1909064 - Error: 'Logon Failed.' with the error details displaying strange characters, when attempting to logon to an SAP System from Crystal Reports

• Logon failed.
• When trying to connect to an SAP System, it fails to logon.
• Fails to logon to the SAP BW System from Crystal Reports.
• Logon failed when attempting to create a report off SAP Tables in Crystal Reports, with the error details displaying what appears to be Chinese characters.
    
     
• Note: Images and data in this SAP Knowledge Base Article is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental.

• SAP Crystal Reports 2008
• SAP Crystal Reports 2011
• SAP Crystal Reports 2013
• SAP Crystal Reports 2016

1. In Crystal Reports, create a new report.
     
2. To connect to SAP Tables, double click on the "SAP Table, Cluster, or Function" connection in the "Database Expert"
      
3. In the "SAP System Logon" window, select the SAP System to connect to, and click "Next"
     
   
   
   
4. In the "SAP System Logon" window, enter the logon credentials to the SAP System, and click "Next" twice.
     
   
    
    
5. It will display the error: "Logon failed", with what appears as Chinese characters for the details of the error.
    
   

• This occurs because of the language settings defined for the SAP System in the SAP Logon is set to a specific language, and the client tool cannot communicate the user name and password to the SAP System with the correct characters set, and therefore it fails to logon.
  
  

• In the SAP Logon, the language settings for the SAP System needs to be set to "Default"
    
1. In the SAP Logon, right click on the SAP System to modify and select "Properties"
        
2. In the "System Entry Properties" window, under the tab "Code Page", change the Languages to: "Default"
    
   
     
3. Click "OK" to accept the change.
     
   Note: The information for each SAP System defined in the SAP Logon is stored in the file: saplogon.ini. This configuration file is located by default in the user profile on the local computer. Crystal Reports does not pick up the saplogon.ini configuration file in the location defined in the SAP Logon, but it picks up the saplogon.ini file located in C:\Windows, therefore any change made using the SAP Logon to an SAP System entry will not be picked up by Crystal Reports. To copy the updated definition made in the SAP Logon to an SAP System, copy the saplogon.ini file to c:\windows. Below are steps that can be used to easily copy the configuration file to c:\windows.
     
4. Still in the SAP Logon window, click on the upper left corner of the window to display a menu.
       
5. In the menu, select "Options..."
      
   
     
    
6. In the "SAP GUI Options - SAP Logon" window, under the "SAP Logon Options", select "Configuration Files"
        
7. On the right side, double click on "Connection" 
   ( This is the saplogon.ini file that contains the configuration to the SAP Systems defined to connect to )
    
   
     
    
8. It will open the saplogon.ini file in a text application. Save the file to the folder. C:\Windows.
   
   Note: Saving the file in a different location from a text application will not change the path of the configuration file, but will make a copy in the C:Windows folder. Crystal Reports will be using the saplogon.ini file located in the C:\Windows folder.
          
    
9. Close the Text Editor, and back in the "SAP GUI Options - SAP Logon" window, click "OK"
   
   Now, it will be possible to successfully connect to an SAP System from Crystal Reports.

CR, chinese characters, SAP ECC, SAP ERP, SAP Tables, strange characters , KBA , BI-RA-CR , Crystal Reports designer or Business View Manager , Problem

Crystal Reports 2008 V1 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2011 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2013 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2016