Recover a Visual Studio project that was never saved - visual-studio

I started a new project this morning and, after putting ~3 hours of work into it, I tried to open a file from another project to get some code from it. I got a warning about discarding an unsaved object. After telling it to go ahead, I realized that it was referring to the project I had just been working on and not another file that I had just opened.
Even though I never saved the project, the various files containing my code and dataset had to exist on the hard-drive. Are they still there, perhaps in a temp folder? I'm developing on a box running Server 2008 R2 (don't ask, not my decision :) ).

This may help:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/saraford/archive/2008/02/14/did-you-know-where-visual-studio-saves-auto-recovered-files-in-the-case-of-an-unexpected-shutdown-151.aspx
Also check C:\Users{Username}\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects
You could try one of those undelete programs and see if it finds anything.
Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions
and check the item
Save new projects when created
Save frequently. :)

Need to give one related input. Who the hell had the idea to implement this feature???
I used Visual Studio until 2003, then came back again to 2010 now.
After 2 days work, saving all the time, as I used to (Ctrl + S), I close the project and decide not to save the solution itself.
Done. All lost. Nothing can be recovered from anywhere in the computer.
How can a developer implement a dumb idea such as dropping all work in an "in memory" project.
You either know about it already or you will get screwed; like thousands found on Google during my desperate search.
Did Microsoft VS team look at it at least?
So frustrating...

It might be worth checking out the folder where AutoRecover files are saved.
You can find the default file location in Visual Studio on the Tools - Options menu. Look in the Projects and Solutions section - expand that and look in General to find the default file locations.
My files were under C:\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Backup Files.

I had this happen to me this morning. I worked on a new project yesterday and windows ran an update last night. Despite having debugged my program - the project had not saved - for some reason it didn't occur to me that the project might not be saved. I left the program running on my computer when I went to bed. This morning when I work up, I saw that windows had run an update. A few hours later, I saw that my computer had no trace of my program. I realize this is an old post, but I thought I would shed some light on what I did, since i was able to recover my files.
First I went here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/recover-lost-or-deleted-files
In Visual Basic 2010 Express, a backup folder is created with your project name. Sure enough, my project backckup folder was there: Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Backup Files\MyProject. But, the folder was empty. I "restored this folder to a previous version" using the steps listed in the link above. After doing that, the folder was still empty, BUT, the temporary folder "C:\Users{Username}\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects" now contained my project's folder and files. Prior to running the "restore to previous version", the temporary projects folder was also empty.
So, I was able to copy the folder out of the Temporary Projects folder and I am as happy as one can be - or close to it.
Hope that helps someone out.

A note to the answers above, I had a mini jumpscare when i could not find my project anywhere, not in the recent projects nor in the visual studio projects folder.
I eventually found the project in the visual studio projects folder of the admin user;
I was looking at:
C:\Users\LocalUser\Documents\Visual Studio 2015\Projects
Whilst the project was saved under:
C:\Users\LocalAdmin\Documents\Visual Studio 2015\Projects
Bottom line is; also check the \documents of the admin user. This likely happend because i was testing an admin only application and visual studio was running with the admin's user profile loaded.

Related

Visual Studio Show All Files not working - not showing some folders and files

I've started a new project and I've copied and pasted in some test files from another project. Normally to include them in the project I'd toggle on the "Show all files" option in the solution explorer. However that isn't working and I can't work out why!
I've updated to the latest version of VS Professional 2019. I've restarted the application and my machine. I've deleted the sln file and rebuilt. I can exclude files - I just can't get them all to show! Below I've attached a screenshot of an empty project with two test files that should be showing but aren't.
Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? :(
"Show All Files" is a project level option. In a multi-project solution you would need to turn it on for each project in turn.
This was reported on the VS Developer Community here, with the suggestion that it be extended to work at the solution level as well. Microsoft's answer suggests that that's not expected to happen anytime soon: "although this is a very valid suggestion, at this time we are closing it as is not among the features we are able to fit into the near future roadmap".
Another way to show all files under the entire solution directory is to Switch View to Folder View using the dropdown next to Home, though this loses the project structure.

