Note: this is for SQL Management Studio 2012 Only.

Yesterday, I built from scratch and installed:

Window 7 sp1 Ultimate x86

Visual Studio 2010 Premium

All Windows updates.

Visual Studio 2010 SP1 (required by SQL 2012)

SQL Server 2012 Developer Edition.

When I use Intellisense on a local DB, it works fine. That means Intellisense is enabled properly.

When I connect to a remote database (a copy of my local DB) and use Intellisense, it doesn't work most of the time. When it does work, I can't predict when. Sometimes the listbox of suggestions appears, but the members (suggestions) are not visible. I have refreshed the local cache many many times. I have re-connected, and refreshed the local cache. I have started a new window and refreshed the local cache. I have rebooted and tried it.

I thought at first the DB was taking a long time to cache, but then I realized it is not DB specific. Consider the following. This is the entire code block. Nothing before or after:

declare @EmployeeID int

set @

As a test I click new query, and connect to the local server.

When I am connected locally, after the last ampersand is typed, the suggested member listbox is displayed and "@Employeeid" is suggested.

Then I click New query, connecting to the Remote server.

When the last ampersand is typed, nothing appears, even if i sit and wait 15 seconds. Nothing Appears when I press CTL+J, nothing happens.

When I press CTL+Shift+R, then CTL+J, nothing happens.

When I press CTL+Shift+R, backup and retype everything, nothing happens.

If I try again later, I might get a prompt, I might not.

This behavior is consistent after re-starting SSMS, and also after re-booting. It is also consistent when trying Intellisense against DB objects instead of just local variables.

None of the hotfixes for SQL 2012 in the CU reference this problem, or anything about Intellisense

I have previously used Intellisense in the prior version of SSMS against the same remote DB with no problems from this machine. If I put my old hard drive in this laptop, connect to the DB using the prior version of SSMS, intellisense works like a charm.

I know others are experiencing similar problems. I am not receiving any errors or dialog boxes that would indicate a problem.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

It is very annoying, but Intellisense has some issues. You may troubleshoot it like in these articles:

Troubleshooting IntelliSense in SQL Server Management Studio 2012

Troubleshooting IntelliSense (SQL Server Management Studio)

I have no solution, but I have the comparable issues. Intellisense in SQL 2008 was much more stable.

Hi FerryO,

Any progress?
I have tested Intellisense in SQL Server 2012. Intellisense is work well when I use SQL Server 2012 Management Studio to connect the local instance and remote instance.

 

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Thanks,
Maggie

I read both, and still have the problem.

The earlier version on SSMS still works against the same remote data source.

As the originator of the thread, I can tell you that nothing has changed.

I have the same problem.  I have found that when I use SSMS 2012 to point to a SQL Server 2008 server with SP1, the intellisense works great.  Or, the intellisense works well on any SQL server 2012.  However, when the SQL Server 2008 has SP2 or SP3 then the intellisense is erratic.

John,  A few bits of information might help.

1. Please specify what SQL Server version is in the remote server or servers. 
2. Is delegated security (Kerberos) set up properly between your SQL Server 2012 server and other SQL Servers?
3. Check your authentication and permissions on each remote server. Do you have full metadata rights on all of the other servers? 
4. Have you tried installing the SQL Server 2012 tools on one of the remote (pre-2012) servers and see if Intellisense works locally?
5. It sounds like a tools issue. Have you tried repairing your installation? 
6. If repairing makes not difference: backup your databases, scrub SQL Server fromthe computer, and reinstall SQL Server 2012.  You might also try using the cleanup tools linked to from:
   http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sqlexpress/thread/118e93ef-2f0f-4923-8264-6c20e2e46fc6

FWIW,

RLF

1. The remote server is a 2008 (not r2) server, but I have also tried against a remote 2012 B with similar results.

2. and 3. If Intellisense works at all (which it does) wouldn't that preclude a security problem? How does SQL Server to SQL Server figure into SSMS Intellisense SQL server may not even be running on my local machine sometimes. I'm the DB owner and part of the sysadmins group on the servers.

4. SSMS and SQL 2012 is installed on  server B, and I tried it against a local db. no problems.

5. I don't mind trying a repair, but I'm curious, why do you think it sounds like a tool issue?

6. At this point,  a "scrub" is not an option. It is too time consuming, and, if there is no indication of the issue, I am likely to be right back where I started.

I'll try a repair, but still would like your feedback on my responses.

John,  Earlier you said "I read both and still have the problem" so one question would be: 
What did you confirm and what did you try doing to change the result.

4.  OK, good.  Then you know that the tool is still working locally, even on a 2008 server.

2. and 3.  Remote server only always raises questions about how the connection is established. The first link that irusul listed indicates that Intellisense may be 'working' but not have the rights needed to provide any information to the user.  So I was casting around to find out if there was any problem with passing credentials. 

5.  I suggested that it might be a tools problem, because the tool is not working remotely.  Your point 4 suggests that the server is fine, but getting the information remotely is the problem.

FWIW,
RLF

Russell,

Bertrand's article is broken into two sections. A. It does not work at all. B. That Intellisense does not function properly for a host of reasons- all of which are consistent (sys objects moved, permission denials, objects in other databases, etc).

Both A and B don't apply.

