How to add LocalDB to Visual Studio 2015 Community's SQL Server Object Explorer?

I had the same issue today recently installing VS2015 Community Edition Update 1.

I fixed the problem by just adding the "SQL Server Data Tools" from the VS2015 setup installer... When I ran the installer the first time I selected the "Custom" installation type instead of the "Default". I wanted to see what install options were available but not select anything different than what was already ticked. My assumption was that whatever was already ticked was essentially the default install. But its not.

To check if LocalDb is installed or not:

• run cmd and type in sqllocaldb i this should give you the installed sqllocaldb instances if found.
• Run SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio).
• Try to connect to this instance (localdb)\V11.0 using windows authentication.

If an error is raised Cannot connect to (localdb)\V11.0. change the instance name to (localdb)\MSSQLLocalDB and try again to connect, if you still get the same error.

Follow these steps to install LocalDb:

• Close SSMS.
• Close VS (Visual Studio) if it's running.
• Go to Start Menu and type in search sqlLocalDb.
• From the results that appears choose sqlLocalDb.msi and click it.
• SQL setup will start to install LocalDB

after finishing the installation re-run SSMS and try connecting to either of the instances (localdb)\V11.0 or (localdb)\MSSQLLocalDB, one of it should work depending on what Visual Studio version you have.

You can also verify that localdb is installed using Visual Studio by simply creating new sql file and go to the connect icon on the top header of the file which by default lists all the servers you can connect to including localdb if installed.

In addition to the above mentioned ways of finding if localdb is installed, you can also use the MS windows power shell or windows command processor CMD or even NuGet package manager console on your server machine and run these commands sqllocaldb i and sqllocaldb v that will show you the localdb name if it is installed and the MSSQL server version installed and running on your machine.

If you are not sure if local db is installed, or not sure which database name you should use to connect to it - try running 'sqllocaldb info' command - it will show you existing localdb databases.

Now, as far as I know, local db should be installed together with Visual Studio 2015. But probably it is not required feature, and if something goes wrong or it cannot be installed for some reason - Visual Studio installation continues still (note that is just my guess). So to be on the safe side don't rely on it will always be installed together with VS.