Recover deleted project in visual studio

I was creating a website using visual studio and accidentally deleted that project folder. :(
It was three months project. Is there anyway to get it back? visual studio 2013
Are you using any Source control management system (e.g. SVN, git etc...)?
If so, this is the time for a revert. If not, you should...
Was the project deleted from your disk? If not (it shouldn't..),
just re add it to your solution. Chances are it is still in your solution folder
(You can easily open it via Visual studio).
If it was deleted from your HDD, this is where things starts to get tricky. Try restoring deleted data from your disk.
You will need a software to help you with this task (e.g. this one was randomly selected using a simple google search).
In case nothing of the above works you can take your HDD to a professional lab to restore the deleted data.
If it is just a small project, I wouldn't bother. If it is not, Shame on you for not using SCM ;0)
Good luck...
If nothing of the above works, I am sorry for your loss...

"The project file was unloaded" when moving VS2010 project to another server

I have moved a Visual Studio 2010 project to another server by copying and pasting the folder contents into another folder on a different server.
My understand was that VS2010 handled this well; when I have done this locally it has never been an issue.
Now I get an error like this:
When I right click and "Reload project", the list of files briefly appears before disappearing again, giving the original error.
Am I doing something wrong?
I experienced the same problem today. Here is what I did and worked for me :
Open the .sln file.
Right click on the project folder and click Reload project.
You will see the projects and folders that you originally had.
You will see .xml publish file . Double click it .. You should be good to go now.
I had this problem today and it took me a while to figure out what was going on.
Your problem is most likely that your solution was originally made with a Visual Studio configuration that contained support for certain project types (such as "Windows Service" or some other exotic project type). The Visual Studio configuration you are using to import your solution does not have that support. In other words,
there is probably nothing wrong with your solution,
there is probably nothing wrong with your project,
there is probably nothing wrong with any of the files (as you mentioned they do display briefly, giving you a second of hope)
Just run the installer on the new Visual Studio and make sure the support is enabled for all the project types you need and try again.
In my case the problem was the .vbproj file had somehow been corrupted so the normal xml code was replaced with a long string of null characters. I noticed this thanks to a file that was generated in the same folder as the project file when I tried to open the project - it was called 'UpgradeLog.htm'. This had an entry saying ' Error on line 1. Expected '<' but found 'null character'.'.. suggests there may have been a recent update to Visual Studio that I hadn't noticed?
Luckily I could use my source control system to revert back to a slightly earlier version - I guess it shows how important it is to have backups!
In my case, I saw similar message (Projected was unloaded) and all I had to do was simply re-launching Visual Studio (2017) in Admin mode and the problem went away. Per one of the above answers, I tried to right-click and selected Reload but got a warning that, due to required access to IIS on the machine, I had to launch VS in Admin mode.
HTH
Found this answer and it worked for me.
Note:Sometimes, the path in File path property is grayed out and you are unable to get to the Browse button. In this case try deleting .suo files. Don’t worry, these files gets recreated when you rebuild the solution / project.
http://www.howtosolutions.net/2013/02/solving-project-file-error-could-not-find-part-of-the-path-with-visual-studio/
I had the same problem. I fix path to .csproj files in the .sln file with a text editor and now it is all ok.
Open Visual Studio as Administrator

Visual Studio 2010 F5 Debugging C++ is not Rebuilding

I have a Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate C++ project (not managed or .NET). When I press F5 (i.e., start debugging), I want it to save all the files, rebuild those that changed, link the whole thing, and then run. Instead, it appears to use the last build. Thus, when I try to step into a function or something, I get the following error:
Based on my research, I have verified these options, the first three of which are in the Options dialog (can be reached under "Debug->Options and Settings"):
"Projects and Solutions->Build and Run->Only build startup projects and dependencies on Run" is checked. Some research indicated that it should be unchecked, but in my case I actually do only want it to rebuild the startup project. For what it's worth, I've tried unchecking it, with no effect.
"Projects and Solutions->Build and Run->On Run, when projects are out of date:" is set to "Always build".
"Debugging->Edit and Continue->Enable Edit and Continue" is checked, though it's greyed out.
In the Configuration Manager ("Build->Configuration Manager"), all solution configurations and platforms have their "Build" checkbox checked.
I have also tried deleting all Debug and Release directories as well as the .sdf and ipch directory.
For completeness, I suppose I should mention that I'm using precompiled headers, though I kinda doubt it matters.
[EDIT: I should note that it only seems to be one file (a .h file) that's doing it. I tried renaming it and recompiling, and also removing it from the solution and adding it back in, but it didn't work. ]
I was able to bring my solution back into the right state after deleting all .suo and .csproj.user files. Answer led to this solution. Hope this saves someone time.
I fell into this state after installing Ultimate over Professional and running profiling tools.
Once I had similar problem with my C# project and I think I have tried every possible suggestion available on internet but none worked and then this is what I have done:
Created an empty Project
Added startup function to verify that it does not show any error
Imported all my source code manually one by one
So, Yes, it was the solution. You already have done a lot so I would say you can get lucky by trying here and there however having a new project and importing your individual source file would be faster.
Another solution could be that switching the platform. I noticed that when I when to project properties, the new project I had just created had a platform of 'win32' and my other projects in the same solution had it set at x64. After I switched my project to x64, everything worked just fine. This worked for my interop(C,C+, C#) project and hopefully works for other projects as well.
I have successfully resolved it, try the following:
remove all temporary and intellisense files
remove all project from solution and then add them back(most important)
check projects 'Frameworks and References' to ensure they are valid

