Cannot set a credential for principal 'sa'. (SQL Server 2005/2008)
- by Scott Whigham on March 23, 2009 6:42 AMSo today I was using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to change my SQL Server’s sa account password (a good routine to do every so often BTW) and I got an unexpected error message:
Msg 15535, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Cannot set a credential for principal 'sa'.
Whoa! I wasn’t expecting that… So I googled and googled and I couldn’t find anything about SQL Server 2005. I did find a KB article for SQL Server 2008 that mentioned the “fix” - You receive an exception in SQL Server 2008 when you try to modify the properties of the SQL Server Administrator account by using SQL Server Management Studio. Thankfully I was just on my local development server and, since I don’t even use the “sa” account, I could afford to try this and, if it didn’t work, so what… (Yes, it should be disabled but it isn’t)
When I followed the instructions in the article, it worked perfectly. What’s weird is that I’m on SQL Server 2005, not SQL Server 2008. I am only up to SQL Server 2005 SP3. So I’m wondering if this is a new bug/feature in SQL Server 2005 SP3…
Anyway, for anyone on SQL Server 2005 who gets this Cannot set a credential for principal ‘sa’ error, the fix is easy. Here’s what you see:
Notice the arrow points to the “Map to Credential” checkbox that is unchecked. That’s the problem – it should be checked. I made my changes, clicked “Ok” and that’s when I received the error. Being the industrious little beaver that I am, I then clicked the Script button and tried to run the code:
USE [master]
GO
ALTER LOGIN [sa] WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[LIFTest], DEFAULT_LANGUAGE=[us_english]
, CHECK_EXPIRATION=OFF, CHECK_POLICY=ON, NO CREDENTIAL
GO
USE [master]
GO
ALTER LOGIN [sa] WITH PASSWORD=N'JH@46O!IH#NFi349gh'
GO
Same error…………………………..
The fix looks like this:
It’s weird how “Map to Credential” is checked yet there is no credential specified. But that’s what you have to do.




Scott,
Thank you. This thing made my day. Thanks again.
R. Torrone
Thanks mate. This was great help!!!
Thanks... It is a great help
Haha! That's the dumbest thing ever! I wonder why it works like that. Wouldn't have found that answer in a billion years.
Thanks,
-Ben
http://blog.benday.com
Outstanding :), thank's for years saving tip!
Thanks very much, worked like a charm!
Good...thanks to the help rendered
THANKSS MAN! IT HELPED!!!
Thanks very much, it is still helping!
Thanks for sharing! It helps everyone a lot!!
Thanks a lot, it also helps me to solve this headached issue.
I hit that error today after upgrading a server from 2000 to 2005 SP3.
Great catch, Scott, and THANK YOU for a very clear, concise write-up. I hadn't heard of the techurbia site before. This was an excellent introduction to it.
Thank you
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been trying to find a fix for this problem for hours and my frustration level was through the roof.
finally found something relevant from bing lol
Even so
I love Microsoft. Thank you.
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I dont usually comment, but after reading through so much info I had to say thanks!
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Thank a lot scott. I try to fix for a long time.
You're good man.
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