Visual Studio retrieving an incorrect path to a pr

Question

Visual Studio (and possibly TFS) has somehow (I think perhaps during a source control merge) become confused about the path of a project within my solution.

It thinks it is here (example paths for simplicity):

C:\My Projects\ExampleSolution\ExampleProjectWrong\ExampleProjectCorrect.csproj

whereas actually, the project file is located here:

C:\My Projects\ExampleSolution\ExampleProjectCorrect\ExampleProjectCorrect.csproj

I cannot for the life of me get it to recognize the correct location. I have tried:

• Removing and re-adding the project from the correct location. An error message comes up saying The project file at C:\My Projects\ExampleSolution\ExampleProjectWrong\ExampleProjectCorrect.csproj could not be found.

• Manually editing the .sln file to ensure all references to ExampleProjectCorrect.csproj have the correct paths.

• Doing a find in files on the solution directory for both the correct and incorrect paths, to try and track down where studio is hiding the incorrect path.

• Deleting the cache directories for VS and TFS

I'm tearing my hair out because I can't recreate the solution as it has near as makes no difference 100 projects in and is tied in to source control with several other developers working on it.

Can anyone point me in the right direction as to where it is storing this incorrect path and/or how to reset it so the damn thing will load correctly?

Answer 1

Simply deleting the solutions .suo file worked for me.

Answer 2

I was facing this issue after performing a migration from Visual Source Safe 2005 to TFS 2012. I couldn't wait for the "Conversion Wizard" due out in the next couple weeks so I just ran VSSConvert.exe. This took 6 or so years of history and moved it into TFS.. while I didn't get the actual timeline history.. I got a bunch of entries on the same day with the comments indicating the actual check-ins of the history.. not bad.

So after it ran all night (Successfully, yay!), I was having trouble loading my projects just as this question stated. For some reason, a few projects were being referenced to an incorrect directory. I checked the .sln, the .vsproj files, and getting latest, deleting re-getting, adding removing, etc.. I tried everything noted here... even upgrading my workspace, which I'm not sure what that even did.

FINALLY... I deleted the *.suo files and viola. It worked.

I spent a couple hours on this one.

Answer 3

Try to delete or rename .suo file (including extension). This file is at the same location where your solution file is. It worked for me.

Answer 4

If you are running your web app under Local IIS instead of IISExpress make sure you HIT the "Create Virtual Directory" button by going in the project properties. Once that's done, perform "Clean Solution" and "Rebuild Solution".

Answer 5

Just guessing, but perhaps some of your other projects references your project from the wrong location? In this case, you have not just to delete and re-insert the project into your solution, you will also have to delete and recreate the references from the referencing projects (stored in their .csproj files).

Answer 6

After trying many recommendations I deleted the suo file ( again ). The last time worked. Why it did not work earlier I do not know. In general I find deleting the suo file one of the first steps I do.