Recover a .CS class file after crash

I was working on a class in visual studio 2010 when suddenly my computer crashes. after I restart the computer. I start Visual studio and I find that class to be completely empty.
it contained more than 1000 lines of codes before the class.
is there anyway i can recover that file?
Help please because I don't have another copy of it (Stupid of me)
If you cannot find the source code file, try using Reflector to decompile the most recently built dll you have containing that class. It won't give you your complete source, but at least will give you something to start with.
Note: Reflector is no longer free; if that matters, try dotPeek from JetBrains instead.
Also, look into using a source code control system. This will let you 'commit' versions of your code to a repository, so you'll have a copy in case something like this happens in the future.
Subversion, Git, and Mercurial are popular ones; In my opinion, Subversion would be the easiest to start out with, especially with TortoiseSVN (OS integration) and AnkhSVN (Visual Studio integration). If you don't want to worry about setting up a repository/server, look into a hosted solution, like Beanstalk, which offers Subversion and Git and lets you try it out with a free, limited account.
Good luck - I hope you are able to recover your source!
Something which worked for me was back-up.
BTW I was trying to recover a VS2013 file on a Windows 8 machine.
Try to check in below location in your system.
C:\Users\username\My Documents\Visual Studio \Backup Files\ProjectFolder
I found an original file with original-date.filename.cs name and a recovered-date.filename.cs files.
The original was the one needed.
Deleted the one in project, added the original file and renamed it to file.cs. Tried building and debugging and it gave the expected results.
Also just want to add one more thing...
In my case i had an aspx page with its respective .cs and designer.cs
The .cs file got corrupted and I did build on project, with the designer.cs the project got build successfully and the dll got replaced. And when i tried to recover using reflector everything was in a state no return. :(
So don't build the project if you see any file got corrupted.
in visual studio 2019 I find the file in a files with TMP extension
FileName.cs~xxxxxxxx.TMP
This happened to me a few times as well when Visual Studio was crashed or System was shutdown unexpectedly.You can recover these corrupted file using Recuva. It dose not recover the file every time but in most of the cases it's work perfectly.
Below are the settings which you need to configure before recovery.
Start Recuva. Enter Advanced mode if the Wizard launches.
Click Options.
In the Options dialog box, click the Actions tab.
Click Scan for non-deleted files, and then click OK.
Run the Recuva scan as normal. Non-deleted files are indicated with a green double-circle status icon.
Hopefully, you will find your corrupted file in recovered files as it recover multiple versions for that file.
Very useful question. I got issue of file crash on sudden shutdown of my PC. recovered file using "Recuva"(download link: https://filehippo.com/download_recuva/) software. Scan for non-deleted files was helpful.
I got help from: https://www.samnoble.co.uk/2014/11/30/visual-studio-crashes-and-a-corrupted-cs-file/
Well, that happen recently for me and I did get my file back this way.
1. Find the project DLLs in the bin folder. Example MySolution.dll
2. Download and Install .Net Reflector from https://www.red-gate.com/products/dotnet-development/reflector/trial/thank-you
3. Open the .Net Reflector app and click the open folder icon then move to your bin directory and select MySolution.dll file
4. Then traverse and expand through your namespaces and classes to look into your codes.
5. Have fun!

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