Visual Studio 2010: Editor stops responding to key

Question

I've got this very odd bug that appears to be a quirk in Visual Studio 2010: Sometimes, when moving the cursor into double quotes of a CSS style="" attribute the cursor refuses to move. I can't type anything, and the keys that respond are the UP/DOWN cursor keys and the DEL key (but not BACKSPACE).

Typing does nothing, but pushing LEFT/RIGHT on the cursor keys produces the following error:

The operation could not be completed

I've got no idea what's causing this, but I would hazard a guess that Intellisense is getting very confused and bugging out.

At the moment, whenever this happens, I have to write any CSS outsite of the double quotes of the style attribute and then place the cursor where I want the CSS to appear (using the mouse) and press CTRL-V to paste it in. Very annoying :(

There must be a way of fixing this problem...?

Hopefully someone has an answer!

Answer 1

I have encountered this using Visual Studio 2013 and Resharper 8.2.1. None of the solutions provided in this thread worked (even suspending and resuming Resharper)

After contacting JetBrains support, it turned out to be a caching issue.

Deleting all the files from the following directory solved the issue, as Resharper re-creates new caches:

C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\JetBrains\ReSharper\v8.2\SolutionCaches\[Project_reference]

Answer 2

Permanently fixing... Not too sure however I found that pressing pressing Ctrl+Shift+Caps Lock+Tab all at once seems to get rid of this and enables the mouse and keyboard again. I know this isn't the best of solutions but it works.

Answer 3

I have the same problem several times a day. I didn't notice it until I installed the web essentials extension. I just uninstalled it and will see what happens. I have tried reinstalling visual studio with no joy (but again, I didn't notice the problem until after I had already installed the various extensions).

Sometimes, closing and re-opening the specific code window I'm working in fixes it. If that fails, sometimes I close all windows and reopen just the one I was actively editing. If all of that fails it usually requires a complete restart of visual studio.

I find it funny that MSFT says that they can't duplicate the problem. Scott Guthrie experienced it first hand during his MVC4 beta demo here at about 28 minutes in.

UPDATE: So far, as of 4-5-2012 9:33am Central Time, the problem hasn't recurred since uninstalling Web Essentials. This is the longest I've gone without this bug occurring. If I make it through the next 24 hours, I'll be confident in blaming Web Essentials.

UPDATE: 4-6-2012 10:05am Central Time: Well, apparently it wasn't Web Essentials. It happened to me again this morning editing the contents of a block in my _Layout.vbhtml file. Closing the tab and reopening it fixed it.

Answer 4

Just encountered the issue in VS 2012, in editing C#.
I noticed that the problem had occurred soon after the trial period of Resharper has ended and i inserted a valid license number. It also happened in only some of the source files.
The solution: Tools->Options->Resharper: Suspend.
Try typing - should work now.
Then: Tools->Options->Resharper: Resume.
Problem gone.

Answer 5

I have some odd issues with the editor occasionally, a workaround for me is: 

Ctrl-Tab (x2) to another code file and back to the same code (or alt tab to another app and back, one of these two... can't replicate issue to be sure)

An ultimate solution might be a re-install.

Answer 6

Using a source control (GIT, AKSVN)? If so, disable it, restart VS then enable it and open the solution again.