How to delete an unused content db in SharePoint

Question

Error: Databases required upgrade or not supported : The following databases require upgrade because their versions are older than the backwards compatible range: SearchServiceApplication1_CrawlStoreDB

Issue- Upgrade-SPContentDatabase –Identity SearchServiceApplication1_CrawlStoreDB "Upgrade-SPContentDatabase : The content database could not be found."

This is Not the Search Service Application Crawl Store DB that our site uses. It looks as though a new DB was created and that one is being used.

Question - How do I delete a database that is recognized by SharePoint but not being used by SharePoint?

Answer 1

If you only need a list of all content databases, use SharePoint Central Administration. In the Application Management section just click Manage content databases to go to a page that lists content databases used in your farms. These are the only Content DB used in your farm. Open SQL Server Management Studio and match with the list of Content DB in Central Admin site. Unmatched Content DB should be deleted from SQL Server.

The other thing, if you want to get a list of SharePoint databases that your SharePoint is currently using. You should run this command on SharePoint Management Shell:

Get-SPDatabase | Sort-Object Name | Select Name

If you want the list of databases to be saved in a text file, then you may run the same command but with a paramter:

Get-SPDatabase | Sort-Object Name | Select Name | Out-File D:\temp\SharepointDBsInUseList.txt

Now open SQL Server Management Studio and login to the database server instance of your SharePoint Farm. Again match the databases with databases listed in text file (in our case, SharepointDBsInUseList.txt) and proceed with deletion of unused databases.

Answer 2

You cannot delete content DB from SP. You have to open SQL Server Management Studio. From there you can delete the specific content DB.

Answer 3

You can delete content database from SQL Server using the Remove-SPContentDatabase cmdlet, see this for usage.