When I want to edit C# Unity scripts, they open in Visual Studio. It is supposed to provide auto complete for all Unity related code, but it doesn't work.
Here you can see the missing functionality:
As seen, the transform object does not open the autocomplete menu.
Unity version: 5.5.2f1
Visual studio 2015
Visual Studio Tools for Unity is installed
There is no auto-completion because the script says "Miscellaneous Files" instead of the of the name of the Project. Take a look at the image below that came from the video in your question:
The "Miscellaneous Files" message can happen for many reasons:
It can happen when you open your Unity C# file from another folder instead of opening it from Unity Editor.
This can also happen because Unity crashed while Visual Studio is still open therefore corrupting some files.
It can happen because Unity was closed then re-opened but is no longer connected to Visual Studio. When Visual Studio is opened you get "Miscellaneous Files" and no auto-completion.
This can happen when Visual Studio Tools for unity is not installed.
When you create a script from Unity then quickly open it before Unity finish processing it or before the round icon animation stuff finish animating.
Most of the times, restarting Unity and Visual Studio should fix this.
I can't tell which one is causing the problem but I will cover the most likely solution to fix this.
Fix Part 1:
Download and Install Visual Studio Tools for unity from this link. Do this while Unity and Visual Studio are both closed.
From Unity Editor, go to Edit → Preferences... → External Tools. On the External Script Editor drop down menu, change that to Visual Studio 2015.
Fix Part 2:
If newly created C# files are coming up as Miscellaneous then follow the instruction below:
From Visual Studio, go to Tools → Options... → Tools for Unity → Miscellaneous. Under Show connectivity icon, set it to true then restart Visual Studio.
When you re-start, connection icon should now be available in Visual Studio. Click it then choose the Unity instance to connect to. The red 'x' icon should now turn into a brown checkmark icon. Now, when you create a new C# file in Unity, it should open without saying Miscellaneous.
Fix Part 3:
Still not fixed?
Re-import project then open C# Project.
Close Visual Studio.
From Unity, re-import project by going to Assets → Reimport All.
Now, open the project in Visual Studio by going to Assets → Open C# Project. This will reload the project and fix possible solution file problems.
Fix Part 4:
Still not fixed?
Fix each C# file individually.
Click on Show All Files icon.
Select the script that doesn't do auto-complete then right-click and select Include In Project.
Fix Part 5:
Not fixed yet?
Credit goes to chrisvarnz for this particular solution which seems to have worked for multiple people.
Close Visual Studio
Go your project directory and delete all the generated Visual Studio files.
These are the files extensions to delete:
.csproj
.user
.sln
Example:
Let's say that the name of your Project is called Target_Shoot, these are what the files to delete should look like:
Target_Shoot.csproj
Target_Shoot.Editor.csproj
Target_Shoot.Editor.csproj.user
Target_Shoot.Player.csproj
Target_Shoot.Player.csproj.user
Target_Shoot.sln
Do not delete anything else.
Double click on the script again from Unity which should generate new Visual Studio file then open Visual Studio. This may solve your problem.
Fix Part 6:
If not working, check if you are having this error:
The "GetReferenceNearestTargetFrameworkTask" task was not found
Install Nuget PackageManager from here.
Restart Visual Studio.
See this answer for more information.
Fix Part 7
Make sure all of the projects are loaded.
In Solution Explorer it should tell you # of # projects.
If all of the projects are not showing, right click on "Solution (# of # projects)" and click Load Projects.
Try this,
In Unity Editor Go to Menu, Click on Edit -> Preferences -> External Tools -> External Script Editor. Set it to Visual Studio (your installed version of VS).
Now in Menubar go to Edit -> Project Settings -> Player Settings -> Other Settings -> Under Configuration -> Check API Compatibility Level -> Change it to your installed .Net version. In my case I set it to .Net 4.x
Now if Visual Studio is running already go to Visual Studio, it will ask to reload project. Reload the project. Check if it works, if not close Visual Studio. Now Open cs file from Unity Editor, and now it should work.
