Visual Studio 2013 IntelliSense stops working for ASP.NET MVC5 Controllers

Question

I am facing a weird problem in my Visual Studio 2013 ASP.NET MVC 5 project. All of a sudden, the IntelliSense in the Controller classes of the MVC 5 project are not working at all.

I have other class library projects in my solution and IntelliSense is working in those class library project files, but the problem is only within the MVC project. Usually these kinds of problems are solved by restarting Visual Studio: not only did I restart Visual Studio, but I also restarted my computer, and the IntelliSense problem is not getting fixed at all.

Are there any other steps that can get me IntelliSense back?

score 209 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 01 '14 at 19:57

209

Close Visual Studio. Delete the <ProjectName>.v12.suo file. Reopen solution.

answered Jun 01 '14 at 19:57

Rush Frisby

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Thanks for the info. I will try this trick next time if my Visual Studio intellisense stops working again. – Emran Hussain Jun 02 '14 at 03:01
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I've found that deleting the suo file fixes a lot of issues. It's like the Visual Studio equivalent of a reboot. Thanks for reminding me. – grahamesd Jul 03 '14 at 19:53
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Yep... fixed the issue for me right now. My `ProjectName.v12.suo` was 982 KB in size. Deleted it. Closed the solution. Reopened the solution and a new `ProjectName.v12.suo` got created. Intellisense is back again but this new `.suo` file is only 500 KB in size now. Really interesting. Maybe Microsoft should fix this bad behaviour? Somehow it causes VS to lose Intellisense and it's really a pain to work without it. :) – Leniel Maccaferri Jul 26 '14 at 16:28
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Did not work for me. What worked for me was resetting my settings. – DougCouto Mar 17 '15 at 13:31
This fixes the IntelliSense problem but you also loose all breakpoints, bookmarks etc. at the same time. – Andreas Apr 10 '15 at 07:40
Hmm. I don't have any .suo files, and I haven't seen any since VS2012, so I figured they were replaced with something else. What gives? – Adrian McCarthy Jul 23 '15 at 21:19
As some already stated. This is the magic wand for many issues. Kudos! – Ghasan غسان Sep 20 '15 at 02:21
In addition to deleting the .v12.suo file, after relaunching Visual Studio, I have to cut/save/paste/save the content in the front-end .ascx control. As soon as I do that, IntelliSense works again. I'm using VS 2013. – daGUY Nov 29 '17 at 16:11

Jeremy Cook · Answer 2 · 2015-07-08T14:00:11.727

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Resetting my settings or importing previously exported, working settings, and restarting Visual Studio worked: Tools > Import and Export Settings... > Reset all settings.

EDIT: This keeps happening to me, surprisingly often in VS Express, and occasionally in VS Professional. One thing I noticed in Pro, is that it has happened after unexpected shut downs (when IT forces a reboot in the middle of the night). So it may be related to Visual Studio not closing correctly. The technique described above has worked every time.

edited Jul 08 '15 at 14:00

answered Apr 15 '14 at 15:06

Jeremy Cook

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Thanks, today, I had the Intellisense problem again and your solution solved the problem. – Emran Hussain May 23 '14 at 21:11
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Thanks, this worked for me too. If you read to the bottom try this before you remove all your extensions. – Just another Steve Jun 09 '14 at 20:17
:D I actually removed all my extensions first. Anyway, it worked! – Luis Lavieri Jun 23 '14 at 18:41
this fixed my issue as well – contractorwolf Mar 04 '15 at 19:50
This was the best option. Excellent. – Nelson Miranda Jun 05 '15 at 21:05
Had the issue after installing .net 4.6 targeting pack. This resolved it. – mcNux Jul 28 '15 at 09:05
This solved my issue after I installed VS2013 (coming from 2010) – reaper_unique Sep 01 '15 at 10:32
Unexpected shutdowns can corrupt *.sdf SQL Server Compact database. There's a hotfix for that: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2960153 – GregC Oct 05 '16 at 17:59

score 35 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 11 '14 at 18:14

35

Tools > Options > Text Editor > C# > General

Make sure that "Auto List Members" is checked

answered Dec 11 '14 at 18:14

phil

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This worked for me. Deleting the .suo file has worked on many occasions before, but this time it did not. – Craig Feb 24 '16 at 11:59
This worked for me. Visual Studio 2013. IT switched us to a new domain and lost all VS settings. – boilers222 Apr 29 '16 at 15:30

Emran Hussain · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-29T22:39:38.310

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I have found one way to solve the problem. That is, 1. -> Remove the ASP.NET MVC Project from Solution, 2. -> Then, add the MVC Project back to the Solution.

By doing these steps, I can get the Intellisense again. But, I am not happy with this solution though, because, next time when I double click the Solution file to open the solution, I see the intellisense is not working again. I would like to know the real reason why it is behaving like that.

