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I'm not duly concerned but can anyone suggest why since installing Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 I keep finding multiple App_Offline.htm files in my recycle bin.

I suspect it's something to do with Visual Studio taking local websites off-line whilst it runs an automated process and then immediately deleting the files (moving them to the recycle bin). This doesn't seem very efficient thought and I'd like to make it stop if I can!

I haven't yet restored any of them to see where they came from, I've just been deleting them but I will the next one as I'm curious which is why I asked this question.

Thanks

David A Gibson
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  • .htm files may be readable. Open one in notepad and see if it looks safe. If it looks safe, then open in a browser and see what it says. – John Saunders Jul 02 '09 at 13:54
  • Yes, this is Visual Studio. Take a look at this related question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/565798/how-to-make-appoffline-htm-stop-being-created-and-deleted-at-each-build – boflynn Jul 02 '09 at 20:02
  • I'm waiting until one appears today and I'll restore it. I know what the files are used for - see Adrian's question and comment it's just what particular process is producing it - looks like the other asker doesn't know yet either but cheers boflynn! – David A Gibson Jul 03 '09 at 08:16

2 Answers2

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App_Offline.htm is an indicator file that will bring down any web site. I'm assuming that you are doing Publish Website?

During publish, the target website will be brought down (by adding the App_Offline.htm), the required files copied over, and the App_Offline.htm is then deleted to get the website back up.

Adrian Godong
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  • Hello Adrian, I didn't make it clear in the question but I was aware of what the App_Offline.htm files are - and indeed I have used them in the past although I've always manually created them. I like your idea that Publish is the cause but I'm not using publish. We check-in to a Continuous Integration server which deploys the websites. All I am doing is Build Project/Solution in Debug mode... it must be this somehow... – David A Gibson Jul 03 '09 at 08:14
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This is all I could find on the subject. Unfortunately it's also speculative.

http://petermcg.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/silverlight-app-offline/

onedozenbagels
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