Visual Studio isn't tracking changes, or check

Question

I am new to TFS. At my job I mapped the TFS projects to local directories, performed a get, and everything works as I expected. When I edit files on my local copy, source control automatically checks them out for editing and tracks the files with pending changes via the pending changes window. Then I just check them in throughout the day using that window.

However, at home this doesn't appear to be happening. I have access to source control and using source control explorer, have mapped the projects to local directories. This appeared to work fine. However, when I open the projects and open files, changes I make are not automatically checking out files. In fact, visual studio isn't even changing their read-only status until I try to save my changes; at that point it warns me that the file is read-only and asks if I would like it to try to overwrite the permissions and save. I do and it works fine. But again, no changes register in the pending changes window. I'm kind of lost. The only source control experience I really have is subversion and the visual studio AnkhSVN plugin.

Any ideas? I've even opened my solution by double-clicking the solution file that is in source control explorer. You would think it would be fully-aware that the solution I'm opening should be tracked by source control.

Any help is much appreciated.

EDIT Since people seem to be hung up on the fact that I said "at home", let me clarify. There are no problems with the network. I am on a VPN. I can browse source control just fine. I have since reinstalled everything for various reasons. All went well. I'm just having an issue with Visual Studio not tracking changes to files and allowing them to be committed back to source control. So to sum it up:

How could Visual Studio stop tracking changes after being mapped correctly, and allowing me to get latest? I can update from source control, I just can't commit. Pending changes window is empty even after making changes.

Please, only people who have worked with TFS and would have some insight into this behavior. If you don't know what I'm talking about then don't worry about it. I have been very clear and anyone that has used TFS for source control will understand the question.

Answer 1

Go into source control bindings (File->Source Control->Change Source Control) - you may notice only the project is bound - not the solution. Select the solution, click Bind.

Answer 2

I found an interesting setting under File > Source Control > Advanced > Change Source Control.

If I bind the solution and project to my source control server (unbind first if it's already bound), then suddenly it works! Saving a file automatically checks out the file and tracks changes.

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Edit: this seems like a bug in Visual Studio. If this workaround helps you, it would be awesome if you create a new issue at https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com with your Visual Studio version info, so that the dev team can fix this!

Answer 3

None of the answers/suggestions on this post helped me, but I've found a solution to the problem after hours of hair pulling.

1. Locate your .git folder for your repository.
2. Delete the index.lock file inside.
3. Restart Visual Studio.

(I am using Visual Studio 2017.)

Answer 4

Usually SO is the first with a decent answer, but tonight I think someone put tacks on a few people's chairs. Another site answered my question, and with great accuracy. Here is the answer:

Right-click on your solution node and go down to "Go online". For various reasons visual studio can mark your solution as tracked by source control, but "offline". It is still tracking changes behind the scenes waiting for you to go online again. After doing this my pending changes window populated and all is normal. I figured it was a simple setting somewhere.

I hope this helps others with the same issue.

Answer 5

I found one of my projects actually wasn't added to the source control at all - somehow that had been missed and so any changes to that project would not get checked out. I right-clicked on the solution node, clicked "add to source control" it warned me that some projects were already being tracked and I elected to ignore those projects and it proceeded to add the missing project(s) to source control. Now the check-out works perfectly. Sharing in case it helps anyone else!

Answer 6

in my case i solved issue by applying steps below:

1. Right click your solution file on the solution explorer.
2. click add solution to source control
3. if you already added your files to tfs click ignore for file replacements popups