Orphaned SQL Server Users

Moving databases from one server to another running MS SQL Server can result in orphaned database users. This is because the database user isn’t properly mapped to the SQL server login on the new server. Surprisingly, the only way to fix this is by running a stored procedure called sp_change_users_login. Hopefully you’re aware of this before you try and move your production database at 2AM (yes, we’ve been there).

There are a few actions this procedure can take: auto_fix, report, and update_one. Running sp_change_users_login ‘report’ will show you an orphaned users. If you’ve already created the same user on the new sql server you probably just want to use: sp_change_users_login ‘update_one’, ‘joe’, ‘joe’ where joe is the username. You can read more about usage here.