IntelliSense not working but it is enabled

This problem is really proving to be a tricky one (and quite annoying).

In SQL Server Management Studio 2008, up until a few days ago my IntelliSense was working great. Then all of a sudden it stopped. The icon as it as enabled on the toolbar menu, and under Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> T-SQL -> IntelliSense it says it is enabled there.

I have tried refeshing the IntelliSense cache with Ctrl-Shft-R but that doesn't work either.

Any ideas what happened to my IntelliSense and what I need to do to get it back?

There are number of possibilities where IntelliSense not working:

There are cases where the local cache used by IntelliSense becomes stale. Refreshing the cache is easy but not necessarily obvious.

There are two ways to refresh the cache:

• Hit Ctrl+Shift+R

• Go to Edit -> IntelliSense -> Refresh Local Cache

If IntelliSense is still not working, then make sure you have IntelliSense enabled. To check this from the T-SQL Query editor window of the current database:

• Go to Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> Transact-SQL -> General -> IntelliSense

• Go to Query -> IntelliSense should be selected

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Also verify that the T-SQL Editor does not launch in SQLCMD Mode. To check:

• Go to Tools -> Options -> Query Execution -> SQL Server -> General

• Make sure "By default, open new queries in SQLCMD mode" is unchecked.

• or Go to Query -> SQLCMD Mode should not be selected

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StackExchange Database Administrators Q#6145, answer score: 38