I found another way to fix this issue in a more convenient manner:
Select the broken file in Solution Explorer.
Open its Properties.
Switch field "Build Action" from "Compile" to "None".
Then switch it back to "Compile".
This will kill the synchronization between Unity and Visual Studio somehow.
The next time Visual Studio will reload the project, it will prompt a warning.
Just click on "Discard".
If you have done all of the above and still isn't working , just try this:
Note: you should have updated VS.
Goto Unity > edit> preference >External tools> external script editor.
Somehow for me I had not selected "visual studio" for external script editor and it was not working. As soon as i selected this and doubled clicked on c# file from unity it started working.
I hope it helps you too.
Unload and reload the project, in Visual Studio:
right click your project in Solution Explorer
select Unload Project
select Reload Project
Fixed!
I found this solution to work the best (easiest), having run into the problem multiple times.
Source: https://alexdunn.org/2017/04/26/xamarin-tips-fixing-the-highlighting-drop-in-your-xamarin-android-projects/
This page helped me fix the issue.
Fix for Unity disconnected from Visual Studio
In the Unity Editor, select the Edit > Preferences menu.
Select the External Tools tab on the left.
For External Script Editor, Choose the Visual Studio version you have.
Click regenerate Files
You Done
Select project in Visual Studio
Click "Refresh" button
I hit the same issues today using Visual Studio 2017 15.4.5 with Unity 2017.
I was able to fix the issue by right clicking on the project in Visual Studio and changing the target framework from 3.5 to 4.5.
Hope this helps anyone else in a similar scenario.
Two Alternative Options:
Fix 1
#singleton pointed me in this direction. Instead of changing the target in Visual Studio you should change it in Unity since the project is auto-generated.
First delete the auto generated Visual Studio files:
.csproj
.user
.sln
Then from within Unity go to PlayerSettings and under 'Other Settings' change the 'Scripting Runtime Version' from Stable 3.5 to Experimental 4.6.
However, that didn't fix it for me.
Fix 2
I noticed all of the references to Unity related code was marked with a yellow warning. Check your error logs and see if this is the case. In particular see if you get the following error: getreferenceNearestTargetframeworkTask
If so try:
Start Visual Studio Installer again.
On the Build Tools 2017, click Modify,
Ensure that "Nuget targets and build tasks" are ticked. This should become ticked if you click on Universal Windows Platform development.
Update 2020 with Visual Studio Community 2019 and Unity 2019.3:
Open Visual Studio Installer as Administrator, select to modify your current installation and add "Game development for Unity"
If you add a new c# script in Unity now, and open it (automatically) with Visual Studio, it is not described as "Miscellaneous" at the top of the window but with "Assembly-CSharp", and the autocomplete works.
i found my solution by creating the .cs file from visual studio itself instead of unity editor
right click on project folder in solution explorer
add > new item
type "unity" on the search field on the top right
select "CSharp MonoBehaviour"
name your script on the bottom and click Add
In my case, correct .net version was not installed on my PC. I install the .net 3.5 on my pc and that worked for me.
For Windows or macOS:
Download/Install the Visual Studio IDE (with Unity Tools)
When installing, make sure you include installation of
Game development with Unity
Then using Unity (you can double click one of your C# files), open a new C# project and the Visual Studio IDE should open with your new project structure.
From there, you should be able to see what you are looking for.
For example:
For Linux (suggestion):
Try Monodevelop - Additional Information, it provides code completion/hints.
My autocomplete also didn't work because Visual Studio Tools for Unity wasn't installed. So, after you install that, delete the auto generated Visual Studio files. Others said that you open file again and the problem is solved but it's not.
The trick is: instead of normally double-clicking the file, you need to open the C# file from Unity by right click and then "Open C# Project".
The issue I faced was that the C# Project was targeting a different .NET Framework (4.7.2), whereas the Unity project had a different target (.NET 3.5).