A. Intellisense does, though seemingly erratic,  function for me.

B does not apply for 2 reasons 

   1. In my example, I'm not referencing any database objects at all. 
   2. I'm a member of the sysadmin group on all of the servers, as well as the DB owner of the db I'm connected to.

Microsoft's troubleshooting article focuses on whether it's enabled properly, and under which circumstances it will work.

-My example code sets local variables and is covered in http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb934481.aspx
-It must be configured correctly, since it does function, both locally and remotely (but erratically ).

---

2. and 3. I agree that credentials would be suspect, if Intellisense somehow used additional connections to function.  After reading your response, I tried connecting as a SQL user (instead of my Windows credentials).  I had the same results.

5. I did a  repair  on SQL 2012 (Shared and server components), there has been no change in behavior.

Thank you for your suggestions and help.

Alas, I only had suggestions of things to investigate.  I hope that someone else will pop in with the answer. - RLF

I'm experiencing the same exact issue. Just installed the 2012 SSMS tools locally. I get intellisense for all databases internal to our domain but when accessing our remotely hosted DB server on the Hosting facilities internal domain using SQL Auth, I do not get intellisense.

This is definitely an issue I hope gets resolved soon.

You can contact Microsoft support or file an issue on Connect:

https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer

Hi,

I was having an issue with intellisense as well using SSMS 2012.  After I saw that there was no answer to this issue, I thought I'd experiment with uninstalling specific features.  I had an intuition that Sql Server Data Tools (SSDT) was maybe causing the problem, since I had recently been installing updates for that and my coworkers haven't mentioned issues with intellisense, and I don't believe they installed SSDT.  Either way, I went ahead and removed the extension in Visual Studio 2010, and uninstalled SSDT 2010, restarted, and intellisense works fine now.  I'm not sure if that helps since I don't know if you have SSDT installed, but I thought I'd share anyway.

Cheers

Ben

To the OP - SQL Server 2012 SP1 is now out, so are you still having the same issue after upgrade?

I have sp1 applied to my local server and the remote server, and there seems to be no difference. I performed the original test where I declare a variable and try to let Intellisense complete it. I observed the same results. Locally, it completes the variable, remotely, it does not.

I think I may have concluded that my initial suggestion of uninstalling SSDT was incorrect.  I believe the issue for me occurs when I'm working remotely via VPN.  I have no issue when I'm in the office, but when I connect to the DB from home, Intellisense has issues.  What occurs for me is that the table names show up at first, but once the intellisense window is up for a moment, the table names go blank and it's like it doesn't know they are there.

cab0 - are you also connected to your work network remotely via VPN when you see this issue?

I think maybe this is what you were saying all along, but I just wanted to be sure.  I initially read your post as when you connect to a local DB on your own computer, you have no issues, but when you connect to a DB hosted on a server, that is when you run into the intellisense issue.  I didn't correlate 'remote DB' as connected remotely to the network.  Either way, I didn't have issues with SSMS 2008's intellisense when I was connected remotely to my work network.

Yes.

I should also mention that the prior version of SSMS worked perfectly over the same VPN connection against the same servers and databases.

cab0, have you figured out the issue or the work around for this?

I have the exact same problem as you described. Intellisense works fine if I connect to the local db, but not remotely (it does work sometime but very randomly. When it works, it just works for 1 single statement and stops working right away on the next statement)

I see this same problem on my laptop and our 2 servers. No Intellisense if I use SSMS to remote connect from my laptop to server A or server B. No Intellisense if I remote connect from server A to server B and vice versa. It all works fine if I just connect to the db locally. 

So I'm seeing the exact same issue with intellisense on 3 different machines.  

I'm not using any VPN connectivity.

phantl,

No, I haven't found a workaround.

You aren't using VPN, though, so... I wonder what we have in common.

Thought I'd also share this:

I have SQL 2008 and 2012, VS2010 and VS2012 installed side by side on those machines. SQL 2008 intellisense works fine when remote connect to 2012 db instance.

Not sure if installing different versions of SQL and VS on the same machine somehow has any impacts on SQL 2012's intellisense.

Intellisense on SSMS 2012 is useless for me.  Sometimes it shows a list but the words in the list are invisible.  But most of the time it just doesn't function at all.

Serious disappointment as the other features of SSMS 2012 look really nice, but this pretty much makes it unusable for me.  I have too many objects to go looking up their names all the time.

As of July 2, 2013, SSMS 2012 intellisense is still BROKEN when connecting to remote servers.  

It works only about 10% of the time.  In the same query window, I can type something and get intellisense to pop up.  Seconds later, it stops working again.

I don't seem to have problems when connecting to local servers.

I am considering using an alternative such as devart dbforge studio or redgate sqlprompt.

I've been keeping an eye on this as well since SSMS 2012 intellisense seems to work less efficiently SSMS 2010.  One thing I noticed is that the intellisense is *slow*, if you will, to load for a larger database.  If I want the intellisense to work, I have to let my simple query 'sit' for a moment before the intellisense will go into affect.

I started trying to use SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) in VS2012 instead, and that actually seems to be more responsive compared to SSMS 2012.  However, the intellisense in VS2012 with SSDT isn't perfect either.  Sometimes it takes a moment for the intellisense to load. 

In summary I've gathered that intellisense still works, but it's slower than it used to be, and in some instances it's unuseable like if I'm connecting to the DB over VPN.