I installed VS2013 (v12.0.21005.1) and added ReSharper 8 (v8.0.2000.2660) a day or two ago. That day it was fine. Now I'm lucky if I can get it to open one solution in a whole day. It opens OK by itself, but when I try and open a solution from within - via the menu - it hangs, badly. If I right-click a solution in Windows Explorer and 'open with VS 2013', it opens then hangs, in exactly the same way. Every now and again, for hours, I get a little notice that it's busy with something.
Anyone know what could be wrong, before I endure a reinstall that doesn't fix the problem?
Sometimes it's enough to simply delete the ".v12.suo" file and try to open the solution again. Helped me many times when VS2013 was freezing on loading a project.
Deleting all ".suo" files worked for me. There were several copies due to opening the solution in multiple versions of Visual Studio.
Edit:
Possible path could be:
PathToSolution\.vs\ProjectName\v14\
.vs may be a hidden folder.
.suo is filename.
Basically it could be anything, but you can try a few things:
Turning it off and on again.
Clear the ReSharper cache, it's in %LOCALAPPDATA%\JetBrains\ReSharper\<CurrentVersion>\SolutionCaches, where you should find a folder matching the solution you are trying to open. Just close all instances of VS2013, delete the folder and try again.
turn off ReSharper: Tools > Options > ReSharper > General > Suspend
uninstall ReSharper completely and see if problems persists.
Repair Visual Studio through Programs and Features.
I found the following to be the better approach to debugging VS based on MS Connect instructions
Please help to confirm if your captured dump file is a 32-bit dump file. If it is a 64-bit dump file, please use the following step to capture a new dump file.
Start Visual Studio.
Start another instance of VS.
In the second instance click Tools | Attach to Process...
In the list of processes locate devenv.exe.
Click Select... and explicitly choose 'Native' and 'Managed' code.
Click OK and OK to close Select dialog and Attach to Process dialog.
Go back to the first instance of VS and repro the hang.
Upon the hang, control should go to the second instance of VS. If not please go back to the second instance of VS manually, and hit "Break All".
In the second instance click Debug | Save Dump As Minidump with heap.
If you are running the VB profile you will not see the Save Dump As menu item. To add this menu item:
Select Tools -> Customize
Select the Commands tab
Select Debug from the Menu bar dropdown
Click Add Command...
Select Debug from the Categories list.
Find the Save Dump As entry in the Commands window.
Click OK (the Save Dump As... command is added to the top of the Debug menu).
Click Close
You can get detailed steps about how to get the dump file and call stack at http://blogs.msdn.com/debugger/archive/2009/12/30/what-is-a-dump-and-how-do-i-create-one.aspx
If you find the problem is with Resharper Addin you can then report the issue via - http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issues/RSRP
Suspending Resharper Worked for me.
Goto
Tools -> Options -> ReSharper -> General -> Suspend Now
Now your solution will load very fast.
After your solution fully loaded, you can change the Resharper settings to Resume Now.
Are you using any node modules in your project? Or can you identify that it is a ReSharper specific issue?
If you've got NPM modules (eg. for Grunt), mark your 'node_modules' folder as 'hidden' (no need to make child folders hidden though), and try again.
Visual Studio was hanging on open for me, turned out it was trying to scan deeply nested node modules with file paths longer than the Windows maximum (260 characters), and this was preventing me from opening the solution in VS, but marking the folder as hidden solved the problem.
I had this issue recently as well, and found that disconnecting my computer from the internet when loading the project fixed it. With this, I managed to cut loading times from several hours down to seconds. Since my network cable is not particularly accessible, I simply disabled my network adapter before loading the project (in Control Panel).
This soon became frustrating, however, and I recently looked into the problem again. It seems that logging on to my Microsoft account in Visual Studio ultimately fixed the problem, and I now have no more issues loading projects.
This may work for you as well (if you haven't yet fixed it - but since there is no accepted answer here, I assume that the problem is persisting), so I suggest that you at least try disconnecting from the internet, even if you would rather not enter your Microsoft credentials.
I went into the %LOCALAPPDATA%\JetBrains\ReSharper\
and opened all the directories looking for the SolutionCaches, and emptied all of them. Problem solved. The application was quite large, so this helped.
Check for Windows updates
I had this problem too. Furthermore, I couldn't open my Windows firewall settings (trying to block VS's internet connection).
When opening update settings (Windows 8), I saw there was a pending update ("found today"), so I rebooted my computer, letting Windows update. After that, VS and the firewall worked fine again.
Check your hardware
I've had the problem a second time; even Windows 8's update page would keep loading forever. It was an issue with my (non-OS) hard drive: https://superuser.com/questions/756261/various-parts-of-windows-8-and-visual-studio-2013-get-blocked-by-possibly-comm?noredirect=1#comment978074_756261
I get this issue now and again - VS 2013 Update 2, Win 8.1, IE 11.
Try this - Open task manger, kill the VS app hanging, and then close any IE sessions that are running in the Background Process list - there may be one or more hanging around.
Restart VS
Seems to clear it for me, without a reboot.
The problem I had was the Perforce connection.
When opening the solution, it would ask if I wanted it to connect to Perforce. Allowing it to try would make it hang and allocate 1.5 GB of RAM.