I fixed this by changing the target in Unity as-
File -> Build Settings -> Player Settings -> Other Settings -> API
Compatibility Level : Set it to the .NET version you already have
installed (Check your .NET Version here). In my case, it was 4.x
After this, Visual Studio worked perfectly and autocorrect was fixed too.
Try pressing Ctrl + Alt + Space (which toggles between suggestion and standard completion modes)
For some odd reason, the "Game development with Unity" tool can become disabled in Visual Studio.
To fix this..
Open Visual Studio
Go to Extensions → "Manage Extensions" → Installed
Find "Visual Studio 2019 Tools for Unity"
If it is disabled, enable it
Restart VS
Credit to Yuli Levtov's answer on another Thread
The following works for me.
Go to Edit->Preferences->External Tools->External Script Editor Select Scripting Editor
I solved to install the same version of .NET on WIN that was configured in my Unity project. (Player Settings)
Go to Options on the Tools menu and then select Documents in the Environment node. (If Documents does not appear in the list, select Show all settings in the Options dialog box.)
Put a tick on "Miscellaneous files in Solution Explorer" and Click OK. (This option displays the "Miscellaneous Files" node in Solution Explorer. Miscellaneous files are files that are not associated with a project or solution but can appear in Solution Explorer for your convenience if you tick this option.)
Locate your file in the Solution Explorer under "Miscellaneous Files". Then drag and drop your file to where it should belong and voila! This will copy the file to where you drop it. You may now safely delete the older file under Miscellaneous Files folder if you wish to do so
Credits: https://stackoverflow.com/a/47662523/10471480
In case Scripts folder is not visible:
Click on "Show all files" in Solution Explorer
Locate the Scripts folder.
Right Click on Scripts and select "Include in Project"
Keep in mind that if you are using the ReSharper tool, it will override the IntelliSense and show it's own. To change that, on VS, go to Extensions -> ReSharper -> Options -> IntelliSense -> General then choose Visual Studio and not ReSharper.
Before restarting and/or re-installing VS, First try opening any other of your projects to see if Intellisence works, if it does, then issue probably lies with your current project. First, most probable victim would be the NUGET packages with pending updates. To Fix this,
Right click on references
Proceed to Manage NUGET Packages Under NUGET Packages
proceed to updates Install Updates and recheck Intellisence
I tried all of these but ended up finding out that I needed to right-click the solution in Solution Explorer and add existing items and find the C# assembly file in Window's Explorer. There seem to be a bazillion different problems that give you this error, this is likely the most simple solution. If you double click on your script from unity, it does not seem to drag the assembly along.
Another possible fix:
In the project window, click on the Assets folder
Right click, and Create -> C# Script
Double click that, and wait.
For some reason, this work.
None of the above solutions worked for me. However I opened the ProjectName.CSPROJ file and manually added the new file and it worked like charm
What worked me is that I copied all the code inside the broken class and removed that file.
Then, I opened an empty file with the same name and pasted back.
Result: beautiful syntax highlights came back!
"Preferences" -> "External tools" -> set you exteranl tool
Thats one fix. Also for VS you can use ReSharper by JetBrains, but I recommend use Rider. That one is also free for students.
It provides less performance than visual studio, but more than VS+Resharper definitely.
Have a good day, mate)
Try with combination: Ctrl + Alt + Space
one of the above methods are worked for me and I just found a solution to this problem,
1. First, go to the project directory and delete .sln file
2. Second, go to unity and double click your script. Then Visual Studio will be open with an error,
Then click ok and close Visual Studio editor.
Finally, turn off your Windows Defender and then go to your project directory and there will be .csproj file. Just double click and open this from your Visual Studio editor and open the scripts folder inside the assets folder and open the scripts and autocompletion will be working perfectly fine.
These actions solved the problem for my projects in Visual Studio 2022
FIX 1
Solution
Assembly-CSharp (right-click)
Load Entire Dependency Tree
FIX 2
Solution
Assembly-CSharp
References
Double click on any lib to force loading
I'm getting an "Unrecognized Guid format" error when I try to open my project in Visual Studio 2015 on a Windows 10 machine (upgraded from Windows 7).
