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

For anyone else who might stumble across this I didn't find any of the previous answers to really solve my problem or not pertain to it. Anyways the way that solved this for me and made intellisense work again was to go to my bin folder and delete all the files in there and then clean/rebuild and it was fixed.

Answer 2

I ran into a similar problem. I had an MVC 5 project created with VS2015 Community Edition that I needed to work on with VS2013 Ultimate. Removing the following <system.codedom></system.codedom> block from the root web.config file is what finally allowed IntelliSense to work again in my Razor views on VS2013.

<system.codedom>
  <compilers>
    <compiler language="c#;cs;csharp" extension=".cs" type="Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.CSharpCodeProvider, Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" warningLevel="4" compilerOptions="/langversion:6 /nowarn:1659;1699;1701" />
    <compiler language="vb;vbs;visualbasic;vbscript" extension=".vb" type="Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.VBCodeProvider, Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" warningLevel="4" compilerOptions="/langversion:14 /nowarn:41008 /define:_MYTYPE=\&quot;Web\&quot; /optionInfer+" />
  </compilers>
</system.codedom>

Answer 3

I am using VS 2017 professional, and I tried almost every answer on this post, and also those on that post, but nothing worked for me. Yesterday I updated VS, to version 15.2 (26430.6) Release, and intellisense is back in my cshtml files!

Answer 4

I have recently solved this problem myself. I upgraded from MVC4 to MVC5 (specifically 5.1). Upgrading to a newer version of MVC caused this havoc and I spent hours trying to solve it. Minor changes to the Web.Config file fixed the intellisense issue!

You said the project works in VS2010, but not 2013? See this answer here.

I recommend upgrading to MVC5. It's not painful and the upgrade should be pretty seamless.

If you upgrade to MVC5 and you're still not getting intellisense, you need to update the Web.Config file manually as the upgrade may not do this correctly!

Here's a modified version of your Web.conifg in the /Views folder that should reflect changes for MVC5.

<?xml version="1.0"?>  
<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=5.1.0.0, 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=5.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
        pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
        userControlBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
        <controls>
            <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.1.0.0, 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>

If upgrading is not an option, then I'm afraid you will need to continue using VS2010 if you want intellisense support for MVC3. However, I strongly suggest upgrading to MVC5.