How can I target SQL Server 2012 instead of 2014 when publishing?

Question

I'm trying to publish a project and I get this error:

a project which specifies sql server 2014 as the target platform cannot be published to sql server 2012

How can I make it target 2012?

Answer 1

I had the same issue and I able to fix it by following:

1) Right click on the project go to Properties and change the Target platform as shown below.

Answer 2

• I know It's too late, but today I've got the same error with SQL server 2016. then I tried 1st a solution but that didn't work for me.

• In my case by Allowing Incompatible Platform to check true solved my problem.

• Just follow these steps... goto publish -> Advance -> Check Allowing Incompatible Platform -> Publish

Answer 3

For me, even though I set up my sqlproj to target SQL Server 2008, when I ran debug, the local version of SQL server that would spin up (in the sql server object explorer) would be 2014 (localdb)\ProjectsV12, and when I would right click on the db in here to "extract data tier application", the dacpac would target 2014. But I found that if I right click on my sqlproj in solution explorer and I choose "Snapshot Project", I get a dacpac targeted at SQL Server 2008 which is what I needed.