I am making a simple WinForms application for a client. The application's database does not run on their PC because they get the message
...MDF file cannot be opened because it is version 904. The server supports version 852 and earlier. A downgrade path is not supported.
The user cannot upgrade the SQL Server of their PC, so I have resorted to downgrading the database. I generated the scripts of the old database, connected to a SQL Server 2008 R8 instance in SQL Server Management Studio, and recreated the database but in 2008 R2 version. Now I am trying to add the database as a datasource to my project, but I get the following error:
I am aware that by right clicking on the .mdf file in server explorer and modifying the connection then pressing OK will upgrade the database. But I don't want to upgrade the database. I just want to connect to it.
When I modify the connection string with the .mdf file itself to become like this:
<connectionStrings>
<add name="myDB"
connectionString="Data Source=(LocalDB)\MSSQLLocalDB;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|\NewConstruction.mdf;Integrated Security=True"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>
I get the following error:
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: 'An attempt to attach an auto-named database for file C:\Users\medaw\source\repos\Construction\Construction\bin\Release\NewConstruction.mdf failed. A database with the same name exists, or specified file cannot be opened, or it is located on UNC share.'