41 thoughts on “Simple solution for ORA-12638: Credential retrieval failed”

1. Anjali August 5, 2009 at 3:22 am

   Thanks
   It really worked and solved my problem 🙂
2. admin Post authorAugust 5, 2009 at 5:11 am

   no problem, glad to help.
3. manoj January 13, 2010 at 7:49 am

   when change name
   SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS) and change it to
   SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NONE)
   error come ORACLE NOT AVILABE please give me solution
4. admin Post authorJanuary 15, 2010 at 7:15 am

   if you are sure that oracle service is up (sometimes this message means that the service is not running) try to open the command line and type set oracle_sid=your_sid_name and than SQLPLUS and see if it works. It is possible that your oracle_sid parameter is not set.
5. Chigo July 6, 2011 at 3:08 am

   I changed the NTS in the file and it worked. thank a lot.
6. Das July 27, 2011 at 7:45 am

   that actually works
   thx alot
7. Thilina Munasinghe September 9, 2011 at 3:47 am

   Thanks a lot. It worked for me.
8. Robert November 10, 2011 at 3:27 pm

   Did not work for me. Now getting ORA-01031: insufficient privileges
9. Asaf Tal Post authorNovember 10, 2011 at 11:00 pm

   @Robert, what are you trying to do when you get the ora-01031? this message is shown when the user is trying to do something (create a table or a view for example) without the right permission.
   This actually means that you are connected and it probably did work for you.
10. Prasad November 17, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    Thanks a lot. It worked.
11. Sammy January 10, 2012 at 1:17 pm

    I changed it to NONE but I am getting the same ORA-12638 error. What else is going on?
12. Sammy January 10, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    I have to add, I was trying to connect using sever explorer db connection in Visual Studio 2010 premium.
13. Asaf Tal Post authorJanuary 11, 2012 at 7:10 am

    Verify that you are using the right oracle home. Try to change tnsnames and check that you are seeing the changed entry.
14. Ron Visser January 13, 2012 at 10:50 am

    It solves my problem. But the performance decrease dramaticly
15. Asaf Tal Post authorJanuary 13, 2012 at 11:18 am

    This is a client side solution. It shold have no effect on db performence. Verify that you are using the correct client version.
16. hamed September 10, 2012 at 1:06 am

    Tnx
17. Dimitri October 5, 2012 at 8:37 am

    Thanks a lot!
18. FrankMontana88 February 12, 2013 at 9:40 am

    Thank you very much, god bless you for this valuable help.
    Greeting from domincan republic.
19. Sumant Deshpande June 19, 2013 at 6:16 am

    It worked for me.. Thanks a lot!
20. Tajuddin July 7, 2013 at 10:33 pm

    It did work, thanks for the solution.
21. javi August 20, 2013 at 3:41 am

    Thanks!
    Just to clarify, this has to be done on the client machine. And restart Toad or whatever client application you are using

    thanks again!
22. Jarvis October 4, 2013 at 8:54 am

    Thank you it’s perfect !
23. Ravi November 11, 2013 at 7:33 am

    Thanks.. it worked for me..
24. Vijay November 21, 2013 at 3:15 am

    Thanks a lot. Saved hell lot of time.
25. Stefan December 11, 2013 at 12:40 pm

    Thanks a lot !!!
26. Mark January 30, 2014 at 1:04 pm

    Wow!
    A simple fix that actually fixes the issue in hand (I rarely find them these days)
    5:00pm panic averted!
27. Kumar March 30, 2014 at 11:04 am

    Thank you very much.Problem fixed in no time.Appreciate for posting this helpful tip.
28. J.D. July 22, 2014 at 4:14 pm

    By doing this you will not be able to use ‘sqlplus “/as sysdba” ‘ on the host.
29. Asaf Tal Post authorJuly 22, 2014 at 4:28 pm

    This is a client solution. Why would affect the server?
30. Roxanne August 4, 2014 at 6:35 am

    Thanks, really appreciate this tip.
31. Mark August 19, 2014 at 9:04 am

    Thankyou this worked for me … (Changing to NONE) – Many Thanks
32. Junaid Kotwal October 9, 2015 at 1:19 am

    Thanks you so much this is very help for me. thanks once again!
33. Eupremio Stano February 10, 2016 at 6:29 am

    Grazie,
    I solved my problem 🙂
34. Szymon May 16, 2016 at 7:44 am

    It’s work! Thx!
35. PARDHU September 9, 2016 at 12:39 am

    REALLY THANKS FOR GIVEN GOOD
36. Xavier November 6, 2016 at 8:35 am

    It worked for me, thank you very much
37. zeeshan shah August 1, 2017 at 9:28 am

    it worked..Great!!!!!!!!! Thanks
38. Peter August 2, 2017 at 10:20 am

    Thank you very much. This works great on ORACLE 11G XE intalled on WINDOWS 8
39. Juan Manuel Lacy August 27, 2019 at 4:59 pm

    Gracias!!
40. Gerson Heinrichs September 5, 2019 at 8:00 am

    Funcionou.

    Obrigado
41. Simina February 2, 2021 at 8:44 am

    Thank you so much! This worked for me!