Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system. It uses SQL statements to create, manage, store, retrieve and update data in the database. MS SQL Server allows multiple users to create accounts and access databases over the network. Every user of MS SQL Server has an unique username and password. System Administrator (SA) maintains MS SQL Server and it’s an inbuilt login account in MS SQL Server. You need to specify password for SA login while installing SQL Server.

Log in accounts are created so that no unauthorized users can access SQL Server, any of its user accounts, and its database file. Without entering a valid username and password, you cannot access your account and database files. Problems occur when you forget your account password. You can easily recover password of user account, if you have the password of SA account or you can contact to administrator to reset the password. But losing SA password is the major problem. There are some manual ways which you can try to reset SA password:

  1.  Add an SA account using SQLCMD and reset SA password:

  • Press Start+R, type sqlcmd and press Enter
  • Execute following SQL statement to add new or existing account to the SA server: 

EXEC sp_addsrvrolemember ‘DOMAIN\Username’, ‘sysadmin’; GO Note: replace the username with the name you want to add.

  • Now, open MS SQL Server Management Studio. Log in with the new account.
  • Navigate to DB > Security > Logins
  • Open the properties of SA account and reset the password.

 2.  Configure SQL Server by User Mode:

  • Launch SQL Server Configuration Manager and close SQL Server SA account whose password you want to recover
  • Open properties and then click Advanced tab
  • Now, start SQL Service instance.

Also Read: How to Remove Passwords from Outlook PST Files?

If you are not able to reset your SA account password or User account password manually, then you can use SQL password recovery software. The above manual solutions require technical knowledge to execute it. Once your password is recovered, you can set another password after logging to your account.

SQL Server Password Recovery program from SysInfoTools helps you to easily recover password of both the SQL server accounts: SA and user. It is compatible with all the versions of MS SQL Server. The latest version of SQL Server is MS SQL Server 2014. Download and install trial version on your computer to check its efficiency.