MVC Razor view Intellisense broken in VS 2013/2015

Question

I have an existing project written in VS2010 which when loaded in VS2010 works perfectly.

When I load this same project in VS2013 the MVC Razor views contain lots of errors as if the config file is missing from the views folder.

It appears to have not loaded the Razor editor correctly using the config files from both the root and the views folder and instead gives me errors like ...

The name 'model' does not exist in the current context

and ...

'System.Web.WebPages.Html.HtmlHelper' does not contain a definition for 'LabelFor' 
and no extension method 'LabelFor' accepting a first argument of type 
'System.Web.WebPages.Html.HtmlHelper' could be found 
(are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

...

Any idea what would cause this?

Edit: Config files as requested ....

From main web.config file (not all of it as it's way too big to post)

<runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
        <dependentAssembly>
            <assemblyIdentity name="Ninject" culture="neutral" publicKeyToken="c7192dc5380945e7" />
            <bindingRedirect newVersion="3.0.0.0" oldVersion="0.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" />
        </dependentAssembly>
        <dependentAssembly>
            <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation" culture="neutral" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
            <bindingRedirect newVersion="5.0.505.0" oldVersion="0.0.0.0-5.0.505.0" />
        </dependentAssembly>
        <dependentAssembly>
            <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral" />
            <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.0.0.0" newVersion="4.0.0.0" />
        </dependentAssembly>
        <dependentAssembly>
            <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
            <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-2.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0" />
        </dependentAssembly>
        <dependentAssembly>
            <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
            <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-1.2.0.0" newVersion="1.2.0.0" />
        </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
</runtime>

Config file in "~/Views/" ...

<?xml version="1.0"?>  
<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
            <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
            <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
        </sectionGroup>
    </configSections>

    <system.web.webPages.razor>
        <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
            <namespaces>
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
                <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
                <add namespace="Emedia.Common.Mvc.Views.Helpers"/>
                <add namespace="Emedia.Common.Mvc.Views.Extensions"/>
        <add namespace="Emedia.Common.Utilities"/>
        <add namespace="Emedia.Common.Utilities.Extensions"/> 
        <add namespace="Emedia.Common.Mvc.Controllers.Helpers"/>
                <add namespace="Emedia.Resources.Service"/>
        <add namespace="Emedia.Subscriber.Controllers"/>
        <add namespace="Emedia.Subscriber.Controllers.ViewModels"/>
            </namespaces>
        </pages>
    </system.web.webPages.razor>

    <appSettings>
        <add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" />
    </appSettings>

    <system.web>
        <httpHandlers>
            <add path="*" verb="*" type="System.Web.HttpNotFoundHandler"/>
        </httpHandlers>
        <pages
            validateRequest="false"
            pageParserFilterType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewTypeParserFilter, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
            pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
            userControlBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
            <controls>
                <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" namespace="System.Web.Mvc" tagPrefix="mvc" />
        </controls>
    </pages>
</system.web>

<system.webServer>
    <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />

    <handlers>
        <remove name="BlockViewHandler"/>
        <add name="BlockViewHandler" path="*" verb="*" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.HttpNotFoundHandler" />
    </handlers>
</system.webServer>

Answer 1

I considered editing @ChrisMoschini's post, but thought it was different enough. My issue was that I started a new MVC5 application, and blindly copied over too many web.config settings from an old MVC3 project I wanted to use as a template/starting point. Doing this caused me to have some invalid versions referenced in my web.config.

To fix, I created another new MVC5 project and made sure the following config values in my bad project matched the vanilla, unmodified MVC5 app. Again, do not blindly copy these version numbers. Just make sure they match a vanilla MVC app of the version that you're trying to get to work

in root web.config:

<appSettings>
    ...
    <add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0"/> 
    ...
</appSettings>
<system.web>
    ...
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5.1"/>
    <httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5.1"/>
    ...
</system.web>

in the Views\Web.config:

<sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
    ...
    <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
    <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
    ...
</sectionGroup>


<system.web.webPages.razor>
  ...
  <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
  ...
</system.web.webPages.razor>

Answer 2

When I created a new project intellisense worked fine, but for some reason it didn't work in our current project. The only difference I found in the Views/Web.config file was that ours had MVC version 5.2.0.0 and a new project had 5.0.0.0. What worked for us was to change this:

<host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc,
     Version=5.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=123JHJF56AD364E35" />

to this:

<host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc,
     Version=5.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=123JHJF56AD364E35" />

Answer 3

A combination of the following helped to solve the problem for me:

• Creating a new MVC Project
• Comparing the versions in the views web.config files of the existing and new projects
• Fixing the versions accordingly (see below)
• Deleting all files in the bin folder
• Cleaning the solution
• and finally rebuilding the solution

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
      <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
      <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>

  <system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization"/>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>

  <appSettings>
    <add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0"/>
    <add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" />
  </appSettings>
  [...]

Answer 4

I have had this over and over again; I'm on my third new project, and it's driving me mad! I think I may have found the reason for the problem. I'd added files, but not included them in Visual Studio. So I've now chosen to view all files:

Then for all my folders which I'd added, I include them:

The problem is that this only seems to show up when you open an MVC site as a project, and not when you open it as a website.

Answer 5

I am using visual studio 2012. I tried all of the above but finally the problem is resolved by installing :

ASP.NET and Web Tools 2013.1 : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2013/11/18/announcing-release-of-asp-net-and-web-tools-2013-1-for-visual-studio-2012.aspx

Answer 6

This question has been resolved, but I'm adding this for future folks, since none of the above worked for me:

Try running Visual Studio as an administrator.

Somehow when I tried to delete my nuget packages (which contain all the required references, such as System.Web.Mvc, I was told I need permission from MyPC\Me. Ridiculous! (I am the only user and only admin...) In any case, running as an admin at least let me access those files which fixed intellisense.