Tech Tuesday - Troubleshooting SmartConnect Logins

This week we have an article from our lead support technician at eOne. He has put together a couple quick steps that will resolve a commonly encountered message when launching SmartConnect:

If you receive the message “Unable to connect to database” when launching SmartConnect, there are two main causes for that.

1. The SmartConnect password is wrong on the machine(s)

or

2. The Windows user you are logged in does not have rights to access SmartConnect. 

To fix the first issue open up the Windows registry on each machine and navigate to the following location:

If you are on a 32 bit machine, you have to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – Software –  eOneSolutions - SmartConnect

If you are on a 64 bit machine, you have to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – Software – Wow6432Node – eOneSolutions - SmartConnect

Look at the key that says “ScSqlPassword”.  The password for the SmartConnect user should be there.  Also look in the “Connection String” key.  There is a section that says "Password=" followed by the same password.  It should be the same in both locations on both machines.  If it's different, make it the same on both. 

If you end up changing it on the machines, you will need to login to SQL Server Managemnt Studio and changing the password on the SQL user named SmartConnect.  Make it match what you set the password to in the registry of the workstations. 

If all that is good, then it's your Windows user.  Run the following statement in Query Analyzer

Select * from [SmartConnect]..[User]

You need to be logged in as a Windows user that is listed there in order to access SmartConnect. 

David Youngquist