How to troubleshoot 'Visual Studio is Busy' issues? Visual Studio never recovers - visual-studio

I get this 'Visual Studio is busy' message often when I try to do anything in it. This happens in different situations. It can happen when VS starts before loading any solution. It can happen after loading a solution. I just upgraded today to 17.3.6 and it happened again. I have already reinstalled VS. I did a repair. I did a 'devenv /resetsettings', 'devenv /resetuserdata'. 'devenv /setup'. Deleted %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\ \ComponentModelCache.
I did devenv.exe /log <path> and I didn't see anything glaring in the log.
I have a handful of extensions but haven't gone through disabling them and using VS without them. I need them for my work.
Once I get this message, there's nothing I can do but kill the process because VS never recovers from it. I am not seeing any pattern as to what might cause the issue and it seems it's random. I just have to keep killing and relaunching VS until I get a good instance (1-5 times).
Because it's random, I can't determine if anything I did from the above steps helps because VS can launch just fine sometimes.
I also recently changed the setting to not participate in the VS experience improvement program so that PerfWatson2 doesn't launch.
Any ideas on how to find the cause of this issue?

Related

Visual Studio 2022, second time becoming unresponsive

I have changed the name of something and now it froze, probably won't work until I kill Visual Studio (devenv.exe) again. Now the first time the thing hung and crashed itself, using resource monitor to resume first it was suspended and now i unsuspended it and it now said process not responding, so I had no choice but to wait and I killed it because it just wasn't responding. It wasn't hung waiting for an extension or resource to clear it just hung suddenly. The first time it froze happened when I try to change a code because I got too many errors, luckily, I have everything saved but now I'm scared I'm gonna lose my work. I need help fixing my visual studio issue, but now I can't code if the thing just sits and freezes. This is the second time. Help me, I don't want to have to lose my work.
Well, Visual Studio never crashes on me, I am on Windows 11 and I run the latest version of Visual Studio. All I was trying to do was change code because of constant errors. This is ridiculous, even more ridiculous if nobody wants to or willingly helps me

