Can't do a SQL edition upgrade after the trial install expired

Jorge Abellas-Martin 20 Reputation points
2026-06-24T20:23:09.5433333+00:00

I missed the install window for doing an edition upgrade with my real license and now I am in a catch 22: the SQL server will not start because the trial has expired and the edition upgrade fails because the trial has expired. I have tried installing a developer edition as well as a standard edition and run into the same problem. I even went into the registry and changed the edition by hand to developer and it still will not start.

Any ideas?

J.

SQL Server | Other
SQL Server | Other

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Answer accepted by question author

Erland Sommarskog 135.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2026-06-24T21:05:03.21+00:00

Uninstall should still be possible. Then you can install your licensed version. If you have user databases that you want to keep, you can attach these later. The uninstall should not touch these databases, but copy them elsewhere just in case first.

If you have data in master and msdb that you want to keep that is a little more tricky. In theory, you could copy these files elsewhere and then copy them back after the re-installation. I kind of would expect that to work for msdb, but I am less sure about master.

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  1. AI answer

    2026-06-24T20:24:01.69+00:00

    The expired evaluation edition blocks the SQL Server service from starting, so an in-place edition upgrade with the normal Setup UI fails. This scenario is covered as “Case 1” and “Case 2” in the evaluation-expired guidance.

    Use one of these supported approaches, depending on what edition you want to end up on and whether you can still start the instance (in this case, it cannot start, so follow the “cannot start” path):

    1. Upgrade the expired Evaluation to a licensed edition (same instance)
      • For an expired Evaluation edition that you want to convert to a licensed edition (Standard/Enterprise/etc.), follow the documented edition upgrade procedure:
      • If this is SQL Server 2008 and the evaluation was previously upgraded but you still see “evaluation period has expired” due to the known bug, use Case 3 – Option 2 in the article:
        1. Open Regedt32.
        2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\ConfigurationState.
        3. In the right pane, select the CommonFiles DWORD.
        4. On the Edit menu, select Modify, set the value to 3, and select **OK`.
        5. Close Registry Editor.
        6. Rerun the “Upgrade to a Different Edition of SQL Server (Setup)” procedure to complete the upgrade of all components to a licensed edition.
    2. Move databases from expired Enterprise Evaluation to Express or another instance If the evaluation instance cannot start and there is no supported in-place upgrade path (or it keeps failing), move the user databases to a new, licensed instance:
      • Scenario 2 – cannot start expired Enterprise Evaluation (from the article):
        1. Install a new SQL Server Express or other licensed edition instance on the same or another server.
        2. Locate the .mdf and .ldf files for the user databases from the expired instance.
        3. Attach these files to the new instance using the documented attach procedure.
          • Before attaching, if the files are still in the old instance’s default data directory, move them to the new instance’s data directory or another appropriate location.
        • Note: For Express, ensure each database is under the 10 GB limit.
    3. If tools (SSMS/Profiler) are the only evaluation components
      • The same evaluation-expired message can appear for SSMS/Profiler when only the tools were installed from an evaluation media. In that case, follow the same “Upgrade to a Different Edition” guidance for tools, or reinstall the tools from a non-evaluation media.

    In summary, either:

    • Perform an edition upgrade using the version-specific “Upgrade to a Different Edition of SQL Server (Setup)” procedure (and, for SQL Server 2008, apply the registry fix if affected by the known bug), or
    • Install a new licensed instance and attach the existing database files from the expired evaluation instance.

    References:

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