| title | DROP CERTIFICATE (Transact-SQL) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| description | DROP CERTIFICATE removes a certificate from the database. | |||||
| author | VanMSFT | |||||
| ms.author | vanto | |||||
| ms.reviewer | randolphwest | |||||
| ms.date | 07/24/2025 | |||||
| ms.service | sql | |||||
| ms.subservice | t-sql | |||||
| ms.topic | reference | |||||
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| monikerRange | =azuresqldb-current || =azuresqldb-mi-current || >=sql-server-2016 || >=sql-server-linux-2017 || =azure-sqldw-latest || =fabric-sqldb |
[!INCLUDE SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Synapse Analytics FabricSQLDB]
Removes a certificate from the database.
Important
A backup of the certificate used for database encryption should be retained even if the encryption is no longer enabled on a database. Even though the database isn't encrypted anymore, parts of the transaction log might still remain protected; the certificate might be needed for some operations until the full backup of the database is performed. The certificate is also needed to be able to restore from the backups created at the time the database was encrypted.
:::image type="icon" source="../../includes/media/topic-link-icon.svg" border="false"::: Transact-SQL syntax conventions
[!INCLUDE synapse-analytics-od-unsupported-syntax]
DROP CERTIFICATE certificate_name
The unique name by which the certificate is known in the database.
Certificates can only be dropped if no entities are associated with them.
Requires CONTROL permission on the certificate.
The following example drops the certificate Shipping04 from the AdventureWorks database.
USE AdventureWorks2022;
DROP CERTIFICATE Shipping04;The following example drops the certificate Shipping04.
USE master;
DROP CERTIFICATE Shipping04;