Full-Text Search is not installed, or a full-text component cannot be loaded

Question

I am currently attempting to create a full text index on a unique column. The table definition is:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[DictionaryWords](
       [Id] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
       [Word] [varchar](255) NOT NULL,
       [Frequency] [int] NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT [PK_DictionaryWords] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
       [Id] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, 
ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY],
CONSTRAINT [UX_Word] UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED 
(
       [Word] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, 
ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]

I then created the full text catalogue:

CREATE FULLTEXT CATALOG ft AS DEFAULT

and finally attempted to create the full text index:

CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX ON DictionaryWords(Word) KEY INDEX UX_Word

but I get the error:

Full-Text Search is not installed, or a full-text component cannot be loaded

Full text search is installed, as testified by the command:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('IsFullTextInstalled')

which returns a value of 1. So presumably the problem is that "full-text component cannot be loaded".

Any ideas what I should look at next?

Poindexter

Did you copy/paste the error into Google and look at the different solutions? If so, tell us what you tried and if it worked or not so we don't duplicate your efforts. – Mariken

All the Google articles i could find dealt with the fact that the Full Text component was not installed in the first place. After much faffing I manage to get it to work (See answer below) – Poindexter

Answer 1

Looks like the problem is that the full text catalogue was created BEFORE the full text component was installed.

I was fortunate to be have the luxury to drop the database and recreate the tables from scratch. The above three commands now worked.

If I couldn't drop the database, then probably deleting the full text catalogue and then recreating it would solve it (better than my drop database sledgehammer approach!)

Poindexter

I dont think it was necessary to drop the database. – Puebla

Answer 2

That's how I turned it on:

• Open: SQL Server Installation Center
• Click on Installation and then on New SQL Server stand-alone installation...
• Navigate to the installation folder, look like this: and select the folder that ends with ENU
• In the setup process just click next until you get to the Installation Type and then you check the "Add features to an existing instance of SQL Server..."
• Click next to the Feature Selection and there you should pick "Full-Text and Semantic for search"
• click next, next, next until the end

For those who do not have "SQL Server Installation Center", you can go to Control Panel > Programs > Unistall or ... and find for ex: Microsft SQL Server 2017 (64-bit) , not Setup, LocalDB, NativeClient or T-SQL, right-click > Unistall or change and choose Add.

Azine

Thank you, nice answer ! For those who doesn't have "SQL Server Installation Center", you can go to Control Panel > Programs > Unistall or ... and find for ex: Microsft SQL Server 2017 (64-bit) , not Setup, LocalDB, NativeClient or T-SQL, right-click > Unistall or change and choose Add. – Kimberleykimberli

@AbdellahGRIB this is a very useful comment. I will update it in the answer . – Linage

Hmm... I did these steps, looks installed, running, see the checked-but-grey fulltext option on DB files dialogue, but when I create fulltext index, I still see , Full-Text Search is not installed, or a full-text component cannot be loaded. I tried dropping and recreating the catalog, no dice. – Connie