ran into the following issue when I first installed SQL Server 2008 on my dev machine a while back.

usernotvalidindatabase

I spent a lot of time searching for a fix but kept coming across unrelated posts. I did finally come across a blog entry that covered the resolution but I can’t seem to find it again. Anyhow, I vaguely remembered some of the steps and finally worked through it again. So I thought I’d reproduce it here in case anyone else has the same issue (If I can find the original blog post I’ll link back to it).

The fix is actually pretty simple but to be honest I’m not a SQL guy so explaining why has to be left for those that are more familiar with the tools.

  1. Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
  2. Open a connection to the server in question. You may get the error immediately…or after a few seconds. Just ignore it and continue these instructions.
  3. Make sure the Object Explorer Details view is open (F7).
  4. Expand the root connection node and select the Databases node.
     databasesselected
  5. You should definitely see the error now if you haven’t already. In the Object Explorer Details view you should not see an empty table including the columns Name, Policy Health State, Recovery Model, Compatibility Level, Collation and Owner. The Collation column is the key. 
     collationcolumn
  6. Right click on the table header and unselect Collation .
  7. Select Refresh. This time the databases are listed correctly.