Visual studio error list shows empty results list

Question

After fixing errors and rebuilding the error list window still has empty placeholders and a count of zero errors.

VS error list window

This only goes away after restarting VS

It seems random, some days I dont get the problem at all with the same solution

Trying to open one of the empty errors by clicking on it gives me a "Visual studio has encountered an unexpected error." message.

Its driving me crazy. Cant find any help out there or other people reporting the same problem

Are you sure this is not caused by some visual studio extension ? — gkc, Jan 07 '15 at 09:55
I've disabled all the extensions I can (only left those that would need to be uninstalled) and still have this issue. I guess that removing all extensions and reverting to a vanilla setup would probably fix this but I like / need my extensions. — Matt, Jan 07 '15 at 10:07

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 13 '15 at 12:28

VS gets crazy many times.

Make sure your version is up-to-date,
Delete your automatically generated .suo file(s) (resides near the solution file)

Still bad? there might be a corruption or invalidity in a XML file it tries to read or something like that.

Try removing temporary files and generated files. Look at this:

https://www.google.com/?q=visual%20studio%20temp%20files%20location#q=visual+studio+temp+files+location]
You can try using VS Command line switches like /Log and /Out. Further more - Add switches to the MSBuild command in your project configuration. Here is the references:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xee0c8y7.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164311.aspx
Try using SysInternals ProcessMonitor to see What file is opened just before the error occurs.
Nothing helped? Reinstall VS completely. do a full Uninstall. I suggest you backup your preferences and tools beforehand. You can do this manually or by signing in to VS with your live ID.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn457348.aspx

Be aware - your extensions should be re-downloaded. and one of them might be the cause for all this suffering

Tried 1-5 and got a few hours with no problems before the problem recurred, so is suspect its a temp file issue. Reluctant about losing the time it takes to do a reinstall but no other options left after trying @Avram s suggestion. +1 for the range of options though. — Matt, Jan 13 '15 at 18:55

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 12 '15 at 18:25

2

Maybe this does the trick, update VisualSVN:

answered Jan 12 '15 at 18:25

Stef Smits

I've the latest version - I updated all the out of date extensions in one of the many attempts to resolve this, even disabled it still occurs. – Matt Jan 13 '15 at 18:40

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

2

To debug this, you can use this solution: https://stackoverflow.com/a/9589139/61883

solved it by:

Open two instances of Visual Studio. Open the same project in both.
In one instance, goto Debug->Exceptions and enable all the 'Thrown' options to stop at first chance exceptions. This will stop the debugger when the exception is generated.
In the same instance, select Debug->Attach to Process, select devenv.exe.
In the other instance, open the form to cause the exception
With any luck the first instance should stop somewhere that yields a more relevant exception.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

answered Jan 13 '15 at 12:23

Avram

Completely killed my VS install. Good suggestion but after attaching to devenv.exe the debugging instance crashed and now I get MEF errors on every start-up (from core VS components!). Going to have to be a wipe clean and start again. – Matt Jan 13 '15 at 18:56
@Matt sorry to hear it, this solution help me a lot when i have same problems. maybe you need to use devenv.exe /safemode /log on instance that debugging other instanse. – Avram Jan 14 '15 at 07:34

3 Answers3