Why does TFS show pending changes for all my files when I haven't changed anything?

Question

I am new to using TFS source control.

I have a large project which I have been porting from SVN. I am checked in and up to date with all projects. However, I opened up Visual Studio today and all project items are in the pending changes included window even though there are no changes.

I haven't touched or edited any of the files for my TFS files since last time.

To verify, I used Araxis Merge to do a folder comparison and can see that no actual changes have taken place.

Why are these unchanged files appearing in my check-in window?

Here is an example of a diff in visual studio from the previous version: I can't see anything!

Hopefully this shows my local workspace

Don't you have the option to view a Diff within VS for any of those files to view what VS thinks has changed??? — Jazimov, Jun 20 '18 at 22:13
Araxis Merge has settings that specify to ignore white-space. Using Araxis Merge doesn't necessarily mean that there were not any changes... — Jazimov, Jun 20 '18 at 23:36
Yes, that post helped. I don't see an option to mark as answer so I will if that becomes available. — jwize, Jun 28 '18 at 07:05
@jwize, If the solution of Lu is helpful for you, you could mark it as the answer: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5234/how-does-accepting-an-answer-work — Jack Zhai, Jul 06 '18 at 05:39

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 21 '18 at 06:40

When you create or edit a workspace, you can specify whether its location is Local or Server. Local Workspaces are TFS's attempt at DVCS and actually gives you a much more SVN-Like experience.

Edit the workspace and choose advanced, you could see the Location of workspace type.

Maybe formatting, line endings, encoding. Do a diff using Beyond Compare or something to see what changed.

If nothing changed, check if you are using the same workspace. You may select another workspace than you used.

In Source Control Explorer, check if you choosed the workspace the workspace you were work in.

If all above not work, you could also try this workaround, select all the files in "Pending changes" window and activate the context menu. Then click "Undo..." > "Undo Changes" > "No to All". The files without changes will be rolled back. More details please take a look at this question: how to undo pending changes of files that are unchanged?

Why does TFS show pending changes for all my files when I haven't changed anything?

1 Answers1