Try clearing your cookies: http://issues.umbraco.org/issue/U4-7494

I blogged about this as well if you run into more problems: https://cultiv.nl/blog/how-to-diagnose-umbraco-upgrade-problems/

Hi Seb, many thanks for this - I have reviewed what you have shared and tried everything - clearing cookies etc, on all my devices, and i still have an issue.

I even used a device i haven't visited the site on before and same issue.

Any other ideas?

I too have tried the suggestions that you provided here and in the post and I still get the error message, " Value cannot be null. Parameter name: sqlSyntax" I have changed my backend database from SQLCE to SQL Server using the SQL Server Compact/SQL Lite Toolbox and the structure and data compared exactly. I have some questions about the line in the Web.Config stating

Important: If you're upgrading Umbraco, do not clear the connection string / provider name during your web.config merge.

I continue to use the name umbracoDbDSN but I have changed the login credentials. I have also tried to change the corresponding <system.data> <DbProviderFactories> from "Microsoft SQL Server Compact Data Provider 4.0" but that did not work either.

@Reggie Change your connection string to something like:

<add name="umbracoDbDSN" connectionString="server=.\SQLExpress;database=mydatabase;user id=myuser;password=mypassword" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

@Alex, sorry, no idea, something must be wrong with your connection or your database or something.

Hi Sebastiaan

Thanks for your reply, but my connection string works fine. It is in the same format you are using and it works correctly from SQLServer Management Studio.

This is my Stack Trace

Stack Trace:

[ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: sqlSyntax] Umbraco.Core.Persistence.Repositories.PetaPocoRepositoryBase`2..ctor(IDatabaseUnitOfWork work, CacheHelper cache, ILogger logger, ISqlSyntaxProvider sqlSyntax) +100 Umbraco.Core.Persistence.Repositories.DomainRepository..ctor(IDatabaseUnitOfWork work, CacheHelper cache, ILogger logger, ISqlSyntaxProvider sqlSyntax) +30 Umbraco.Core.Persistence.RepositoryFactory.CreateDomainRepository(IDatabaseUnitOfWork uow) +50 Umbraco.Core.Services.DomainService.GetAll(Boolean includeWildcards) +63 Umbraco.Web.Routing.PublishedContentRequestEngine.FindDomain() +292 Umbraco.Web.Routing.PublishedContentRequestEngine.PrepareRequest() +33 Umbraco.Web.Routing.PublishedContentRequest.Prepare() +26 Umbraco.Web.UmbracoModule.ProcessRequest(HttpContextBase httpContext) +387 Umbraco.Web.UmbracoModule.

I had the exact same error, and it was in fact a problem with my connection string. For more details, check your trace log file in the App_Data folder. It will give you the actual SQL error. In my case, I was using a server that was a lower version than my db file, and that was indicated in the log file error.

Good luck.

I had this error too.

In my case issue was in the project location. Project files were stored in network drive.

After I copied project to local drive installation process was successful.

Did anyone figure this out? I upgraded to 7.5.11; did not allow any config files to merge; used win merge to manually make changes; things work fine on my local computer and localdb\v11.0; tried to publish the website for the first time, but I was running into this error.

Steps to fix:

1. So what I did was I deleted the server side database completely.
2. I then created a new one.
3. I used Sql Server Manager to connect to my local db and the newly created server db.
4. I then right-clicked on my local db and chose to export. I ran through the wizard choosing the server side db as the target db. I let the export occur, and voila the error stopped showing.

Hope this helps!

For me I made 2 changes so I'm not sure which was the actual fix though I suspect it was adding the providerName.

I had this...

  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="umbracoDbDSN" connectionString="Data Source=|DataDirectory|\Umbraco.sdf;Flush Interval=1;" />
  </connectionStrings>

and changed it to this and it started working

<connectionStrings>
    <remove name="umbracoDbDSN" />
    <add name="umbracoDbDSN" connectionString="Data Source=|DataDirectory|\Umbraco.sdf;Max Database Size=4090;Flush Interval=1;" providerName="System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0" />
</connectionStrings>

So be sure you have the "remove" line and also be sure to use the providerName attribute.

By the way, I suspect that this change in the web.config happened when I saved from the ASP.NET settings section in GoDaddy.

Good luck!

Hi all,

I had the same issue when downgrading a database from version 13 to version 11.

I opened the same website in a different browser / private browser and it went straight through so i think its something to do with the account / login stuff.

Check your App_data/ logs and it gives you more details on the exact issue.

Good luck!!

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