How to fix SQL Server Management Studio cannot connect on Windows

When you encounter the “Network-related or instance-specific error” in SQL Server, it usually happens when trying to connect to a database, and the connection fails unexpectedly. This error generally means that the SQL Server instance you’re trying to reach is either not running, inaccessible, or misconfigured.

Reason for error:  

• SQL Server service  may not be running.
• TCP/IP may not be enabled in SQL Server Configuration.
• Remote Connections may not be enabled.

RESOLUTION: The following are the steps to resolve this error  

 1. Check the SQL Server service is running or not

Step 1: Click on the “Start menu” and then point to  “SQL Server Configuration Manager”

Step 2: Now select “SQL Server services” and check in the right pane whether the instance of a database engine is running or not.

If the SQL server service is “Stopped” then right click on the SQL server and click Start. 

Moreover, this can be opened directly by typing “services.msc” in the RUN and clicking OK. The following screen appears.

In case the database engine is not running, then you need to restart it. To start the database engine in the right pane, right-click on the SQL Server(“MSSQLSERVER” default one), and then click “Start”

The issue will be solved. If still getting the error, then check ‘TCP/IP’ in SQL Server Configuration. 

2. Check TCP/IP in SQL Server Configuration: 

Step 1: Click on the “start menu” and then point to “SQL Server Configuration Manager”

Step 2: Now select “SQL Server Network Configuration” 

Step 3: Select “Protocols for MSSQL server” and click on “TCP\IP” in the right panel.

In the tab “Protocol” set enabled to “Yes”.

Step 4: Choose the “IP Address” tab from the window and set “TCP Port” equal to “1433” in the “IP All” entry.

Now restart the database engine to make changes effective.To do this, from the left pane, select SQL Server services and then from the right pane, right-click the database engine instance and select “Restart”

Conclusion

In this guide, we have given 2 methods to fix SQL Server Management Studio cannot connect on Windows error. We have also provided a brief information about the cause of this issue. We hope that by following this guide, your problem will be resolved.

Good Luck!