Not allowing the P4 connection let it load properly (allocating 1 GB RAM). Then I could tell it to connect to P4 after, and it is now fine.
For me , whether computer crashes with power outage, or sometimes with mandatory reboots in the middle of the night. What does WORK for me
DELETE ALL FILES IN THIS DIRECTORY:
C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebsiteCache\
For anyone still referring this helped me:
I had to always delete .vs12.suo file to load the project.
I came across this thread from Microsoft and following that I created registry entry which fixed my issue with Solution load.
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/860685/visual-studio-hangs-after-10s-when-loading-solution-corrupt-suo
I had similar issue, when i checked the solution file it was created by VS.Net 2012. To resolve the issue, I created dummy solution file and reloaded the projects from vs.net 2012.
Also observed when nuget package update got screwed up, while you reload the solution, Visual Studio might get hang.
The Visual Studio might go hang, when there was a problem in loading the nuget packages.
In my case, VS 2013 Professional was hanging on every startup, even without opening a solution because the license was no longer valid.
Last item in the log file:
<entry>
<record>367</record>
<time>2015/07/13 20:11:05.051</time>
<type>Information</type>
<source>UserConnection</source>
<description>myemailaddrs#gmail.com signed in for IDE user</description>
</entry>
And on the msdn.microsoft.com subscription page: "Your subscription is no longer active, contact your administrator."
I had to get an updated subscription from my employer.
Deleting Test Results from my TestResults folder actually did the trick for me. Just another thing to try.
VS2012 hangs on me e.g. when opening a csproj file on a network share (in fact on a share that was on the VirtualBox host, connected as a smb share using a VirtualBox feature).
Copying the project over to a local drive fixed it for me. Not sure if assigning a drive letter would do the trick.
Also not sure why it does not work via network share, if it is a VS limitation or perhaps some plugin (I use resharper, of course).
For me this appears to have something to do with the project having the MVC 4 project type guid (E3E379DF-F4C6-4180-9B81-6769533ABE47). Removing this guid from the .csproj resolved the hanging for me. (An additional wiping of the .vs folder was required after removing the guid.)
I just removed "packages" folder from root of solution and it helped for me (Visual Studio Express 2015)
Sorry for having to create a new post instead of commenting on the selected answer .. I do not have enough rep to comment at this time.
My issue was was temporarily resolved by the "...delete the .suo file ..." solution, and as other folks pointed out, I had to delete the file every single time.
Since it (apparently) is impossible to stop the creation of the file I started to dig a little more into what the file did. In addition to saving user settings, I believe it is also saving session settings, like which files you have open when VS is closed. I suspected that my project is attempting to open a file that no longer exists and that is what is causing the hang. What fixed things on my end was to delete the .suo, open VS, open a file within my solution, build and close the solution. After doing this I have had no hangs.
tl:dr
In my case, a user setting file(.suo) was attempting to open a file in my solution that no longer existed. I resolved the issue by performing the following steps.
Delete the .suo file (for me this was in /[projectfolder]/.vs/[projectname]/v14
Open Visual Studio
Open your project
Open a file (I simply opened a random .cs file)
Build and save your solution (Simply saving may do the trick, I built by habit)
Close Visual Studio
Hope this helps someone ... we spent way too many hours on this issue :)
Lots of suggestions here and elsewhere but the only thing that permanently worked for me had to do with the start-up project I'd set. This is what I did:
Delete the .suo file as suggested elsewhere.
Start VS and open the solution. All should be well at this point.
Leave the start-up project as-is, even if it's not what you want.
Save the solution. (Possibly do as someone else suggests and open a file, clean, build/re-build, etc, but I didn't have to do any of that.)
Close the solution and exit VS.
Re-start VS and open the solution.
Change the start-up project to whatever it should be
Save the solution. (Possibly again do the open file, clean, build/re-build, etc.)
Close the solution and exit VS.
Restart VS and re-open the solution and all should be well.
This might or might not work for you but I'd tried everything I could find - registry changes, debugging VS from a second VS session, you name it - but nothing else worked for more than a single start/open.
Try to uninstall extensions with "Control Panel" or disable any add-in in [Tools]=>[Add-in Manager] then try to reopen the solution.
My problem was fixed by uninstall "Visual Localizer".
In my case the Fusion log has been enabled. Log files has been growing for months as I forgot to turn it off after investigation. This way the antivirus software started to check these big log files several times during opening the solution, and "Preparing solution..." message is visible for long-long time. When I noticed this, I turned off the fusion log, and problem solved. Solution loads in 10 seconds instead of 20 minutes.
I've had this issue multiple times, in pretty much all versions of VS. The one solution that seems to work most of the times is to delete the .vs folder located in the solution folder. Sometimes it's enough to delete the .sou file located in .vs///
The folder is hidden by the way, so you will have to enable "Show hidden files and folders"
For me the solution was to disable source control (Set plugin to None in Tools->Source Countrol). I think it was trying to sync some huge Git repo for some reason (have a couple of massive repos, but not in the tree I was trying to open).
