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Symptoms

When you try to upgrade your Microsoft SQL Server installation to SQL Server 2012 or SQL Server 2014, you may receive the following error message:

The following error has occurred: The folder 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.INSTANCEID\MSSQL\JOBS' does not exist. The folder is expected to exist to set permission on it. Examine why the folder does not exist and recreate it.

Cause

This problem occurs if the JOBS folder has been deleted from its default directory. During the upgrade, the upgrade process tries to set the required permissions on the JOBS folder. However, if the folder is gone, the permissions cannot be applied, and the upgrade fails.

Each new cumulative update for SQL Server contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous cumulative update. Check out the latest cumulative updates for SQL Server:


To resolve this issue, re-create the JOBS folder, uninstall the failed upgrade, and then run the upgrade again. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Using the Summary.txt file as a reference, locate the path of the JOBS folder that's required by the Setup process, and then re-create the folder. For example, the Summary.txt may contain the following:

    Error description: The folder 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.ProdSQL\MSSQL\JOBS' does not exist. The folder is expected to exist to set permission on it. Examine why the folder does not exist and recreate it.

  2. Using the same Summary.txt file that's referenced in step 1, locate the uninstall command. For example, the Summary.txt file may contain the following:

    Next step for SQLEngine: The upgrade process for SQL Server failed. To continue the upgrade process, use the following information to resolve the error. Next, uninstall SQL Server by using the following command line: setup /q /action=uninstall /instanceid=ProdSQL /features=SQLENGINE,FULLTEXT,REPLICATION
    Then, run SQL Server Setup again.

  3. Open a command prompt, and then locate the directory that contains the upgrade setup media. For example, if you are upgrading from SQL Server 2012 to SQL Server 2014, use the SQL Server 2014 setup media.

  4. Copy and run the command from step 2 at a command prompt in order to remove the partial installation. For example, to uninstall an instance that contains an instance ID of "ProdSQL" whose upgrade failed, run the following command:

    setup /q /action=uninstall /instanceid=ProdSQL /features=SQLENGINE,FULLTEXT,REPLICATION

    Note When you run the uninstall command, this does not remove the original instance that you are trying to upgrade. It removes only the inactive/partial install of the new version.

  5. Run the upgrade process again.

More Information

For more information, see Upgrade to SQL Server 2014.

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