This did not always occur for me. I originally made VS studio open as administrator (because my project needed it at the time) by following the steps in the anwser here: Can you force Visual Studio to always run as an Administrator in Windows 8?
I then decided I wanted to switch back to not having it open as admin. To try and switch back I again ran the compatibility troubleshooter, this time I selected "try recommended settings". After doing this I am now getting the Guid error every time I open my project and I can no longer run it. I even get it if I open VS as admin like I did before.
I even tried uninstalling Visual Studio and reinstalling it but that did not work either.
I am guessing you used to run Visual Studio as Administrator. This did it for me. The answer is to delete the compatibility entry in the registry.
Type Windows+R on the keyboard to open the Run dialog
Type regedit and press enter
Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
Delete the Visual Studio entry
I fixed this on Windows 10 by using the Troubleshoot compatibility tool. It has to do with an extra checkbox being enabled.
Navigate to devenv.exe by right clicking Visual Studio from start, click
properties, and select "Open File Location...".
Right click on devenv.exe and select "Troubleshoot Compatibility".
Click "Troubleshoot Program"
Uncheck "it worked with older versions of windows"
Click "Next"
Click "Test the program"
Confirm everything opens correctly
Click "Next"
Click "Yes, save these settings for this program"
It looks like my Visual Studio Tool bar is broken somehow this morning. I am using VS2015 and also have sql server 2016 installed on this machine. I am running on a mac, w/ Parallels on Windows 10. Anyone ever seen this? It looks like it is duplicating items and adding items from sql server management studio.
Thanks for the help,
Chris
I've never seen anything like that before, but you can try resetting the toolbars back to default.
Tools (one of them) > Import and Export Settings.
Import selected environment settings.
Save your current settings if you want, or skip that step.
Choose something from "Default Settings", I like "General".
Uncheck "All Settings".
Check General Settings > Menu and Command Bar customization.
You could also try starting Visual Studio in "Safe Mode", by adding "/SafeMode" to the command line for "devenv.exe". That should tell you if this is caused by an extension or not.
Okay what worked for me was to "Repair" my install of Visual Studio.. I assume reinstall would work too but I didn't want to do that w/o trying quicker methods.
Steps:
1. Go to add/remove programs
2. Find Visual Studio 2015
3. Right click on it and select repair.
4. Restart computer and all good.
I'm really tired of this error.
Most of the time, when I want to debug the program , I'm faced with this message.
Microsoft to offer solutions, but it is quite confusing:
1.
Make sure the Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor is installed and running on the remote machine.
2.
Make sure the Remote Server Name is correct in the Name box in the Project Properties dialog box.
3.
Verify that the remote machine is accessible on the network.
please someone help and guide me because all of my projects have been suspended and i need visual studio debugging.
meanwhile, when i dc from internet, visual studio will work.
Windows 7 x64, VS 2012, VB.NET
I fixed it like this:-
Create a shortcut on your desktop to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger\x64\msvsmon.exe".
Right-click shortcut and select "Properties" from the dropdown menu.
Select the "Compatibity" tab
Tick "Run this program as administrator"
Click OK
Create a shortcut on your desktop to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe".
Right-click shortcut and select "Properties" from the dropdown menu.
Select the "Compatibity" tab
Tick "Run this program as administrator"
Click OK
To start VS2012:-
1) Double-click the msvsmon shortcut icon (that you created above, to launch msvsmon)
2) Double-click the "Visual Studio 2012 Professional" shortcut icon (that you created above, to launch VS2012)
3) In VS2012, ensure standard toolbar is visible.
4) In VS2012, ensure "Solution Platforms" dropdown (on standard toolbar) is visible and set to "x86".
and ... wowee ... debug works !
I had the same problem. I fixed changing in properties/compile/target platform to x86 instead of Any CPU. It was the problem in my case. Hope it helps.
