Is It a Problem?
It should be absent or tiny on a healthy system; it was zero on our SQL Server 2025 lab. Get Wait Statistics does not filter it out, so if it ranks, you will see it. If it shows real time, something is repeatedly interfering with dropping temporary objects.
What It Means
Microsoft’s definition: it occurs between attempts to drop a temporary object if the previous attempt failed, and the wait grows exponentially with each failed attempt. The classic cause is a deadlock while dropping a temporary table, after which the code backs off and retries.
When It Does Matter
When it is visible, look for the deadlocks behind it in the system_health session, which Get Deadlock Summary reads, and check the build. Reducing needless temp object churn in hot code paths, for example with temp table caching in frequently called procedures, helps tempdb in several ways at once. The baseline to monitor is this wait staying at zero.
Where To Go Next
DROPTEMP should be zero. If you are chasing a real problem, start with the waits that cost you time.
- Get Deadlock Summary, the deadlocks behind failed drops.
- The waits that usually matter, ranked, with what each one is telling you.
- Performance & Troubleshooting, the scripts and guides for this part of the stack.
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