How can I change my default database in SQL Server

Question

I dropped a database from SQL Server, however it turns out that my login was set to use the dropped database as its default. I can connect to SQL Server Management Studio by using the 'options' button in the connection dialog and selecting 'master' as the database to connect to. However, whenever I try to do anything in object explorer, it tries to connect using my default database and fails.

Does anyone know how to set my default database without using object explorer?

Answer 1

This may or may not exactly answer the question, but I ran into this issue (and question) when I had changed my account to have a new database I had created as my "default database". Then I deleted that database and wanted to test my creation script, from scratch. I logged off SSMS and was going to go back in, but was denied -- cannot log into default database was the error. D'oh!

What I did was, on the login dialog for SSMS, go to Options, Connection Properties, then type master on the "Connect to database" combobox. Click Connect. Got me in. From there you can run the command to:

ALTER LOGIN [DOMAIN\useracct] WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO

Answer 2

Alternative to sp_defaultdb (which will be removed in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server) could be ALTER LOGIN:

ALTER LOGIN [my_user_name] WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE = [new_default_database]

Answer 3

To do it the GUI way, you need to go edit your login. One of its properties is the default database used for that login. You can find the list of logins under the Logins node under the Security node. Then select your login and right-click and pick Properties. Change the default database and your life will be better!

Note that someone with sysadmin privs needs to be able to login to do this or to run the query from the previous post.