EDIT:

Finally, I figured out that it was a 3rd party visual studio extension which was causing the problem. In order to find out that extension, I removed all extensions and then, added the extensions one by one and stopped where I found the culprit extension that was taking my sleep away :).

edited Mar 29 '14 at 22:39

answered Feb 01 '14 at 02:32

Emran Hussain

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Been dealing with this for a month and it's driving me crazy. Removing and readding from the solution (although a pain) did work for me too. Thanks! – NorthFork Feb 03 '14 at 17:34
Which extension was to blame? – Christopher Rayl Apr 04 '14 at 16:02
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In my case, it was Xamarin extension, but I do not want to say bad about Xamarin, because, their customer support is super excellent. As soon as I reported the problem, they provided me the fixed version quickly. Moreover, the most recent version of Xamarin extension does not seem to have that problem anymore. My point is, any extension's specific version can cause such problem, we may need to uninstall the extensions one by one to find out which is causing the problem. For example, a future version of today's good extension can cause such problem too. We need to watch out in that case. – Emran Hussain Apr 05 '14 at 18:52
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Unloading the project and reloading it worked for me too thankyou! – Rob May 08 '14 at 07:01
You should also try this if you got at this point and nothing works: http://stackoverflow.com/a/23983883/114029 – Leniel Maccaferri Jul 26 '14 at 16:31
That's for this, it really helped me out. It's still a pain, but it's much less a pain then closing out VS completely. I run a plain version with only 1 added extention which is AnkhSVN, that I can't remove. – Henry Sep 07 '14 at 00:46
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In my case it was the Xamarin extension. Uninstalled it and the problem went away. This was the latest version too! – Guy Lowe Sep 23 '14 at 04:59
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I had the same issue with the Xamarin extension, but for some reason only with one particular project. It was an expired trial so I just uninstalled it and syntax highlighting came back. – GnomeCubed Jan 29 '15 at 21:11

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered May 13 '15 at 08:03

8

You can unload project and reload the MVC project from solution

Right Click on MVC project in solution explorer -> "Unload Project"
Right Click on MVC project in solution explorer -> "Reload Project"

After this the Intellesense rework quickly.

answered May 13 '15 at 08:03

ArDumez

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Excatly what I wrote in Apr 10, nice! https://stackoverflow.com/a/29556005/1879699 – Andreas Sep 06 '19 at 05:06

score 6 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

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Tools -> Options
Text Editor -> C# -> Intellisense
Ensure "Show completion list after a character is typed" is checked

VS2013 intellisense code completion

edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

Community

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answered Sep 28 '14 at 23:58

Sherif Hamdy

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This worked for me. I'm not sure if the install defaulted these to be unchecked, but the following were unchecked for me and this was a fresh install. "Auto list members" "Parameter information". I was not getting the intellisense on method parameters either. The only plugin I have is GhostDoc – gcoleman0828 Nov 23 '14 at 17:30
@gcoleman0828 Thank you! This was the correct answer for me with VS2013. – Rod Hartzell May 05 '15 at 19:59

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 02 '14 at 05:25

5

I'm not sure why it occurs, but when it happens to me I can recover Intellisense by simply restarting Visual Studio.

You're right, it's really annoying.

answered Feb 02 '14 at 05:25

JWilson

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d.popov · Answer 8 · 2015-06-23T09:57:48.547

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Sometimes RESET of VS settings can help:

TOOLS->Import and Export Settings Wizard->Reset all settings->checkbox "No, just reset settings, overwriting my current settings"->Next>Next>Next

I had messed them with RESHARPER, and this helped.

edited Jun 23 '15 at 09:57

answered Jan 27 '15 at 11:48

d.popov

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well, it WAS like that for me, sorry. I had messed them with RESHARPER's settings. – d.popov Apr 14 '15 at 19:56
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Upvoted. Resharper has played havoc with my settings in the past. – Zac Apr 16 '15 at 15:31
This is acceptable only for someone who hasn't customized anything. – t3chb0t Mar 09 '17 at 07:41

score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 10 '15 at 07:47

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I found that the best way to fix IntelliSense issues is to simply unload the project in the solution explorer and load the project again. After that IntelliSense is always working for me and I do not loose bookmarks, breakpoints or any other settings.

answered Apr 10 '15 at 07:47

Andreas

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This is the simplest way. T.Y. – Caesar Jul 09 '15 at 06:13

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 24 '14 at 13:35

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I have found that if the build fails then the Intellisense seems to break. After fixing my build errors and rebuilding the project the Intellisense will work after reloading the particular Razor file.

answered Jun 24 '14 at 13:35

Matthew Will

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score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 07 '14 at 13:43

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In my case, restart didn't work.