I have fixed the issue by uninstalling these two plugins:
Productivity Power Tool
Web Essentials
I restored a previous version of the .vbproj file and it solved it.
I don't know what was in the newer version but the problem was something inside the .bvproj file itself.
Related
I am developing a VB.NET (4.5 framework) solution in Visual Studio 2015, Win10 OS, and have been able to run the builds uninhibited for several months, but now I am receiving the following error upon starting the build:
vbc : error BC2012: can't open
'C:\MyProject\ProjR5\ProjR5\obj\Debug\ProjR5.exe' for writing: Access
to the path 'C:\MyProj\ProjR5\ProjR5\obj\Debug\GenTagR5.exe' is
denied.
At first, VS2015 would give me the option to run the last successful build, but even that is no longer an option. After exhaustive internet searches on this problem, none of the dozen or so given solutions are solving my issue.
Here is what I have tried in order to resolve the error so far:
Ran sfc /scannow (elevated prompt)
Using ProcessExplorer, find handle or DLL substring that included my project
Made sure there were no hanging procs (including procs with my project name, devenv.exe, [project].exe, [myproject].vhost.exe, etc.)
Restarted VS2015
Restarted VS2015, running "as Administrator"
Restarted Computer
Full Shutdown of computer
Complete Rebuild of Solution
Build->Clean Solution
Build->Clean Solution, then Build->Build Solution
Build->Rebuild Solution
Uninstalled and Reinstalled VS2015
Disabled all indexing
Removed "Read Only" attribute from entire project folder and files within
Checked startup scripts for like- or identical processes
Disabled all AV apps
Disabled all antispyware apps
Disabled all firewalls
Verified that Application Experience (services.msc) wasn't disabled (I'm using
Win10 ... it isn't even in the list of services)
Set Tools->Options->Projects and Solutions->Build and Run->Max. parallel
builds to 1
Rerun aspnet_regiis.exe (under .NET\Framework)
Checked Local Security Policies and verified account was listed under
"Impersonate a client after authentication"
Removed \bin and \obj folders
Put \bin and \obj back when removing them didn't help
Removed \bin and \obj folders, then Rebuilt
None of these have worked. Any suggestions?
The problem ended up being Samsung Magician's Rapid Mode losing data during its write-caching phase to my solid state drive. I turned off Rapid Mode, and now the project builds without any problems.
Sorry for came too late, but i had this problem and i wanted to show how i fixed for the next devs who need a solution:
It's quite simple, just change your proyect assembly name:1) On your solution explorer: Right click on your proyect.
2) Properties>> aplication>> assembly name>> change it.
3) Compile, run to test it.
4) Change the name again if u wanted the original name.
Adding a description:
Changin the assembly name
New 2 programing in VS but i had same problem of Access or Write exe file ON BUILD.
Problem came out of nowhere. I didn't use or make changes 2 exe file in months,
made exe file, used it now and then and forgot about it....
Then after few months i wanted 2 start exe but no icon on desktop ??? ....tried everything, lost 3 days of searching inside code for error in VS and then called Google....
I read last comment ABOVE which mentioned Bitdefender, opened it and found BitD did block and isolate exe files ..... so i tried exluding files and folders which made problems inside BitD but no help....
So i went back 2 VS.
Within debug i got some X86 processor error which didnt make problem to build but it was warning (free component name in error description helped me ), - errors you can ignore but they are here on build ....
So i made last move before starting it all over again. Removed COMPONENT from application, deleted it on PC ...started VS from start .. and ALL was OK !!!
So in my case it was all about FREE component i used in app inside VS .... Bitdefender found some add / virus in it and blocked build progress.
BitD deleted or blocked exe file in start....
Hope this help anyone with similar problem !
The cause of this error for me was that Team Foundation Server had pulled in a bunch of files to my work space as Read-only. Not sure why it pulled them down from the server with read-only checked, but all I had to do was uncheck it.
Ok. Create a new solution and add its directories to the exception list and copy all your work, except for the '.vbproj' and except for the '.csproj' and the directory files to the directory of the directory of the new solution. I have tried that and it works, due that I have Bitdefender, it will be the only way to sort that issue. After doing so, try to build the app again. If it does not work, then I am definitely out of ideas.
I have a Visual Studio 2013 solution that is under source control (TFS, Visual Studio Online). It is mapped to a local workspace, I have checked out some files (e.g. web.config, global.asax).
When I try to save any changes to files I get a 'Save File As' dialog, and if I hit Save it warns me the file already exists (say, web.config), and asks me if I want to replace it. If I hit Yes I get I get an error dialog saying 'the process cannot access the file '....\wyfvmjia.p1p~' because it is used by another process. I have no idea what this file is or how it is related to the file (web.config) I am trying to save.
This is infuriating, any help would be greatly appreciated!
EDIT 1:
It looks like the Visual Studio process (devenv.exe) is creating and deleting random temporary files in the same folder (e.g. wyfvmjia.p1p~) and is causing a 'sharing violation' on those files (I used a sys internals utility to monitor the folder) when I am trying to save let's say web.config.
EDIT 2:
This seems to suggest in one of the comments that VS2013 creates a copy of a file and then replaces the original when trying to save a file in your project. This would explain why I see temporary files getting created and deleted. It's odd I get the 'Save File As' dialog though. It looks like some other process (antivirus?) gets hold of the temporary file before VS can do something with it?