msvsmon.exe crashed when debugging

When I debugging in VS2013 update3, msvsmon.exe crashed when hit at a breakpoint.
It shows "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted".
I'm not using remote debug.
Is it possible to shut down the msvsmon.exe to avoid calling it when debugging ?
Deleting all of the breakpoints solves the problem when I hit this error. Disabling the breakpoints was not enough - they had to be deleted.
I was able to attach to a process numerous times. Once I added a conditional breakpoint (with a few checks), I started getting this error when attempting to attach to that same process.
The error provided in the question is one problem. I also received an error stating that a debugger was already attached when I tried again. Either way, deleting breakpoints solved it.
Try turning on Options > Debugging > General > "Use Managed Compatibility Mode"
I got this error/crash too while debugging and trying to inspect a variable with 50 MB of text data in it. This option worked in both VS2013 and in VS2015 to allow me to debug and inspect the variable with large data.
A couple of things that worked for me:
Try Closing VStudio and relaunching.
If not, reboot helps.[I know thats generic, but its worth a shot]
Disable unnecessary break points.
I had this error also, and I too have Astrill installed. Completely uninstalling Astrill fixed the issue.
I reached out to Astrill support, and they answered (within 2 hours) saying the correct fix is to hold Ctrl and press the "Help" button on the Astrill application, and then choose "Uninstall LSP". This has fixed the issue without needing to un-install Astrill.
I don't know what LSP is, but I presume it's some sort of proxy.
In my case, it was caused by a VPN software. It changed my hosts file and my localhost was not 127.0.0.1 anymore.
So check your localhost in the hosts file (e. g. %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts) and make sure it is 127.0.0.1.
This error just occurred for me with visual studio 2015 RTM. Deleting all the breakpoints resolved the "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted" condition.
So If you clear all your breakpoints, in your version, you will not need to avoid using MSVSMON.exe.
I was using the OzCode debugger extension. Unfortunately they don't have a way to completely disable the extension - you can only disable certain features - so I had to completely uninstall it to confirm it was what was contributing to the crashes.
I got the same error. No effect after deleting all breakpoints and repairing Visual Studio (I have 2013 Community Edition). The problem was the Bitdefender software. I have Bitdefender Internet Security 2016 and had set Active Thread Control (Modules->Antivirus) to Normal level. But after setting this settings to Permissive the error doesn't show up anymore.
This error occured to me, when I tried to debug with Visual Studio / Service Pack 3, when Service Pack 4 was already released. After updating to the Service Pack 4 I was able to debug.
So, try installing the newest version of Visual Studio
Regards
This (or something that manifests in exactly the same way) is still an issue in VS2017. In my case it was caused by a dependency being too large to debug. The dependency in question was a generated client for a large REST API. I was able to debug again after slimming down that dependency.
Here's yet another answer: I changed my project from "Platform Target: Any CPU" to "Platform Target: x86". Went from needing about 5 attempts to debug to working every single time.
I had previously tried every suggestion in this thread: I reinstalled, I killed all breakpoints, and looked for fishy software interactions.
I started getting this exact error today in my VS2019 project. Attempting to expand/inspect simple data structs in VS debugger would make it freeze for a minute and then I'd get that "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted" message:
If I add msvsmon.exe process to windows defender exclusions list, then the problem disappears.
I hit this in Visual Studio 2019 (16.4.3) (C++) with a cause that I have not seen mentioned: I had accidentally added a Watch with incorrect syntax that was attempting to instantiate a singleton rather than returning the existing instance.
Repeatedly choosing right click > Clear All in the Watches view while debugging fixed the issue.
Fixed by changing Options->Projects and Solutions->Web Projects -> Use 64bit version of IIS......... to False.
In my case i am using the wcf Service on the wpf application and inputting parameters from here.The Wpf Application Execution on Facing this error "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted".
That case i am hosing the Wcf service and run the wpf application exe
In this type of Execution on I didn't Facing any Error like -- "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted"
please,try this proceed error solved because some execution process didn't supporting the debugging..... we are removing the Debuggers on also we face same error.
that case on helped this process.......
I just experience this with VC2017 Community Edition 15.7.2. Turning off the Microsoft Symbol Server lookup while debugging fixed it for me.
I've just had the problem in VS 2015. I hadn't noticed that one of my breakpoints was bogus - I had inadvertently pressed F9 to set a breakpoint when the disassembly window was showing in the previous debugging session. The solution was simply to delete that one bogus breakpoint - I got to keep all my others.
I tried almost every answer in here, but for my case, nothing worked.
Switching to 32-bit just made Visual Studio 2019 crash instead of msvsmon.exe crashing.
What did work for me is to set a very early breakpoint and use that opportunity to close the "Parallel Stacks" window. I didn't need that anyway, but it was open by default in my layout.
In my case, I had this error when I had the "Locals" tab opened during debugging and hitting a breakpoint. For some reason VS might've been unable to display one of the local variables. The error disappeared when switched to a different tab before hitting the breakpoint where the error was occurring.
My problems started after moving a project to a new folder. I wasn't having any luck with any of these answers using VS2019. I even deleted the entire .vs folder thinking maybe something got corrupted. No luck.
But on a whim I tried starting the project with CTRL-F5 instead of just F5 and that actually worked. It's consistent. CTRL-F5 runs fine. F5 gives me the msvsmon.exe error.
I have no idea what's going on, but at least I can get the project to run again.
This problem is at least 1 1/2 years old maybe more. Today is 6-11-22 and I have the problem in Ms Studio Pro 2022 with a fresh install of windows 11 not much of anything else in the computer. Then I uninstalled it and install Ms Studio Community 2022 put in 1 breakpoint at the beginning and I got the error.
Today 6-12-22 I reinstall Ms Studio Community 2022. For some reason I switch from x86 to x64 went through a about 1000 changes of errors and a crashed form1.resx file thank goodness for a backup I had or I'd be done again. anyways so far have several break points with no problems.
I deleted all my watch variables. That fixed the problem for me.
I know it doesn't directly address the error, but as a workaround, I'm using the Rider IDE from JetBrains, and am not encountering the error (code, system, etc. the same).
Visual Studio version: Professional 2017, 15.5.4
Rider version: 2017.3
None of the other answers worked for me, when I encountered this error. If you are not actually remotely debugging, you can use another editor until you figure out the problem or it resolves itself (the latter was the case for me).

