How do you upgrade a SQL Server Express instance from 2012 to 2014

Question

I performed what I thought was an upgrade from SQL Server Express 2012 to 2014 by running the 64-bit executable. Everything seemed to be working fine during installation as it recognized my existing server instance (2012) which I presumed would be upgraded to 2014.

However, when I try to restore a 2014 DB from my web host, I get the following error:

The database was backed up on a server running version 12.00.2000. That version is incompatible with this server, which is running version 11.00.5343. Either restore the database on a server that supports the backup, or use a backup that is compatible with this server.

I definitely have 2014 installed, but when I view my instance from inside SMS 2014 it looks to still be running on SQL version 11.xxx which I presume is 2012 (the name of the instance is the same as it was when I was running 2012).

Did I do something wrong during the installation? How do I upgrade my instance to 2014 so that I can restore my DB locally?

Solution

downloadsqlserverexpress.com helps to find the correct download of SQL Server Express from MS Download Center. You need the one that contains the SQL Server Engine, not just Management Studio.

sqlserverbuilds.blogspot.com.au has a full list of SQL Server versions and builds.

Using it we can see that you are running Management Studio 2014 (build 12.0.2000.0), but you are connecting to SQL Server 2012 engine (build 11.0.5343).

Maybe you now have two engines running (both 2012 and 2014). You can check the list of running processes and verify if two instances of sqlservr.exe are running.

It should be possible to upgrade the engine in place by installing 2014 on top of 2012. I don't know why it didn't happen in your case. You could have chosen to install only Management Studio even if you had a full installer.

One long, but sure way to clean up would be to uninstall everything related to SQL Server and install 2014 again. Make proper backups of databases at first, of course.