Unexpected Error creating debug information file GG.PDB"--"

Question

When I try to build my project, it returns the following error:

Error 1 Unexpected error creating debug information file 'D:\Documents\Lance\Documents\School\Capstone\GG\GG\obj\Debug\GG.PDB' -- '' GG

I've recently had the misfortune of having my PC restart on me, due to sudden power supply problems (maybe). This is while the project was building, before this problem started.

When the PC came back online I've noticed that the changes I've made to the program prior to the sudden power down was not saved. And, it won't build anymore.

Are you using an version control system? May be any locking issue? — CharithJ, Jul 31 '11 at 01:19
@ CharithJ, I'm not using any version control system (whatever that is, sorry, new guy). Just 'vanilla' Visual Studio 2005. @ Cameron, thanks! That worked. — zack_falcon, Jul 31 '11 at 02:11
@Cameron, I forgot to ask all these years - I just noticed it because it got a Famous Question badge - and I do apologize sincerely, but could you put your comment as an answer, so I could accept it? — zack_falcon, Feb 02 '15 at 14:35

score 41 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 20 '12 at 11:09

41

This worked for me:

Shut down VS.NET
Browse to the project in Windows Explorer
Delete the /obj/ folder.
Delete the project outputs (.dll and .pdb) from /bin (not sure if this step is necessary)
Can't hurt but might help: delete the project outputs from any other project /bin folders in the solution that is having issues (wasn't necessary for me)
Restart VS.NET
Rebuild

http://weblogs.asp.net/ssmith/archive/2003/08/12/23755.aspx

edited Sep 20 '12 at 11:09

Peladao

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answered Sep 19 '12 at 13:53

Winter

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worked for me :) i the power went off and i that error happened, i deleted obj folder, then rebuild it worked cool. – Bassem Wissa Jun 25 '13 at 13:38
This worked, though I had to do an `iisreset` before I could do step 3, as `w3wp.exe` was holding onto the .pdb file in /obj/ – Nick Orlando Jan 21 '14 at 19:59
it worked for me first time.. but again it falls. I had to rename my assembly name to make it work. No need to restart your VS. – KMX Mar 06 '16 at 08:39

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 02 '15 at 14:41

As requested, my comment as an answer:

Try cleaning the solution (under the Build menu in VS).

Since the build was interrupted half-way through by your power failure, the file isn't locked -- the build system is probably just in an inconsistent state (which a Clean Solution should fix).

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 27 '12 at 09:26

10

This happens once in a while in my environment and the problem probably has to do with the PDB file being locked (i.e., I'm guessing the last part of the error message is missing in your post). This is how it looks on my machine:

Unexpected error creating debug information file 'c:\dir\obj\file.PDB' -- 'c:\dir\obj\file.PDB: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.'

In my case, cleaning the solution does not solve the problem and restarting is an overkill, so I usually just copy the full name of the pdb file (from the error) and execute this on the command line:

ren c:\dir\obj\file.PDB *.old

answered Sep 27 '12 at 09:26

steinar

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Yes. Obviously the file is not important. Renaming the file worked like a charm :) – henrik Jan 22 '14 at 11:14
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Well, I would say that the file is important, i.e. if you want to debug. But it will be recreated on the next build. – steinar Jan 23 '14 at 08:18

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 02 '15 at 07:23

7

This worked for me: Close Visual studio and open visual studio using Run as Administrator and problem was solved.

answered Jul 02 '15 at 07:23

pooja

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 31 '13 at 05:38

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Not need to restart or delete the file. Just rename the file and that is enough. If you try to delete the file it will give an error. Better just rename it & it will work. :)

answered Oct 31 '13 at 05:38

Gaurravs

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score 1 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

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If you are having this problem with a web application, this can happen in the unusual situation that you have used DebugDiag and created a rule that listens on your project's app pool. Deleting the rule prevented this problem from recurring.

This might happen, for example, if you followed these instructions for diagnosing a stack overflow exception in IIS.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Feb 19 '14 at 22:04

Kirk Woll

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 18 '17 at 09:51

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If you are working on VM with two user, make sure the other user has not attached all the process while debugging.

answered Sep 18 '17 at 09:51

Tushar Prithviraj

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KMX · Answer 8 · 2016-03-06T08:46:20.203

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Cons of restarting VS:

Clipboard will be lost
Redo/undo will be lost
Files open will be lost
You will loose the tempo

Solution: Give your Assembly a new name. No cons. Except you will have to rename your assembly back to its original name when you are ready for final deployment. And I think anyone can find how to make it work for the last time :)

edited Mar 06 '16 at 08:46

answered Mar 06 '16 at 08:38

KMX

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 29 '16 at 08:50

Sometimes all the files from \bin folder are used by a running process, i.e. web site on IIS or windows service run automatically after build. In such cases turning off the service or stoping IIS app pool for specific site should also help (like in my case)

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 14 '18 at 10:25

Sometimes I run into this problem, when compiling the same project for (very) different targets:

VS2008 and net35
VS2017 and net462
dotnet core 2.0

My guess is, that either bin and/Or obj directory are used by the compiler, but the outputs are not compatible (of course). Solution clean from VS indeed helps.

Often we specify different dll names for the output (e.g. mylib.dll, mylib35.dll) and the issue never happened on those projects.

Unexpected Error creating debug information file GG.PDB"--"

10 Answers10