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I have this problem with both VS2012 and 2013. When I load an existing or create a new solution I get a ProviderPackage error - An exception was thrown during package instantiation and was caught in the package manager. After I close the error dialog, the solution explorer window is empty, although there are solution files open in the editor.

The ActivityLog.xml file shows different modules loading when the error occurs, depending on the project type. Is there a way that I can determine the common thread between 2012 and 2013 that is causing this error.

There is probably a corrupted dll which I have to replace. I am dead in the water until I figure this out.

Help.

BedfordNYGuy
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8 Answers8

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Clearing the Visual Studio Component Model Cache worked for me (details: Error message "No exports were found that match the constraint contract name")

Community
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CamM
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    VS 2012 - %AppData%\..\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\ComponentModelCache VS 2013 - %AppData%\..\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\ComponentModelCache – Dustin E Jun 27 '14 at 15:05
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None of the previous suggestions worked for me, but this one did: http://www.hjerpbakk.com/blog/2014/7/25/no-content-in-solution-explorer-using-visual-studio-2013

This issue is because of a MEF cache corruption. Installing [or uninstalling any extension] will invalidate the cache causing VS to rebuild it.

SFlagg
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I ran into the empty solution explorer with Visual Studio 2013, and fixed it with a repair install.

Pathoschild
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Solution: This worked for me. I had the same problem in Visual Studio 2015 with the Solution Explorer always showing empty, even after deleting the ComponentModelCache folder. Looking at the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Default.err file, one of the errors was:

"----- Catalog construction errors ----- Error #1 Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.PartDiscoveryException: Failure while scanning type ......"

Doing a Google search on Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.PartDiscoveryException lead me to a Nuget package for Visual Studio MEF. Since I read so many posts of people have this same problem, I figured the problem was with Visual Studio and not necessarily any particular extension. So I installed this Visual Studio MEF Nuget package, restarted Visual Studio, and now the Solution Explorer is populated every time.

Nuget: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition/

Paul Roewer
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Deleting the .suo file worked for me.

Adrian Fox
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  • Could you please elaborate more your answer adding a little more description about the solution you provide? – abarisone May 07 '15 at 07:50
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Close VS, delete suo file of your project (is hidden), open your project again. I had this problem with two projects, this fixed it in both cases.

Ivanhoe
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Also, creating a new project (in my case a Console Application) also worked! That was probably the easiest fix i've found thus far and you don't have to delete anything! Nice...

user1789573
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Go To Window menu in visual studio and click reset window layout...it will work

maulik
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