Visual Studio project execution stopped shortly after starting

Yesterday I wanted to continue working on a project of mine, so I started Visual Studio and asked it to run the project to remind myself, what was already implemented and what wasn't.
The project got built and started, but seemed to quit right away. No error message, nothing.
No matter what I did, whether I rebuilt the project or cleaned it, nothing changed.
This didn't make sense, since the last time I tested the project, it worked perfectly (and I didn't modify anything in the code since then)
So, I assumed I had a hidden bug somewhere in the code, that just didn't show up previously.
I put a Breakpoint somewhere near the beginning of the code, and ran the project.
As expected, Visual Studio paused the execution at the Breakpoint and highlighted it.
I decided to set another Breakpoint somewhere later in the code and continue execution, but before I could even move my mouse, the project stopped.
Restarting Visual Studio didn't help, but restarting the PC did. Therefore, I'm assuming that something on my system was terminating my project, shortly after execution begun.
Now my question is: What exactly happened, and especially: why did it happen?
The problem came back while I was writing this question. I don't feel like restarting my PC every couple of hours...
I really appreciate the time you took reading this and I look forward to your answers.
I'm aware that I'm answering my own question, but since I've solved it myself, I thought others might want to know how I did it (for the sake of future generations)
The thing is: I've recently added Visual C++ to Visual C# before Visual C# started having problems.
So I deduced, that maybe the installer for Visual Studio messed up with something and decided to reinstall Visual Studio.
Problem solved.
So: if your projects stop without warning even while paused on a Breakpoint and you've changed something in your Visual Studio installation (like added Visual C++ in my case), you might need to reinstall the whole thing.
Luckily, the Visual Studio installer offers a "Reinstall" option, so you don't need to uninstall and reinstall manually.
I found about this solution, after talking to a more experienced colleague. I just wish I asked him first. Still appreciate your efforts in the matter, though.
EDIT:
I recently noticed a similar bug acting up for C++ programs this time, where the window border would be outlined in red. The thing is: it's not Visual Studio's fault, but in fact Avast Antivirus' fault. More specifically, its Sandbox mode.
So, if for any reason, you notice programs quitting without crashing, shortly after starting and their window border having a red outline, you're very likely using Avast Antivirus and should deactivate the Sandbox mode.
Happens to me from time to time.
Sometimes closing and opening VS helps, sometimes you have to restart the computer.
I assume it must be related to some DLL or something that is loaded into memory and corrupt, or something like VS loosing the reference to it, and not unloading it correctly/replacing it.
I also once had this strange bug, where I started VS, just like any other day, and my project crashes instantly with some H_RESULT error (some DLL related Error) upon run. After having spent around 1hour searching for the source of the problem, I went into the reference section, and what did I see there : the worst possible circular reference ever : my business project had a reference to ... itself ! The kind of stuff you could not do if you wanted to.
The weirdest part of this, must of been that VS managed to compile the project, and it only crashed while trying to run it ...

