Correct “Primary Credentials Not Authenticated” Error in K2 Studio Despite Successful Connection Tests

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Things just BLEW UP the other night. I connected to the development server, opened my solution in K2 Studio, started to edit, and BLAMMO! Everything went black.

Administrators had to rebuild my blown profile on the server. Once I was able to get into the desktop again, I figured I should have been able to drop shortcuts to K2 Studio and Visual Studio onto my desktop. No big deal, right?

I was able to open K2 Studio, load my solution, but was surprised to see that the solution was not connected to the (local) development environment.

I was even more surprised when anything I tried to do that was related to the server (like open an IPC, for example) yielded a nasty “Primary Credentials Not Authenticated” exception that threw me out of K2 Studio completely.

Here’s what I really didn’t understand… the development environment is on the same box. It’s not like the software has to connect to anywhere to get to it.

Maybe the connection string went bad.

To check the connection to your K2 environment from K2 Studio, navigate to the Object Browser in your current solution. Look for tiny down arrow (like you’d see for a dropdown control), all the way on the right side of the panel. Click that arrow to expose a menu, and select Change Server…  to open the Change Environment Server Connection dialog.

Image of the Object Browser in K2 Studio
Accessing the Connection String through the Object Browser

The main region of the dialog has three controls — a textbox which exposes the connection string (the image below has the connection string blanked out), a button marked with an ellipsis, and a button marked “Test.”

The Change Environment Server Connection Dialog
The Change Environment Server Connection Dialog

 

The former button exposes the Host Server Connection String dialog, which allows you to configure the connection string (the image below is blanked out for illustration only — it’s normally populated with all of your connection string goodness)…

 

The Host Server Connection String dialog.
The Host Server Connection String dialog

 

… while the latter button allows you to test the connection.

Small information dialog reports 'Test succeeded'
Information Dialog Reports Results of the Connection Test

 

I could use the Change Environment Server Connection dialog to test the connection… successfully! What the heck?!

Why would I get a “Primary Credentials Not Authenticated” exception when attempting to do anything related to the server within my solution, but have a connection test come back clean and green?

 

The short answer: I don’t know.

The solution: Use that Host Server Connection String dialog to retype the password. With the password re-typed and saved, all became right with the world.

HTH.