So this just started: When I'm debugging a method, VS debugger does not recognize variables or objects that have been declared within the method I am debugging. When I hover over them, it does not give any pop-up intellisense. If I add it to the watch, it says:
'FooBar' is not declared. It may be inaccessible due to its protection level.
It can be something simple, like:
Dim MyString String = "this is a test"
But after moving past that line in dubugger, it won't recognize MyString. BUT, if I then use MyString, like save it to the DB or output it to the screen, it works fine. So it's really there, but debugger is not recognizing it.
Variables and objects that are passed into the method work just fine, as expected.
The first time I saw this, I did a clean & rebuild, and that solved the problem. But a few debugs later, it started up again. A clean & rebuild did not work. So I closed VS, deleted the solutions .suo file. After starting VS back up again, debug now worked as normal, for a while.
But now it's doing it again, and nothing I try seems to get it back working again.
I spent time on Google and have found people who have asked the same question, but I've not seen any thread anywhere with a definitive answer.
Anyone ever seen this before and whooped it?
EDIT AFTER:
Pretty sure I am doing this in debug mode. But let me know if there is some other place I should be looking.
My guess is that you are debugging a 'Release' configuration. Release configurations optimize the code by, among the many other optimizations, removing code that it knows for sure is never going to be used. So, for example, Dim MyString String = "this is a test" will be optimized out of the solution if it is never used but if you add a line of code to commit it to a database it is then being used and will not be optimized out. Switch to the 'Debug' configuration to prevent these types of optimizations.
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 recently run into problems when running all my unit tests at once.
I can debug them and run my tests seperate without problems, but when running them all together, the test-run keeps hanging half way through.
This happens:
"Run all tests in Solution"
The first tests parses without problem (slower then usual though)
At some point it gets stuck. Nothing fails, no exceptions, VS just stops running the pending tests.
When stopping the test-run it gets stuck again, and I need to restart VS to abort the test-run.
Normally I would expect a bug in my code, but I haven't made any changes to the code beeing testet since last succesful test-run. The only thing I did was run Performance Wizard - Cuncurrency profiling.
It always stops the same place, when removing some tests from the run it stops a new place (still without actually entering any leftover tests).
I have no clue what is causing this. But seems like I'm having problem with a VS setting rather then a code Error.
Any suggestions? Do Performance Wizard change any settings that might have influenced the way test should be run?
System details:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit,
Visual Studio 10 Premium
This sounds like a concurrency issue. It seems that one test changes the testenvironment in such a way that another test runs into a deadlock. When you remove some tests, the test run order is changed and some other tests get stuck.
So I would look for a concurrency issue regarding your test environment/externall dependencies.
I can't really explain why this works, but it solved the problem!
I reversed the '.csproj' file to an earlier version, in one of the projects that had been in 'contact' with the Performance Wizard, and now my tests works.
ALSO Be aware of that Performance Wizard can change the solution configurations from 'DEBUG' to 'RELEASE' mode in some cases. This was not the case for me, but have been a pain for some of my colleagues.
I have been having some problems with the test debugger in VS10. All tests are running without error, but when debugging it aborts when I try to read the object data. Afterwards, this error is displayed in the summary: Test host process exited unexpectedly.
I'm unable to see anymore details about the error. How do I access/generate test-log files? Or, even better: Has anyone experienced a similar problem? And found a solution?
Additional information:
The runtime-test-data is available on objects from same libary assembly, it's just one class I can't get access to in runtime mode. If I use breakpoints at:
every line that affects the object: - I can see the runtime-data and the test passes
only one place: - the test will abort and no data is visible
no breakpoints: - the test runs and passes.
The test used to work fine until recently. Just before the problem occurred when I made some solution changes with dividing the projects into solution folders. I didn't make any changes that should affect the code. Moving the projects back to their original folder don't solve the problem, So I wonder - Is this a bug in Visual Studio itself?
Here is what I've tried so far:
Rebuilding and cleaning the solution.
Closing Visual Studio and rebooting my system.
Installing VS10 Service Pack 1
Reinstalling Visual Studio 10
Testing on VS10 Ultimate and Premium
Removing and regenerating solutions files
Removing all break points
TraceAndTestImpact/Local.testsettings: Testing Timeout > timeout and setting abort to 30 minutes.
TraceAndTestImpact/Local.testsettings: Unit Test > Assembly folders defined
TraceAndTestImpact/Local.testsettings: Deployment > Enable deployment directories and files
How can I fix this? Any suggestions are welcome.
What's most likely happening here is that a property, local which is being evaluated in the locals or autos window is causing a side effect in the running process which leads to the failure. To verify this you should turn off automatic property evaluation
Tools -> Options
Go to the Debugger menu
Uncheck "Enable Property evaluation and other implicit function calls"
Solution:
It had overridden ToString, and as it showed out, there was a loop i forgot to close.
After altering ToSting everything works fine.
Thank you very much for the answers :)
I was getting a similar issue, however in my case ALL tests were being skipped, and the error was reproducible on an empty test project, so code was ruled out.
Checking the EventViewer led me to the cause in my case; somehow the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\QTAgent32.exe.config file had been removed from my machine?!? I copied one from another machine here and I'm back in action.
I was finally able to resolve this issue in my case. What was happening for me was I was running asynchronous threads, but closed a process using a synchronous Close() method for a powershell runspace rather than the asynchronous CloseAsync() method.
I set a breakpoint in my code in Visual-C++, but when I run, I see the error mentioned in the title.
I know this question has been asked before on Stack Overflow (Breakpoints cannot be set and have been disabled), but none of the answers there fully explained the problem I'm seeing. The closest I can see is something about the linker, but I don't understand that - so if someone could explain in more detail that would be great.
In my case, I have 2 projects in Visual C++ - the production dsw, and the test code dsw. I have loaded and rebuilt both dsws in debug mode. I want a breakpoint in the production code, which is run via the test scripts. My issue is I get the error message when I run the test code, because the break point is in the production code, which isn't loaded up when the test starts.
Near the beginning of the test script there is a mytest_initialize() command. I imagine this goes off and loads up the production dll. Once this line has executed, I can put the breakpoint in my production code and run until I hit it. But it's quite annoying to have to run to this line, set the breakpoint and continue every time I want to run the test.
So I think the problem is Visual C++ doesn't realise the two projects are related. Is this a linker issue? What does the linker do and what settings should I change to make this work?
Thanks in advance. Apologies if instead I should be appending this question to the existing one, this is my first post so not quite sure how this should work.
[Update 1] I think Chris O has identified the problem. I'll add a further update if I'm able to work out how to use the project settings to make this work.
It sounds like you are using VC6, since you mention dsw files. I think that is as good as it gets in VC6, you have to manually add the breakpoint after your module is loaded from LoadLibrary. Actually, there might be a project debug setting, so you can specify which DLLs to load when debugging your project, that will keep your breakpoints enabled when hitting F5.
You can also try attaching the debugger after you know the mytest_initialize() has been called, that might keep your breakpoints enabled.
I had this issue sometimes, but always pass this with some code replacement actions.
Here is some guy post, how he had fixed it.
Hope it helps.
In my case i solved this by setting the DLL project containing the breakpoint as Active Project and changed Debug settings for this project (right-click project>>settings>>Debug tab) to point to the project that actually runs and accesses the DLL. "Executable for debug session:" and "Working directory:" should be set to the executable that you actually want to run and its corresponding directory.
Hope this is of any help.
right-click project>>settings>>Link tab
check on Generate debug info
check on Link incrementally