I have setup a Merge Replication to update Client PC's with table data from the main server. These clients are running SQL Server Express 2012, the Main Server is on SQL Server 2012.
The issue I am having is this
When I set the Snapshot format if I pick:
Native SQL Server - all Subscribers must be servers running SQL Server
Then on the client I am getting an error where it appears that data that is being Bulk Copied into the table is somehow being transformed into what looks like Japanese characters. Not only does this make the data unusable, it also seems that that whatever data is it creating, is causing duplicate values on key fields.
If I change this option to:
Character - required if any subscriber is a device running Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition.
Then the data comes over ok, but all of the timestamp fields are dropped off of the table schema and are not created, which creates errors in the application.
If I run using option 1 above, on another instance on the same server, then everything is fine, so it appears that it is an issue with SQL Express. As far as I understood, SQL Express is NOT the same as SQL Server Compact, but perhaps I am mistaken, or are there some settings I should be looking at?