unable to delete merge pull subscription

Question

Environment: Merge pull subscription with anonymous subscribers, using web sync, publisher is 2008R2, subscribers are SQLEXPRESS 2008R2.

Issue: I run sp_dropmergepullsubscription on subscriber and sp_dropmergesubscription on publisher, subscription is removed on subscriber, but why do I see an entry in sysmergesubscriptions on publisher, for that subscriber, with status 1 still?

I found a way here which suggests to manually delete entries, but why do I have to manually delete stuff?

Is it required to run sp_dropmergesubscription on publisher after running sp_dropmergepullsubscription on subscriber? Just deleting on subscription on subscriber side is not enough?

Answer 1

Do not manually delete the entries in sysmergesubscriptions. Manually deleting these entries can result in not being able to add new subscribers down the road.

To delete a pull subscription to a Merge publication at the subscriber on the subscription database execute sp_dropmergepullsubscription. Then at the publisher on the publication database execute sp_dropmergesubscription. This is covered in How to: Delete a Pull Subscription.

Executing sp_dropmergesubscription at the publisher will not remove the entry from sysmergesubscription but will set the status to 2, which indicates it has been deleted.

If the status is still 1 in sysmergesubscriptions then perhaps you executed sp_dropmergesubscription incorrectly. Make sure to specify @publication, @subscriber, and @subscriber_db. Also, specify a value of pull for @subscription_type.