The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created

When changing tables in SQL Server Management Studio 2008 you may get the following error: Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created. I was surprised when I saw this message first but there is very simple solution.

From top menu select Tools and then Options. Select Designer and Table and Database Designers.

Allow changes that require table re-creation

Uncheck the box Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation. Now you can edit your tables without being stopped by re-creation limits.

Update. As mxmissile pointed out in his comment then don’t use this on tables with millions of rows.

Gunnar Peipman

Gunnar Peipman is ASP.NET, Azure and SharePoint fan, Estonian Microsoft user group leader, blogger, conference speaker, teacher, and tech maniac. Since 2008 he is Microsoft MVP specialized on ASP.NET.

    20 thoughts on “The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created

    • April 8, 2009 at 5:01 pm
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      Don’t try this on a table that contains millions of records or a live database.

    • June 9, 2009 at 5:56 pm
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      Thanks for the info. Certainly this should be only done during development phase in an empty table.

    • July 17, 2009 at 12:16 pm
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      Thank you very much.

    • April 17, 2010 at 2:43 pm
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      Thanks, I’ve been facing this problem quite a lot

    • June 30, 2010 at 10:57 am
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      Thank you. I was just about to drop all my DB tables and try to create the whole DB from scratch ….saved my life!

    • September 1, 2010 at 9:54 am
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      Thank you very much.Solved my problem.

    • September 5, 2010 at 9:41 pm
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      You saved my from blowing a deadline on an active directory project with 25,000 users! Thank you so much for taking a moment to share.

    • September 13, 2010 at 9:16 am
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      I’ve read similar posts on a dozen different websites, but none are addressing the most important concern.

      I need to add a column to a table contain a few million rows. After testing this solution on a test database, I find that it only takes about 30 seconds to complete; not a big deal.

      So is this safe to do on a production table after hours?

      Is there any risk of losing data of any kind (table data, constraints, stats, indexes)?

      I guess I don’t understand why MS locks you out in the first place. Is it solely because of the potential of hanging a production database for a long period of time (because its such an extensive operation)?

      Thanks for any insight!

    • September 14, 2010 at 9:18 am
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      Thanks for question, Andy. There is reason why MS locks this feature by default. Re-creating large tables may take more time than couple of seconds, it may take even hours to make change like this on large tables. The way how Management Studio performs this operation is very costy.

    • September 20, 2010 at 4:56 pm
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      So it has nothing to do with data loss, purely a consideration because of the intensity of the operation?

    • September 20, 2010 at 8:42 pm
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      This far I have done this operation without data losses. If tables are large then it may take long hours to recreate them and fill with data again.

    • September 24, 2010 at 12:30 am
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      thanks for the information, that is very helpful one.. cheers!!!

    • December 15, 2010 at 11:58 am
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      Thanks a lot. Saved me my day. I underwent the pain of dropping and re-creating the entire DB (development) a week earlier. Whew!!! An intimation along the “Save Cancelled” dialog box would have been a better option. Seems Microsoft had left its SQL users running helter-skelter by hiding such control info. Also makes an impression that Microsoft’s curve bends low towards user-friendliness and goes soaring towards sophistication. While it seems good, not to forget the huge base of confused users left behind.

    • January 22, 2011 at 11:37 am
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      Thank you very much. I was facing this problem since a long time. Your blog post solved it.

    • February 18, 2011 at 7:26 pm
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      thanks! i thought it was a server setting!

    • September 2, 2011 at 3:29 am
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      good info… thanx

    • November 2, 2011 at 7:20 pm
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      Thank you so much!!!saved my time..:)

    • January 11, 2012 at 12:28 pm
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      Thanks… hate MS so much.. forced to work with this terrible DBMS for my current project.

    • July 1, 2013 at 2:25 pm
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      Very Very Thank you my friend!!!!!!!!!

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