INSERT failed because the following SET options have incorrect settings: QUOTED_IDENTIFIER

What it means

Filtered indexes, indexes on computed columns and indexed views store results that depend on how expressions are evaluated, so SQL Server only maintains or uses them when the session has the standard settings: ANSI_NULLS, ANSI_PADDING, ANSI_WARNINGS, ARITHABORT, CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL and QUOTED_IDENTIFIER on, NUMERIC_ROUNDABORT off. (XML data type methods, spatial indexes and query notifications have the same rule.) Your statement touched such an object with one of them wrong, so SQL Server refused the statement and named the setting:

Msg 1934, Level 16, State 1, Server 7732422b7f56, Line 1
INSERT failed because the following SET options have incorrect settings: 'QUOTED_IDENTIFIER'. Verify that SET options are correct for use with indexed views and/or indexes on computed columns and/or filtered indexes and/or query notifications and/or XML data type methods and/or spatial index operations.

The first word is the kind of statement (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, SELECT when a query uses the index or view, CREATE INDEX). The table itself is fine. With ANSI_WARNINGS on, ARITHABORT off didn’t matter in our tests, as Microsoft’s documentation says.

Common causes

1. sqlcmd without -I. The ODBC-based sqlcmd connects with QUOTED_IDENTIFIER off unless you pass -I, so scripts and jobs run through it fail where other tools work.
2. A procedure, trigger or function created with QUOTED_IDENTIFIER or ANSI_NULLS off. Those two settings are saved with the module when it’s created and used every time it runs, whatever the caller’s session says. A procedure deployed once from a sqlcmd script without -I fails forever after, from every client.
3. Code that turns a setting off: SET ANSI_NULLS OFF or SET ANSI_WARNINGS OFF in an old script or procedure.
4. A new filtered index on an old table. Someone adds CREATE UNIQUE INDEX … WHERE email IS NOT NULL, and legacy code that writes the table with old settings starts failing.

How to fix it

See which setting is off

The message names it. For a running application, look at its sessions:

SELECT session_id, program_name, quoted_identifier, ansi_nulls, ansi_warnings,
       ansi_padding, arithabort, concat_null_yields_null
FROM sys.dm_exec_sessions
WHERE is_user_process = 1;

Seeing other sessions needs VIEW SERVER STATE (VIEW SERVER PERFORMANCE STATE on SQL Server 2022 and later).

Run sqlcmd with -I

sqlcmd -S <host> -U <user> -d <database> -I -i deploy.sql

Or put SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON; at the top of the script, before any CREATE PROCEDURE.

Re-create modules that were created with the setting off

List them:

SELECT OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(object_id) + N'.' + OBJECT_NAME(object_id) AS module,
       uses_quoted_identifier, uses_ansi_nulls
FROM sys.sql_modules
WHERE uses_quoted_identifier = 0 OR uses_ansi_nulls = 0;

Then run each definition again with both settings on. SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER and SET ANSI_NULLS must be in an earlier batch than the CREATE, since that statement has to be first in its batch:

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON;
SET ANSI_NULLS ON;
GO
CREATE OR ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.add_customer @name nvarchar(50), @email nvarchar(100) AS
  INSERT INTO dbo.customers (name, email) VALUES (@name, @email);
GO

Leave the standard settings on

Remove SET ANSI_NULLS OFF, SET ANSI_WARNINGS OFF and similar from code. If something relied on the old behaviour (= NULL comparisons that work with ANSI_NULLS off, say), fix that code; Microsoft has said ANSI_NULLS OFF will become an error in a future version.

Reproduce it

On SQL Server 2022 (16.0.4295.3) with sqlcmd 18.6, a filtered unique index UX_customers_email ON customers (email) WHERE email IS NOT NULL in a scratch schema. After SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF, an insert, an update and a SELECT that forced the index:

Msg 1934, Level 16, State 1, Server 7732422b7f56, Line 1
INSERT failed because the following SET options have incorrect settings: 'QUOTED_IDENTIFIER'. Verify that SET options are correct for use with indexed views and/or indexes on computed columns and/or filtered indexes and/or query notifications and/or XML data type methods and/or spatial index operations.
Msg 1934, Level 16, State 1, Server 7732422b7f56, Line 1
UPDATE failed because the following SET options have incorrect settings: 'QUOTED_IDENTIFIER'. Verify that SET options are correct for use with indexed views and/or indexes on computed columns and/or filtered indexes and/or query notifications and/or XML data type methods and/or spatial index operations.
Msg 1934, Level 16, State 1, Server 7732422b7f56, Line 1
SELECT failed because the following SET options have incorrect settings: 'QUOTED_IDENTIFIER'. Verify that SET options are correct for use with indexed views and/or indexes on computed columns and/or filtered indexes and/or query notifications and/or XML data type methods and/or spatial index operations.

A procedure created while QUOTED_IDENTIFIER was off failed the same way when called from a session with it on (… Procedure seo_err_mssql.add_customer, Line 2 INSERT failed …), and sys.sql_modules showed it with uses_quoted_identifier 0. Re-created as above, it inserted the row (in a transaction we rolled back). A DELETE, and creating a second filtered index, failed the same way, as DELETE failed … and CREATE INDEX failed …. SET ANSI_NULLS OFF and SET ANSI_WARNINGS OFF gave the same error naming 'ANSI_NULLS' and 'ANSI_WARNINGS'. Connected with sqlcmd without -I, sys.dm_exec_sessions showed quoted_identifier 0 and the plain insert failed with 1934; with -I it was 1 and the insert worked. SQL Server 2019 and 2025 printed the same messages.

In Inlet

When SQL Server refuses, Inlet shows its message with SQL Server error 1934, state 1, severity 16 and links to this page. A table’s definition shows its indexes, including filtered ones with their WHERE, so you can see which index brings the rule in. Query tabs run T-SQL a batch at a time, splitting at GO, so a script that sets the options and then re-creates a procedure runs as written.