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c#visual-studiovisual-studio-2012configurationedit-and-continue

Visual studio - getting error "Metadata file 'XYZ' could not be found" after edit continue


I have stumbled into an issue that is really annoying.
When I debug my software, everything runs OK, but if I hit a breakpoint and edit the code, when I try to continue running I get an error:
Metadata file 'XYZ' could not be found

After looking around for a while, I found some a similar issues, but they were all regarding a build failure, which is not my case (this happens only after edit-continue).

What I have tried so far:

  • My code is compiling and running.
  • I cleaned the solution and restarted VS.
  • I made sure that the missing file's project is being build for the configuration I am running (in configuration manager).
  • I manually built the missing file's project.

Some extra info:

  • It does not matter what I change, still get the same error (the change is not related to the missing file).
  • This happens also when I pause and continue (not only breakpoints)
  • I am running the project using a custom configuration (configuration manager...). When I run it using the default Debug configuration the error does not occur.

Any ideas?


Solution

  • Eventually what solved the issue was:

    1. Clean every project individually (Right click> Clean).
    2. Rebuild every project individually (Right click> Rebuild).
    3. Rebuild the startup project.

    I guess for some reason, just cleaning the solution had a different effect than specifically cleaning every project individually.

    Edit:
    As per @maplemale comment, It seems that sometimes removing and re-adding each reference is also required.

    Update 2019:
    This question got a lot of traffic in the past, but it seems that since VS 2017 was released, it got much less attention.
    So another suggestion would be - Update to a newer version of VS (>= 2017) and among other new features this issue will also be solved