SQL Server 2008 Management Studio – Saving changes is not permitted error.
We’ve recently upgraded our development laptops with SQL 2008 from SQL 2005. Today I was trying to create a new database for a client within the management studio and every time I decided, for example, to change a column that was defined nullable to not nullable and tried saving my design, which in turn would save the table changes, it gave me the following error:
Now, I understand the need for potentially re-creating the table if for example you had an existing table where a column was nullable and it contained data then you wanted to make it not nullable (without a default value) it would correctly so moan. But you would think that the Microsoft devs would build a system intuitive enough to know that where there isn’t any data in the table yet, because you’re designing the schema, it could automatically drop and re-create the table and any associated relationships.
Needless to say, to prevent this from happening to you – go into the Tools -> Options and click on the Designers item in the tree menu on the left and make sure “Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation” is not ticked as below:
Hope that helps someone else too!


Thursday, 23 October 2008 at 23:26
love the wtf! I have a feeling that the error message doesnt make sense, and is in a circular loop. i love the authorative “saving changes is not permitted.” imagine if this happened to word docs (for example)! how different everything would be! does this encourage perfectionism first time round?
next question – why is there a checkbox with “prevent saving changes …” ? i’ve not worked with sql, hence this might sound blonde, but it seems somewhat ludicrous to me!
Thursday, 23 October 2008 at 23:27
thanks for posting the solution! i tend to click cancel, walk away, and have a cuppa. if computer says no, i say wtf (with attitude and snapping fingers).
Friday, 24 October 2008 at 07:43
@S – yeah if you only had one chance to save your document we’d either have a lot of perfectionists or no documents at all!
Actually it’s not preventing saving – but preventing saving where your changes would require SQL Server to drop and re-create the table – which becomes a problem if your table already contains data
Tuesday, 4 November 2008 at 23:51
aaahhhh thank you!!! i was literally having to go back to SSMS 2005 to make changes to tables on our 2005 server, which was annoying. you are forever owed my gratitude.
Wednesday, 5 November 2008 at 08:57
@Paul – you’re very welcome – glad it helped someone else too.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008 at 02:23
Thank you for taking the time to post this!
Not only have you saved me a boat load of wasted time,
At least now I know that I am not the only one who thinks that MS SQLSMS has once again been designed by people who have never managed a DB before.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008 at 08:25
@Steven – you’re more than welcome – as a software developer I know all too well how frustrating these things can be and believe in sharing knowledge. Glad I could help and that it helps others too (it seems to be a popular post from my blog statistics). Yeah I’ve often wondered about some of the MS software developers.
Saturday, 10 April 2010 at 14:26
Life saver
Monday, 2 February 2009 at 19:54
Thanks, this helped me..
Monday, 2 February 2009 at 21:11
You’re welcome.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009 at 17:18
Thanks, just what I was looking for!
The Internet is great!
Wednesday, 18 March 2009 at 17:43
@Jason – you’re welcome.
Monday, 29 June 2009 at 21:40
This helped me out too. What a pain.
Monday, 21 September 2009 at 09:37
Thank you, this has bugged me for some time!
Monday, 21 September 2009 at 17:12
@Ravndal, you’re welcome – glad I could help.
Saturday, 7 November 2009 at 00:39
Thanks a bunch!
Friday, 4 December 2009 at 00:29
Thanks – that worked perfectly!
Tuesday, 29 December 2009 at 17:22
Probably saved me hours of frustration.
Thanks!
Tuesday, 29 December 2009 at 20:12
@Herb – you’re welcome. I wish Microsoft had never implemented that ‘feature’ since it’s actually useless and doesn’t do anything useful but irritate users. It’s pointless in the fact that what it is attempting to prevent, doesn’t actually happen as I’ve updated schemas by changing column data-types and adding new columns on tables with large amounts of rows without the need for it to recreate that table. I’m sure one of the SQL developers thought they were clever (sneaky) and it somehow got overlooked in the QA process.
Thursday, 21 January 2010 at 12:51
Many thanks for this, you saved me from smashing something
What a joke ….
Thursday, 21 January 2010 at 13:39
@Stevan – you’re welcome – that’s what I hoped to achieve from this post
Thursday, 4 March 2010 at 21:32
Thank you so much…I just love the way M$ changes things and gives NO clue
Sunday, 14 March 2010 at 15:28
Thanks, this solution was the first on google. I didnt think about looking at the options menu.. was searching the problem in permissions and such..
Tuesday, 16 March 2010 at 05:47
Thanks, it helped me out!
Monday, 12 April 2010 at 22:52
Very Very Thanks!!!!
Tuesday, 8 June 2010 at 00:43
Thanks ! the screenshot is helpful!
Monday, 16 August 2010 at 03:06
[...] to Deems’ Weblog for the [...]
Wednesday, 15 September 2010 at 12:26
Thanks for the info, man! This error was driving me crazy!
Monday, 18 October 2010 at 18:46
thanks a lot dude
Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 11:28
thanks who made this very simple instructions. i wish all instructions will be like this as simple as it is. hehehe
Sunday, 26 December 2010 at 06:38
it’s really help. Thanks a lot.
Monday, 10 January 2011 at 22:16
Thank you!
Wednesday, 16 February 2011 at 12:00
many thanks it work for me
Monday, 14 March 2011 at 17:07
Thanks!
Wednesday, 4 May 2011 at 19:29
Helped me. Thanks.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011 at 20:36
ty, this was really starting to bug me
Friday, 8 July 2011 at 18:03
Thanks for documenting the solution.
Sunday, 14 August 2011 at 19:01
Thank you very much. Your solution saved me a ton of work.
Thursday, 18 August 2011 at 05:08
well…what happens if you want to add a column to an existing table with exitsing data in the other fields already? drop and recreate? Hmmm sounds not an option to me!
Saturday, 10 September 2011 at 13:30
Thank you!
Sunday, 25 September 2011 at 03:48
[...] http://deems.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/sql-server-2008-management-studio-saving-changes-is-not-permit… [...]
Monday, 17 October 2011 at 19:42
Just made to upgrade and ran into the same problem. Thanks for the help.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012 at 22:16
Thx you Very much
Thursday, 2 February 2012 at 07:56
Thnx. even in 2012 it helps!
Thursday, 16 February 2012 at 18:43
gr8 info.. thnx
Friday, 13 April 2012 at 19:32
[...] Solution: To disable this AWESOME safety feature, Go to Tools –> Options –> and select Designers. Uncheck “Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation”. Bam! Problem solved! Here is the blog I found this on: http://deems.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/sql-server-2008-management-studio-saving-changes-is-not-permit… [...]
Monday, 22 October 2012 at 22:10
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you. Dumbest default I’ve encountered to date…
Thursday, 11 April 2013 at 03:24
thank you. wonderful job