EDIT 3:
I created a console application project with only a program.cs file and the same is happening. This may be a problem with Antivirus software interfering with the VS2013 'copy-replace' feature.
EDIT 4:
Changed title. Still have not been able to find a solution.
EDIT 5:
See the accepted answer. Apologies for not getting back earlier.
For me it was Google Drive.
Once I've closed it, I was able to save the file.
Try running Visual Studio as Administrator.
Extensions might be the problem. Or you could be opening some readonly files.
It's worth to mention that some of the extensions can turn any file you create in to a readonly file, and this would be the same result that you're facing.
So first, disable all extensions, and check for the little icon near the files's name (in the tab) that indicates a readonly file.
It turns out this was caused by disk encryption software. Disabling the disk encryption software services each time after starting VS2013 solves the problem. I did not have this problem with earlier versions of Visual Studio, presumably because of the new copy-replace cycle adopted by VS2013 mentioned in EDIT 2 in my original question.
Apologies for not coming back to comment and answer my original question, I completely forgot about it.
I had the same problem and it was caused by "Backup and Sync from Google". After I’ve closed it everything went back to normal.
I had this problem as well. It went away once I uninstalled VS 2013 and installed VS 2012 instead. Good enough for me.
I had the exact problem on a company computer. I had to uninstall VS 2013 RC2 and reinstall vs2013 ultimate. Then I had to go through the update process for update 1. I believe it must by the Symantec progressive scan along with the VS 2013 upgrade handling of files. I guess the moral of the story, if I can be so cliché is "If it aint broke don't fix it".
I had the same issue and created a bug on Connect. Let's hope this gets fixed
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/860265/unable-to-save-files-in-vs-2013-update-2-rc2
I got mine fixed by making a copy of all the files with git clone then deleting all old files and pasting the copied versions over it. Not sure how this fixed permissions or an antivirus denying permission but it did
martijn_himself sounds correct, problem could be because of Disk Encryption Software. This problem started om my PC when i changed settings (domain etc) on Disk Encryption Software. and a simple "Update 2" for VS2013 fixed this issue.
I had the same problem with only one html file in a project. For me it seems to have something to do with VPN that I was using to upload this html file to CRM system. Whenever it was on it seemed to "block" the file somehow. When I closed the window where I was uploading the html file I can save without any issues.
I tried all the suggestions here but none worked. Then, with the modified file open in Visual Studio, I navigated to the file on disk and deleted it. Then clicked build and the save file dialog no longer popped up. I was able to build and check in.
For me, it was Windows' Controlled Folder Access, even though I didn't get the standard warning/error. In "Allow an app through...", I had to add
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\WDExpress.exe
(Backup and Sync from Google) when I close it The problem vanished
When I debug my project, I get following error:
"Unable to copy file "obj\Debug\My Dream.exe" to "bin\Debug\My Dream.exe". The process cannot access the file 'bin\Debug\My Dream.exe' because it is being used by another process."
Using Process Explorer, I see that MyApplication.exe was out but System process still uses it although I stopped debug before.
Whenever I change my code and start debug it is going to happen. If I copy project to USB and debug, it runs OK.
Why? How can I fix this error?
I use Window 7 Professional. With Xp I have never got this error.
Ugh, this is an old problem, something that still pops up in Visual Studio once in a while. It's bitten me a couple of times and I've lost hours restarting and fighting with VS. I'm sure it's been discussed here on SO more than once. It's also been talked about on the MSDN forums. There isn't an actual solution, but there are a couple of workarounds. Start researching here.
What's happening is that VS is acquiring a lock on a file and then not releasing it. Ironically, that lock prevents VS itself from deleting the file so that it can recreate it when you rebuild the application. The only apparent solution is to close and restart VS so that it will release the lock on the file.
My original workaround was opening up the bin/Debug folder and renaming the executable. You can't delete it if it's locked, but you can rename it. So you can just add a number to the end or something, which allows you to keep working without having to close all of your windows and wait for VS to restart. Some people have even automated this using a pre-build event to append a random string to the end of the old output filename. Yes, this is a giant hack, but this problem gets so frustrating and debilitating that you'll do anything.
I've later learned, after a bit more experimentation, that the problem seems to only crop up when you build the project with one of the designers open. So, the solution that has worked for me long term and prevented me from ever dealing with one of those silly errors again is making sure that I always close all designer windows before building a WinForms project. Yes, this too is somewhat inconvenient, but it sure beats the pants off having to restart VS twice an hour or more.
I assume this applies to WPF, too, although I don't use it and haven't personally experienced the problem there.
I also haven't yet tried reproducing it on VS 2012 RC. I don't know if it's been fixed there yet or not. But my experience so far has been that it still manages to pop up even after Microsoft has claimed to have fixed it. It's still there in VS 2010 SP1. I'm not saying their programmers are idiots who don't know what they're doing, of course. I figure there are just multiple causes for the bug and/or that it's very difficult to reproduce reliably in a laboratory. That's the same reason I haven't personally filed any bug reports on it (although I've +1'ed other peoples), because I can't seem to reliably reproduce it, rather like the Abominable Snowman.
