In October 2025, the routine update of the Microsoft Defender, which is one of the most trusted security software, confused thousands of SQL administrators with its false alert saying that SQL Server 2017 and 2019 were no longer supported. This alert was totally false. Both versions still have years of support ahead.
- SQL Server 2019 is supported till January 2030
- Server 2017 will reach the end of support in October 2027
The unnecessary automated end-of-life alert for SQL Server happened at the time when Microsoft rolled out the SQL Server 2025 preview and Release Candidate 1 (RC1) versions. So, out of panic, many SQL admins and users start migrating their SQL Server 2017 and 2019 to 2025. However, the users started experiencing upgrade failures, database attach errors after upgrade, and data consistency issues after the SQL Server 2025 upgrade. Such issues might have probably occurred due to corruption in the SQL database files. Considering this, the users have been looking for database repair and recovery tools for a quick solution. In such situations, they have the option to utilize a specialized SQL database repair tool, such as Stellar Repair for MS SQL. This tool offers a quick repair and recovery of corrupted SQL databases with complete integrity.
Now, let’s understand this issue in more detail.
What Exactly Happened? The Defender False End-of-Life Alert
According to the Techradar article, the SQL Server 2017 and 2019 customers receive wrong notifications about support ending for both versions due to the Microsoft Defender bug. This bug has been impacting Microsoft Defender customers with these SQL Server versions. However, Microsoft has acknowledged this issue on 9th October, 2025 (almost 24 hours after the issue was confirmed), and stated that this is a code issue caused by some recent change to end-of-support software. The company added that they are working to find a fix for this issue and will share an update once it is available.
Despite Microsoft Defender mistakenly flagging an incident alert as false, it caused concern and additional workload for many enterprise database admins. They started checking their systems, started running security patching, created backups of their databases, and used DBCC CHECKDB tools to check and confirm that everything was working fine.
The incorrect alert came just after Microsoft had released the preview and first test version of SQL Server 2025. Since many organization were already busy in testing the new version, this wrong alerts created extra confusion. This made them pause the testing of new features in SQL Server 2025 and started verifying the support timelines, run integrity checks to ensure that their server environment is risk free.
Why Readiness for Sudden Defender Alerts are Important?
The Windows Defender false positives for SQL Server 2019 and 2017 show how important it is for SQL admins and IT teams of the organization to stay prepared for such sudden incidents. It’s too early to react to every alert by security software, as they can have bugs. Admins should first confirm the information about the message alerts from the official sources and websites to prevent panic and get a resolution.
A regular habit of running integrity checks on SQL Server after any such defender alerts or any Windows update helps admins catch inconsistency issues early and prevent unnecessary panic. Also, after taking a big decision of migrating from one SQL Server version to another, they should have their proper backup management plans and a test environment ready.
What if the Integrity Checks Fail and SQL Database gets Corrupted?
In cases where the SQL database gets corrupted, a reliable SQL repair tool can come in handy. To repair and recover corrupt database (MDF and NDF) files of SQL Server, there are a number of tools available in the market. Among them, Stellar Repair for MS SQL is one of the admin-trusted tools that can repair MDF and NDF files of any size and in any condition. It can help you recover the tables, stored procedures, indexes, and other objects from corrupt SQL database file with complete precision. So whether you’re using SQL Server 2016, 2017, 2019, or any other, this repair tool can help you fix corruption issues in the SQL database with ease.
Conclusion
A false report by Windows Defender caused panic among the database administrators. This incident reminded everyone of the importance of being aware and ready to ensure smooth operations of SQL Server. Users first verify such misleading alerts, before taking any counter step. If in case, due to this alert, you’re trying to migrate your SQL Server 2017 or 2019 to latest version and facing any issues with the database, then take the help of a reliable SQL database repair and recovery tool.
