title: Using an existing SqlMembershipProvider database with an ASP.NET MVC app
body: <p>I have been looking for direction on how to use an existing membership db with a new mvc app. Everything I've found is in regard to creating a new membership db.</p>
  
  <p>I would expect to simply point the new app to the existing db somewhere, but I haven't been able to figure out where I should do that.</p>
  
  <p>Any direction is appreciated as always.</p>
  
  <p>edit: I have tried changing the connection string. The membership component appears to continue to run off LocalDB</p>
  
  <p>Here's the we.config. The only edit is to the connection string in an otherwise unedited "ASP.NET Web Application" </p>
  
  <pre><code>    &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;
  &lt;!--
    For more information on how to configure your ASP.NET application, please visit
    http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=301880
    --&gt;
  &lt;configuration&gt;
    &lt;configSections&gt;
      &lt;!-- For more information on Entity Framework configuration, visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=237468 --&gt;
      &lt;section name="entityFramework" type="System.Data.Entity.Internal.ConfigFile.EntityFrameworkSection, EntityFramework, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" /&gt;
    &lt;/configSections&gt;
    &lt;connectionStrings&gt;
      &lt;add name="ApplicationServices" connectionString="Data Source=server;Initial Catalog=aspservicesdb;UID=user;PWD=pass" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" /&gt;
    &lt;/connectionStrings&gt;
    &lt;appSettings&gt;
      &lt;add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0" /&gt;
      &lt;add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" /&gt;
      &lt;add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true" /&gt;
      &lt;add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="true" /&gt;
    &lt;/appSettings&gt;
    &lt;system.web&gt;
      &lt;authentication mode="Forms" /&gt;
  
      &lt;membership defaultProvider="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" userIsOnlineTimeWindow="480"&gt;
        &lt;providers&gt;
          &lt;clear /&gt;
          &lt;add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider" connectionStringName="ApplicationServices" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false" requiresUniqueEmail="false" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="12" minRequiredPasswordLength="6" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0" passwordAttemptWindow="10" applicationName="/" /&gt;
        &lt;/providers&gt;
      &lt;/membership&gt;
  
      &lt;compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5" /&gt;
      &lt;httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5" /&gt;
    &lt;/system.web&gt;
    &lt;system.webServer&gt;
      &lt;modules&gt;
        &lt;remove name="FormsAuthenticationModule" /&gt;
      &lt;/modules&gt;
    &lt;/system.webServer&gt;
    &lt;runtime&gt;
      &lt;assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"&gt;
        &lt;dependentAssembly&gt;
          &lt;assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Helpers" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" /&gt;
          &lt;bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0" /&gt;
        &lt;/dependentAssembly&gt;
        &lt;dependentAssembly&gt;
          &lt;assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" /&gt;
          &lt;bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-5.0.0.0" newVersion="5.0.0.0" /&gt;
        &lt;/dependentAssembly&gt;
        &lt;dependentAssembly&gt;
          &lt;assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.WebPages" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" /&gt;
          &lt;bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0" /&gt;
        &lt;/dependentAssembly&gt;
        &lt;dependentAssembly&gt;
          &lt;assemblyIdentity name="WebGrease" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" /&gt;
          &lt;bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.5.2.14234" newVersion="1.5.2.14234" /&gt;
        &lt;/dependentAssembly&gt;
      &lt;/assemblyBinding&gt;
    &lt;/runtime&gt;
    &lt;entityFramework&gt;
      &lt;defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.SqlConnectionFactory, EntityFramework" /&gt;
      &lt;providers&gt;
        &lt;provider invariantName="System.Data.SqlClient" type="System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.SqlProviderServices, EntityFramework.SqlServer" /&gt;
      &lt;/providers&gt;
    &lt;/entityFramework&gt;
  &lt;/configuration&gt;
  </code></pre>