<end rant that is directed at no one in particular>
I've had this error crop up on me before, even in Visual Studio 2008. It came back and more prevalent in Visual Studio 2012.
Here is what I do.
Paste this in the troublesome project's pre-build event:
if exist "$(TargetPath).locked" del "$(TargetPath).locked"
if exist "$(TargetPath)" if not exist "$(TargetPath).locked" move "$(TargetPath)" "$(TargetPath).locked"
Computer (right-click) -> manage -> Service & Application -> service -> Enable Application experience
Worked For me!
I had the same issue in Visual Studio 2013. I'm not sure what caused this for my project, but I was able to fix it by cleaning the solution and rebuilding it.
Build > Clean Solution
Build > Rebuild Solution
I understand this is an old question. Unfortunately I was facing the same issue with my .net core 2.0 application in visual studio 2017. So, I thought of sharing the solution which worked for me. Before this solution I had tried the below steps.
Restarted visual studio
Closed all the application
Clean my solution and rebuild
None of the above steps didn't fix the issue.
And then I opened my Task Manager and selected dotnet process and then clicked End task button. Later I opened my Visual Studio and everything was working fine.
At least in my case I've noticed that visual studio 2012 was creating at least two msbuild.exe ghost processes, which did not perish after build. These zombies apparently are causing file locks to appear.
Killing msbuild.exe's is one time solution, it needs to be done per build basis.
But then I've figure out that I could disable parallel build once and for all - went into Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > Build and Run > "maximum numbers of parallel project builds" - by default it has value of 8, I've switched to 1. Works like charm.
Of course builds are bit slower now, but better safe than sorry.
At least for this particular small project I did not need more than one build thread.
See my answer here if you're having this problem while running unit tests. Answer copied below:
Building upon Sébastien's answer, I added a pre-build step to my test
project to automatically kill any vstest.* executables still
running. The following pre-build command worked for me:
taskkill /f /im vstest.*
exit 0
The exit 0 command is at the end to prevent build failure when there
are no vstest.* executables running.
I solved this problem..
near the debug you see drop down menu with some configuration. Default there was Any CPU. Select x86 and run the program it will work. If x86 not there go to configuration manager and add the x86
Recently I've been in a trouble with Visual Studio 2012 with same error description: "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process..."
To fix this first of all you need to understand the application which still use it. I've shutdown all processes like "MSBuild" and "MSBuild host". But this is not enough. If you have installed "Code Contracts" and turned on then it sometimes takes your DLLs for checking and hanging up on this operation.
So, you need to stop all processes of "CCCheck.exe" and that's all.
Finally, to understand that process is using your DLL you always may try to just Delete "obj" folder in your File Manager and this operation will fail, you may see the "Message Window" with description of the hanging operation. Also, as a variant, you can try to use "Sys Internals Suite" application.
Worked for me.
Task Manager -> Name of project -> End task. (i had 3 same processes with my project name);
VS 2013; Win 8;
Make sure that any previous run of the application (for example, start without debugging option) is actually stopped. I was working on a WPF application, started without debugging and had it minimized when I kept getting the error. After closing the application VS behavior got back to normal.
I have been plagued by this issue in Visual Studio 2017. It started about two or three weeks ago, and has severely eaten into my productivity. Clean and Rebulid haven't worked; even restarting my machine doesn't do the job.
One way to deal with the issue is to clean the offending assembly, and to build (as opposed to rebuild) the project you want to run immediately afterwards. This works about 30% of the time.
However, probably the most reliable solution I've found is to open a Developer Command Prompt, and use msbuild directly. I've been doing this for the last three days, and so far the problem hasn't happened once.
In my case was that I have enable "Show All Files".
Visual Studio 2017
Run taskmanager.
Locate netcore and delete it.
You can then delete the file manually or by running Clean.
This is pure speculation, and not an answer.
However, I have been having this problem for a while.
I came after a time to suspect an interaction between VS and my AV precautions.
After some playing, it seems that it may have gone away when I modified my antivirus so that everything under the
C:\Users[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\ProjectAssemblies
folder was not included in the real-time protection.
It looks as if the build actually writes the DLL here first, then copies it to the final build location.
It could be too late. But, I encountered similar problem and in my case the project had self reference. Hence, deleting it from the References worked like a charm!!!
I've found the quickest way without closing forms or restarting VisualStudio is go to the project's compile page and click "Advanced Compile Options..." button. Then make any change to one of the options (say, changing Generate Debug Info from Full to pdb-only), then click OK.
It works every time and will have to do until MS fixes this bug (I've never had this problem until I switched from VS2012 to VS2013)
Another note, if you can't clean the project or solution, it won't build. The files are definitely locked by VS (not a antivirus problem, at least not in my case)
I tried all these suggestions as well as other suggestions found elsewhere and the only thing that worked for me was restarting my computer. Then I did a clean solution followed by rebuilding. I am using Visual Studio 2013 for reference.
I have run to this same issue, and what I found is there are actually running mulitple Windows form application in the background. It happens when your application has two forms and you close the 2nd form which is not your main form so the application will not totally exited.