I got this error when starting VS2012 as a normal user. When starting as an administrator it opened up a UserControl TestContainer window instead.
What have happend was that the startup project was changed. I changed back to my ordinary startup project by right-click on it and choose "Set as StartUp Project".
I have started vs 2012 as administrator and it is fixed
Using Visual studio 2010 I got problems when double-clicking, for example a config file (*.config). Visual Studio would open but give me a error message about parameters. If I simple try to drag and drop a file that Visual Studio usually can read in to it, the icon will give me the "not possible icon"?
I have now installed Visual Studio 2012 and it has the same problem?!
This makes my work a lot harder, it should be easy to just drag & drop files into Visual Studio, but it's not so? Now I have to manually find the file with the file menu?
Please note, I have re-installed the computer before installing Visual Studio 2012.
On Windows Vista and newer Windows Explorer runs with medium integrity level.
If you run Visual Studio as administrator (high integrity level) then for security reasons OS will disable drag and drop from Explorer to Visual Studio.
You can either run Visual Studio as normal user or you can install VSCommands for Visual Studio 2012 extension. It has several features that can help with this such as:
Elevated Windows Explorer - small tool which looks like Windows Explorer but runs with elevated permissions allowing Drag And Drop
Directory Explorer - tool window inside Visual Studio which again looks like Windows Explorer and allows Drag And Drop
Run Visual Studio with medium integrity - allows Drag And Drop from Windows Explorer, but you won't be able to attach to processes run by other users (e.g. IIS)
If you run VS as administator, instead drag n drop, do copy (either ctrl+c, context menu "copy") the file selection in explorer and paste (ctrl+v, context menu) on selected node in VS
This was driving me nuts. In my Visual Studio solution I have two Web Application which use IIS as web server so because of this I have to always start my Visual Studio in Administrator mode. After starting as Admin I wasn't able to drag and drop files from Explorer to Visual Studio.
Solution:
Open Command Prompt as Administrator (Shortcut for Windows 8.1 is ⊞ Win + X + A)
Type "explorer" this would open Windows Explorer with Admin privileges.
And now you should be able to drag and drop any file from explorer to Visual Studio
If you disable UAC completely you can drag & drop from anywhere again. To do this you can't use the slider in the Control Panel because that only brings the UAC level down to 1. Make this registry change, reboot, and you can again use your computer like god intended.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"EnableLUA"=dword:00000000
I think the main goal of this question is how to add many folders and files to your project in a comfortable way. Drag and Drop files into your project is one solution, which fails under certain circumstances.
Another very easy way is:
Copy the new folders and files where you physically want them in your project
Open the project explorer in VS and click the button "Show all files"
All the folders and files, which are now not part of your project yet appear white
Select the the white folders or files, right-click and choose "Bind to project"
Done
This is also possible, if you run VS as admin.
Have some fun!
By the way: I found this question, because I had the same issue with drag and drop. I understand the security issues, but it is an annoying feature.
I'm using this easiest approach. When you run Visual Studio in Administrator Mode. When you need to drag and drop, just press CTRL+O to open up a file browser within visual studio, and use that file browser as an Elevated Explorer to do your drag and drop.
I had a similar problem but my issue was a bit different. I was trying to drag and drop a file from inside a zipped folder. Once I unzipped the folder drag & drop started working again.
I had this problem as well because I was opening VS in admin mode and the file explorer by default is not in admin mode.
Ended up creating a PowerShell and bat script to start explorer in admin mode every time the computer start.
admin.bat file:
#ECHO OFF
PowerShell.exe -Command "& {Start-Process PowerShell.exe -ArgumentList '-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ""%~dpn0.ps1""' -Verb RunAs}"
admin.ps1 file:
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start-process explorer.exe
The files just have to be in the same folder. Doesn't matter what they are called. Run the .bat file to restart explorer in admin mode or just create a shortcut to the .bat file in the startup folder ;) the script and ps1 file can be hidden.
On windows 8.1, change the registry key: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\EnableLUA and set value = 0.