Visual Studio 2010 Periodically Hangs for Several Seconds

I'm having a problem where VS2010 Ultimate is freezing up every so often for several seconds before returning to normal operation. This happens several times during a session, and is obviously very annoying. I haven't been able to pin it down to any specific activity-- it seems to hang whenever I scroll around in a document, open/create a document, basically anything. Anyone else have this issue or know what might be the cause?
Incompatible add-ons or system configurations can cause Visual Studio issues (performance issue, error, etc).
Fortunately we can try to troubleshoot the issues by referring to the Visual Studio activity log.
Simply run the following command to run Visual Studio 2010 and log its all activities.
DevEnv.exe /log
The log file will be generated to:
XP
%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Visual Studio\10.0\ActivityLog.xml
Vista & Windows 7
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\ActivityLog.xml
Once you run it, 2 files will be generated: ActivityLog.xml and ActivityLog.xsl
And when you open the ActivityLog.xml, it will contain something like this:
The problem was solved by deleting the user options file called SolutionName.suo.
Somehow it had gotten very big and probably corrupted. You will only lose your breakpoints and open files as far as I know, but rename it to be safe.
I know people have had problems with computers that are older or don't have as much RAM. I know my use of VS 2010 ultimate can run to 500 MB's sometimes and if you don't have enough RAM, then it will hang for a little.
I've had issues with VS2010 when debugging is running or if I'm opening files from a network drive. I'm not sure as I currently don't have any team server repos connected, but if you do maybe the connection to the repo might be an issue as well.
Turns out the issue was network related. One item in my solution was looking to a mapped network drive, which apparently didn't always respond fast enough.
My solution for that problem was beyond the scope of my thinking. I found it on this website, and it goes like:
Launch Internet Explorer. Go to Internet Options, then Advanced tab. Under the Security group, untick “Check for server certificate revocation“. You may need to restart Visual Studio.
My scenario is that I have network drives with references mapped via VPN. That should have to do with that.
I faced similar issue with Visual Studio 2008. I have not thoroughly investigated the issue though.
Reading your post it seems the behavior at your PC is really annoying, but for me it's not that frequent.
One thing I noticed, the frequency at which this happens is dependent on the RAM size and time elapsed since last setup. I came to this conclusion seeing the performance of machines of my colleagues.
I noticed that my anti-virus software tends to lock down my entire system sometimes. If you have an anti-virus application, you might try disabling it for a moment to see if it is the culprit.
I had a similar issue - that still happened after a /resetsettings, reinstall and using /safemode. For me, the issue was that Assembly Binding logging was turned on ago and I forgot to turn it off, it got to the stage where the log files concerned were >200MB and each append was taking ages...
Managed to find the issue with procmon from sysinternals. Suggest that anyone who comes across a similar issue tries procmon if none of the above solutions help.
My VS2010 would hang as well in a similar fashion.
DevEnv.exe /log would indicate it failed to load strings around the time it would hang.
Reinstalling VS2010 SP1 and deinstalling Resharper to install Resharper 7.1.3 solved the problem.

Visual studio 2008 crashes when starting to debug

When I press F5, everything compiles fine, but when the app is to be started, VS crashes, showing the "Just in time debugger" dialog.
More than one (similar) solution has this problem. A new solution containing just a form, works. This problem started out of the blue, I have made no changes to the environment as far as I can understand.
I can start the app without debugging (ctrl+F5), and then attach the debugger.
I'm using VS 2008 sp 1.
Never seen this issue, have you tried turning off all your plug-ins like reSharper, CodeRush, etc.?
Update: When worst comes to worst I usually try this command line.
devenv.exe /ResetSettings
devenv.exe /ResetSkipPkgs
devenv.exe /Setup
try all these you can do them all at once or do them individually it is up to you. But be aware that you will be deleting all your settings that you have customized in to Visual Studio, so you may want to back them up.
The last thing you can try is this, to see if the problem is with something weird that is running.
devenv.exe /SafeMode
Starts Visual Studio in safe mode, and loads only the default environment and services, and shipped versions of third-party packages.
I've found the problem now. I had "Step framework source" enabled, which somehow broke the debugger (strange though, because it usually works). Turning that off, made me debug as usual again.
If you have undocked windows in debug layout search KB960075 on code.msdn.microsoft.com (can't add hrefs).
Do you have CLI.exe error issues? Check your event log. I've had the same issue and simply re-staged my machine out of panic since I was so near a deadline. I assumed that it was an issue with the registry and couldn't find an answer.
try repair or reinstall, don't waste time findin' the reason of the problem
I had the same problem, out of the blue the IDE would crash when I started to debug. Happened with any existing project that I opened, even the visual studio samples. I created a new project, just a blank dialog, ran it, and all was good. After that, the problem went away and I was able to debug again.
This happened to me just now, after my computer rebooted itself last night. When I was pressing F5 the app started but instantly shut down and the VS IDE crashed.
To fix it: Debug->Delete All Breakpoints. It worked for me.

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