I usually run my application
through its exe or
run without debugging
Solution is close the other instance of Windows form application.
This is one way to always close your application instance.
Pre build command
(if exist "$(TargetDir)*old.pdb" del "$(TargetDir)*old.pdb") & (if exist "$(TargetDir)*.pdb" ren "$(TargetDir)*.pdb" *.old.pdb)
Helped
[Solved] Error: Cannot access file bin/Debug/… because it is being used by another process:
I am approaching that you get this error while you was trying to run two windows form one after another such as first loading a form then after sometimes it will automatically disappear and the second form loaded onto the screen.
Basically, you need to close your first form which is running in the background and the main reason behind this error.
To close the first form you have to add these two lines of code in the second form load event handler.
Form1 form = new Form1();
form.Close();
This will solve the error perfectly.
One simple solution is you go to bin\Debug folder, delete all the files in that folder, then rebuild. If it doesn't work, close Visual Studio then go to bin\Debug folder using file explorer, on the left coner, click on File> Open Command Prompt> Open Command Prompt as Administrator > Enter this command "DEL /F /Q /A *" > then rebuild
i found Cody Gray 's answer partially helpful, in that it did direct me to the real source of my problem which some of you may also be experiencing: visual studio's test execution stays open by default and maintains a lock on the files.
To stop that predominantly useless behaviour, follow the instructions from https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/771994/vstest-executionengine-x86-exe-32-bit-not-closing-vs2012-11-0-50727-1-rtmrel
Uncheck Test menu -> Test Settings -> "Keep Test Execution Engine Running"
My problem was dotnet got hung up and whenever VS would try to make a new dll, or access an old one, the dotnet process would latch onto the dll and stop visual studio from cloning the dll. Solution is just to end all dotnet tasks in task manager(it will only actually remove the dead one, if you are trying to end one and it won't shut down, that means it's working).
Close VisualStudio, ctrl-alt-delete, select Task Manager, find and end all MSBuild processes - VisualStudio basically has a pretty severe bug where it loses control of its debugger and the debugger maintains a lock on the .pdb file in the debug/bin folder. After you end all the MSBuild (debugger) processes, delete the /debug/bin folder and reopen your solution in Visual Studio. You're good to go now. Microsoft needs to fix this crap.
I have opened a separate question regarding VS 2017 that had a similar behavior after one update. The problem seemed to be generated by the antivirus program although.
I have added the bin folder to the antivirus exclude list, restarted the machine and now it seems to work.
I have faced the same issue, but none of the answers above helped me! I just simply closed my Visual Studio 2017 then re-run it, and It worked!
I've tried every answered here and this worked for me
Close your Project.
Stop running tasks in task manager
Restart your pc
Open and build project again
it worked for me.
I got this error because I was running my solution, but not in debug mode. I had forgotten this. I realized it and stopped my solution from running. This cleared up the issue.
Another kludge, ugh, but it's easy and works for me in VS 2013. Click on the project. In the properties panel should be an entry named Project File with a value
(your project name).vbproj
Change the project name - such as adding an -01 to the end. The original .zip file that was locked is still there, but no longer referenced ... so your work can continue. Next time the computer is rebooted, that lock disappears and you can delete the errant file.
I'm unable to debug a WinForms C# application using the released version of Visual Studio 2010 Prof.
I get the following error message after the second debugging run.
Error 9 Unable to copy file "obj\x86\Debug\Arrowgrass Reports.exe" to "bin\Debug\Arrowgrass Reports.exe". The process cannot access the file 'bin\Debug\Arrowgrass Reports.exe' because it is being used by another process.
I've tried a pre-build script to attempt to delete this file, but it's locked by Visual Studio.
There are a few references to this on the net so it is a know problem. Does anyone have a hotfix or effective work-around?
I have found this issue very easy to reproduce, and the fix for me is a variation on Richard Fors' answer. If I have a UserControl open in the designer, run the debugger, and then edit the UserControl, the subsequent rebuild will fail. If I close the UserControl before running the debugger I never get this error, so I just make sure to close the designer window before hitting F5.
As of October 2012, I still have that issue so the VS 2010 SP1 didn't solve the problem. What I did, and worked consistently, was disabling the hosting process in the projects.
To disable the hosting process:
. Open a project in Visual Studio.
. On the Project menu, click Properties.
. Click the Debug tab.
. Clear the Enable the Visual Studio hosting process check box.
Source:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms185330(v=vs.100).aspx
You can try to kill the vshost.exe process:
taskkill /F /IM "Arrowgrass Reports.vshosts.exe"
You might also be lucky and simply be able to move the file in question. Moving the file can be done by adding the following lines of code to the pre-build event of your project:
if exist "$(TargetPath).locked" del "$(TargetPath).locked"
if exist "$(TargetPath)" if not exist "$(TargetPath).locked" move "$(TargetPath)" "$(TargetPath).locked"
Disabling windows search did not fix for me. However disabling Antivirus did (our Antivirus is Symantec Endpoint Protection 11)
As such, I was able to fix this for myself by changing the Debug settings in the project to point the working folder to a path on the C: drive, and then excepting that path from the antivirus auto-protect scan settings.