So I did the following weird steps :

Closed the solution
Opened another solution
Verified that intellisense worked in this other solution.
Closed the other solution
Finally, reopened the first solution.

And the intellisense worked again.

answered Jul 07 '14 at 13:43

Guilherme de Jesus Santos

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This didn't work, but it was a good troubleshooting step to see if it is the project or visual studio itself that is causing the problem. – redwards510 Jan 31 '17 at 18:02

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 26 '14 at 00:27

Usually this happens when the buffers have an error in them. Most of the time the local cache error is cleared when you close a, windows form, for example and reopen therefore reloading it into memory. Many of the solutions above work but sometimes it as as simple as closing the item and designer and reopening the item.

Additionally you can try to force a reset by

Ctrl+K, Ctrl+I shows quick info Ctrl+Shift+Space shows you param info

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Dec 11 '14 at 14:24

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I tried lots of things which didn't work. In the end, I cut code to clipboard, recreated the controller and pasted code in. Problem solved!

answered Dec 11 '14 at 14:24

Andy Brown

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score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Dec 17 '14 at 21:00

I too have the same issue with Intellisense in my Text editor.

i just close example.cs file which is not providing Intellisense and reopen that class without restart Visual Studio it works for me.

Note : i don't have the same issue with all the .CS file in Solution Explorer

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Apr 22 '15 at 14:29

I use VS 2013 and I had the same problem. My solution was update VS to last version. I my case Update 4. Simply reference in project must match with assembly in GAC on computer (OS). Intellisense come from VS not from project.

I hope that will handy for some one.

score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 24 '15 at 18:14

... Yet another answer - but this was the cause of my pain: I'd installed Developer Assistant which had been working nicely but suddenly stopped providing suggestions. To get it working again:

options -> developer assistant -> Intellisense -> Default Visual Studio Intellisense

Took me 5 hours to find that :(

HTH.

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Nov 05 '15 at 12:09

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Tools->Options->Text Editor->C# (or All Languages)->General

check the check box for enable Auto List Members and Parameter Information in right hand side pane.

If its not selected,select it.

answered Nov 05 '15 at 12:09

thejustv

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Apr 15 '14 at 15:24

0

Save everything and restart Visual Studio!

answered Apr 15 '14 at 15:24

Chris

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score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Jun 24 '14 at 11:37

I get this exact same thing every time I work with one particular MVC5 project. Restarting VS2013 does not work. Deleting suo files does not work. Resetting all tools settings does not work. The only thing that ever works is removing the project from the solution and adding it again. Seeing as I have to do this every day is is really quite annoying. Especially when I have it set to reopen the last files I had open, I then need to track down the ones I was working on and re-open them instead of the popping up automagically..

Steven · Answer 20 · 2014-09-08T13:41:42.907

I'm using VS 2013 with MVC 5. The solution for me was to add the following to Web.config:

<compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5.1">
  <assemblies>
    <add assembly="System.Web.Helpers, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.Optimization, Version=1.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.Routing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <add assembly="System.Web.WebPages, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
  </assemblies>
</compilation>

score 0 · Answer 21 · answered Feb 16 '15 at 11:25

0

Rushonerok's solution works great for me.
For anyone who doesn't know: <ProjectName>.v12.suo is a hidden file in project root folder. You must set on "Show hidden files" in your file browser to see it.

answered Feb 16 '15 at 11:25

Petr

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score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Feb 25 '15 at 20:48

So far some these solutions have not worked for me.

I have the following Workaround

Simply declare the type you want to use explicitly in a new variable and use that instead of Model.

@model MyModel
MyModel mymodel = Model;

@mymodel.MyIntelisenseIsWorkingAgain

score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Mar 29 '15 at 22:02

0

To solve this I closed Visual Studio Express 2013 and I reopened the Solution but double clicking on its .sln file directly from the file system. Opening it from the Start Page had my controllers intellisense broken.

answered Mar 29 '15 at 22:02

CoderRoller

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score 0 · Answer 24 · answered Nov 27 '16 at 05:33

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Closing and opening the Visual Studio Solution worked for me.

answered Nov 27 '16 at 05:33

Unbreakable

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score 0 · Answer 25 · answered Nov 29 '17 at 09:06

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Sometimes you close it by mistake. Try ctrl+space for windows or cmd+space for mac to turn it on.

answered Nov 29 '17 at 09:06

mcnk

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score 0 · Answer 26 · answered Apr 26 '19 at 15:11

I know I'm a bit late, but adding this to my App.config file did the trick!

<system.web>
    <compilation>
        <assemblies>
            <add assembly="System.Core, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
        </assemblies>
    </compilation>
</system.web>

Visual Studio 2013 IntelliSense stops working for ASP.NET MVC5 Controllers

26 Answers26

EDIT:

Linked

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