I hope this helps someone.
I posted this answer in a similar question but figured I'd also say it here:
Alright... this might sound pretty crazy.
I've had this problem in VS2010 for the last couple of years. The workaround mentioned here works for me, but a lot of times I forgot to close all my forms/usercontrols first.
I've discovered that merely going to view the open files via:
Computer Management (compmgmt.msc)->Shared Folders->Open Files
will "Free up" whichever file is being locked. Very strange, but it works for me!
In my case, I did Project Properties-->Security Tab-->Uncheck Click-Once security settings (If it is checked). It worked for me. In my project, it was showing this error for a C++ dll being used in my C# project.
The condition described can also be caused by the offending DLL or EXE referencing itself; in which case the Process Explorer test described previously never returns a match (e.g. it's not running). This unexpected situation seems to be caused during some sequence of operations in VS2010 (and likely all previous versions) which insidiously adds the reference behind the scenes. The specific cause of this hasn't been tracked down (or resolved that I know of). To check for, and resolve this error simply make sure the offending DLL or EXE is not listed as a reference to itself.
Got the error ("The process cannot access the file … because it is being used by another process") when I modified the (Visual Studio 2010 C# Express with SP1) solution from two large (10 source files, ~500 lines per file) projects with one referencing the other, to lots (6) of smaller projects with lots of projects referencing other projects.
The references were to the dll- and exe files (the Debug versions of them), NOT to the projects even though the projects were in the same solution.
I then learned that references should be to projects, not files, for F12 to work properly. So I modified the references. That made F12 work (jump to the source file instead of some auto-generated interface description), and at the same time the "cannot access file" error during build disappeared.
I only got the "cannot access file" error when doing Release builds. The references were to the Debug versions of exe/dll's. I suspect that this mixing is what triggers the bug in VS.
I encountered this issue when developing windows services. I found out that it happens when the service is running. Thus, you only need to stop the service (from the services.msc console) and you're good to go !
Hope this helps.
Tidjani.
Check Task Manager for the specified process and End the process explicitly. This solution worked for me.
I cant' write to a comment since not at 50 points but for me I excluded my project folder in ESET Enpoint Security ver 5. Seems like it blocked/hogged some files. My Error did not state which exe or file was in use so it took a long time to finally get to what JoeC said about Antivirus and tried it. Seems to be working now (Visual Studio 2010 SP1)
Closing recently changed User Controls solved the problem in my scenario. Hope this will help somebody out there.
Looks like this issue has (finally!) been fixed in the VS2010 SP1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=75568aa6-8107-475d-948a-ef22627e57a5&displaylang=en
Please try uninstalling Windows Live SYNC. Does it still happen?
I think I just found the culprit and the solution.
Go to services and stop & disable the "windows search" service.
That solved the problem for me now.
For me the solution was to change the startup project to a dll (problem only occurs in debug mode when having an application as the startup project). If your solution contains several projects (and it will, and it will contain a .dll, else you would not get the problem), switch to that .dll, no .vshost.exe, no problem.
Also, killing .vshost.exe did not work for me, since immediately after starting again, it had locked the .dll.
Also, make sure to have your references clean, especially in more complex projects, and also prefer project references to assembly references, and so on. I suppose bad references (circular and similar) are bound to cause problems, at least so I have read.
A short article by me on this problem (and my solution)
How to "clean up" your references in a solution
Adding the following to the Pre-build event of the shared dll worked for me:
if exist "$(TargetPath).locked*" del "$(TargetPath).locked*"
set exitprebuildfor$(ProjectName)=
for /l %%a in (1,1,10) do (
if defined exitprebuildfor$(ProjectName) goto :ok
if not exist "$(TargetPath).locked%%a" if exist "$(TargetPath)" move "$(TargetPath)" "$(TargetPath).locked%%a" & set exitprebuildfor$(ProjectName)=1)
:ok
set exitprebuildfor$(ProjectName)=
It's based on the solution given here but instead of just renaming the dll to .locked it keeps trying to rename it to .locked1, locked2. Using 10 I usually run into the problem once a day, but ant value can be used.
Simply make a copy of the whole project and run project from the new copy.... it will work fine.
But you will have to end process of the debug somehow in-order to delete the older project.
Stop IIS service and try building it again or if you can afford to restart your pc, give it a try. Worked for me both ways.
Cheers
My problem was that Outlook 2010 (outlook.exe) was using the same port as my ASP.NET MVC project with IIS express.
Solution: close outlook.exe, run your solution and open outlook again (so that it uses another port).
Hopefully this helps somebody, because I received the same error message as described in this topic.
Try deleting .exe file in debug or release folder (whatever you working on)
Windows will prompt that the process X has opened this and you can't delete it
after that go to task manager and in details tab end task X process
Delete obj file.And stop your service and Restart again.Then you may solve the problem
The best solution for me was to move my project files out of My Documents - which is on a server managed by the IT department - and locate them locally on my C drive. Also working: unchecking the "Enable the Visual Studio hosting process" checkbox, as stated by other people.
If you are working on a C# project which is using reference of C DLL, then you can eliminate the error by checking the Allow unsafe code check box. I know I have not used pointers in my C# project but I was using some bitwise operator in C#. May be these C-like features morphed it as 'Unsafe' code.
What worked for me was removing "read only" status on the bin folder. Once I did that, it has worked ever since.
I've had this error when the project is on a remote share (like, if your $env:homepath is helpfully redirected by your IT department to a network share). Make sure your project is resident on a local drive.
My problem started after creating a custom control and drag and drop it to the toolbox palette for use it in design forms. First appeared a warning saying that there was a redundance between the custom control source file (.cs) and the projects executable (.exe). On executing/debugging appeared the error: unable to access the (.exe) because it's being used (and it was true).
A literally removed the whole source code regarding the custom control and last problem never stopped, until I checked out the references and it was referencing itself in order to be "able to" get the former custom control. I removed the reference and done!!
So: just check the references and remove the self-reference to the project.
Delete your Bin folder and run the application.
This worked for me. :)
Simply turn off Visual Studio hosting in debug, run the project and again re on it and run project.
Open a project in Visual Studio.
. On the Project menu, click Properties.
. Click the Debug tab.
. Clear the Enable the Visual Studio hosting process check box
For Windows Project
The Visual Studio hosting process can hold the executable file pointer. To stop the host instance, open the Project properties and then go to Debug tab. Now uncheck the Enable the Visual Studio hosting Process option and then check the checkbox again to debug.
For web project
The IIS can hold the file pointer. Restarting the IIS can solve the issue.
Using Visual Studio 2010 beta, when I run my application within the IDE for debugging, it works perfectly the first time. However, after closing the debug session, either by closing the application or clicking the stop debugging button, all subsequent attempts to debug the application fail with:
Error 1 Unable to copy file "obj\Debug\Application.dll"
to
"bin\Debug\Application.dll".
The process cannot access the file
'bin\Debug\Application.dll'
because it is being used by another
process.
Handle.exe from SysInternals does show handles open, but even if I close the handles, the error doesn't go away. Any attempts to delete the file manually result in an "Access Denied" error message.
To fix this, I have to completely restart Visual Studio, afterwhich the Debug session will work once and stop again.
I'm not entirely sure when this started happening, but I'm pretty sure it's fairly recently.
UPDATE: After I force close the handles on Application.dll, I get the following error from VS:
Error 1 Unable to copy file
"obj\Debug\Application.dll"
to
"bin\Debug\Application.dll".
The requested operation cannot be
performed on a file with a user-mapped
section open.
What the heck is a "user-mapped section"??
UPDATE 2: It appears that this problem occurs when I have a Form open in Design view when trying to debug. I'm going to do some more troubleshooting and then post my results.
UPDATE 3: I think I've narrowed it down to a form using a UserControl.
To be honest with you, it sounds like a bug in VS2010. For some reason it isn't closing the open handles when the debugger stops. Killing the VS process automatically closes those handles, allowing you to access the file again. As a work around, you might look at unlocker it's free and works exceptionally well. I know that's not a great answer, but it should be faster than restarting VS. You might to consider sending a bug report too...
Unlocker doesn't work on 64-bit OS, LockHunter does though.
Here is how I solved this problem
*I open the project Properties,
*select the build tab,
*Clear the output path,
*and buid(this will create the dll in the root folder)
*come back to the output path and select browse(browse to the bin directory to either debug/release)and voila!
As per Error: Cannot access file bin/Debug/… because it is being used by another process answer by TarmoPikaro, sometimes Visual Studio creates multiple msbuild.exe ghost processes, which persist after build. These ghost processes seem to be causing file locks.
Solution 1 - Kill ghost MSBuild.exe's
Killing msbuild.exe's is a one time solution, it needs to be done per build basis.
You can kill the processes as follows mrtumnus:
taskkill /f /im MSBuild.exe
Solution 2 - Disable parallel builds in Visual Studio
You can disable parallel build once and for all:
Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > Build and Run > "maximum numbers of parallel project builds" - by default it has value of 8, switch it to 1.
Of course builds are bit slower now, but mileage may vary depending on your use case.
This is related to
Error: Cannot access file bin/Debug/... because it is being used by another process
I've seen the Windows Indexing Service cause this. Disabling it helped. Virus scanners can also be at fault. Mutliple Application.Close() calls can supposedly cause this, too.
Of course, since it always works the first time, I suppose these are unlikely.
Had the same problem. The following things helped
Closing all design files while debugging
using unlocker
Also my application opens a port. While debugging an exception was thrown and program quit. While ending the program I closed the port. That helped too.
But definitely, bug with VS2010.
I encountered the same problem and in my case I had the file in question open in Visual Studio. Closing all files helped.
I faced the same error and I was stuck in it for many days. Finally resolved the issue.
I was working on a project that had many class libraries added in it. I added the reference of these libraries to my main project and mistakenly added reference to same project to itself. So when I removed self reference, it worked.
I had this issue myself. I had the project properties window open and that apparently creates a file lock. Even after I closed the window the file lock remained and I had to restart VS.
P.S. I'm using VS 2019. Just posting this for anyone having the issue I had and coming to this post.
If you get this error on VS Code;
Click on terminal screen and use "Ctrl + C" for stop running.