Unable to start debugging - Visual Studio 2012

Question

"Unable to start debugging 'C:\Windows\System32\WWAHost.exe'. The Microsoft Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor (MSVSMON.EXE) does not appear to be running on the remote computer. This may be because a firewall is preventing communication to the remote computer. Please see Help for assistance on configuring remote debugging."

Searched for similar posts, but didn't found one. If duplicate just inform. I am not trying to connect to any remote machine. Just testing on my local machine. Is there any way to solve this issue. (I'm using Windows 8 Enterprise 64-bit, just a javascript project)

my error was, unable to debug Windows Store app wwahose.exe. - which is not the name of my app but, I guess, part of the VS IDE app. On a guess I removed a version of the app (mine) that was installed from previous debugging, then I was able to start and debug the app (mine again) using F5 in VS. — pdschuller, Nov 15 '14 at 18:38

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 12 '13 at 14:00

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Problem solved. Installed Remote tools update from here and working fine. Thanks for responding. Closing the topic.

edited Jun 12 '13 at 14:00

void

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answered Jan 15 '13 at 07:04

Chaithanya

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If you're not trying to remotely debug, I'm not sure why the remote tools update would have helped you, but I'm glad you have it working. – Matt Harrington Jan 15 '13 at 17:30
Don't know why it is asking for them. But now it's ok. – Chaithanya Jan 16 '13 at 08:15
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The link is broken. This is why link only answers are bad. Can you please update the answer with the relevant information included in the answer. – ChrisF Jun 12 '13 at 14:00
Link is not broken. It points to "Remote Tools for Visual Studio 2012 Update 2". Just installed it and the problem is solved. – Chaithanya Jun 13 '13 at 04:02
I guess going to debug options -> check remote debugging with a made up host (-> saving) and then uncheck remote debugging (-> saving) would have helped too. Sometimes the setting is just messed up. – Marc Wittmann May 02 '15 at 14:18

Alejandro del Río · Answer 2 · 2014-06-27T15:49:44.723

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I had the same problem. I fixed it by changing properties/compile/target platform to x86 instead of Any CPU. It solved the problem in my case. Hope it helps.

edited Jun 27 '14 at 15:49

answered May 21 '14 at 03:19

Alejandro del Río

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Solved for me on VS2013R2 – Davide Lettieri Jun 27 '14 at 12:27
This worked for me ... not happy that I have to set the platform to x86 only though. :( – Marc Johnston Feb 28 '16 at 07:08

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 14 '13 at 06:18

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This happened to me just now when I had a website set up in IIS for mydomain.com, and set my project's start up url (Local IIS) to mydomain.com, and then launched the project before remembering to add a record in the host files for the domain:

127.0.0.1 mydomain.com

This got me for a good hour before I remembered I never set the record. Adding the record fixed it right away.

answered Jul 14 '13 at 06:18

parliament

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Wow, this actually got me twice and my own answer rescued me lol make sure you have your host entries uncommented! – parliament Oct 09 '13 at 00:19

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 04 '13 at 15:50

Windows 7 x64, VS 2012

In my case, the Remote Debugging Monitor component was installed and the app was clearly configured to debug locally in settings. This was a WinForms app upgraded from VS 2008, .NET 3.5.

Turns out it was the Windows Firewall. By directly running:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger\x64\msvsmon.exe

A firewall dialog appeared where I could allow msvsmon.exe to run. After a VS 2012 re-start, debugging (locally) was fine!

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 14 '13 at 15:11

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Ensure you have Local Machine selected in this drop-down menu:

enter image description here

answered Jan 14 '13 at 15:11

Matt Harrington

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Henry · Answer 6 · 2013-12-16T15:31:52.720

Windows 7 x64, VS 2012, VB.NET

I fixed it like this:-

Create a shortcut on your desktop to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger\x64\msvsmon.exe".
Right-click shortcut and select "Properties" from the dropdown menu. Select the "Compatibity" tab, tick "Run this program as administrator" and click OK
Create a shortcut on your desktop to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe".
Right-click shortcut and select "Properties" from the dropdown menu. Select the "Compatibity" tab, tick "Run this program as administrator" and click OK.

To start VS2012:-

Double-click the msvsmon shortcut icon (that you created above, to launch msvsmon). Wait for the "Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor (Administrator)" window to display before continuing ...
Double-click the "Visual Studio 2012 Professional" shortcut icon (that you created above, to launch VS2012)
In VS2012, ensure standard toolbar is visible.
In VS2012, ensure "Solution Platforms" dropdown (on standard toolbar) is visible and set to "x86".

and debug now works (for me anyway) ...

However after 15 minutes or so, debug may stop working and you may get the msvsmon error again. If that happens, simply close VS2012 and msvsmon and then start again (from "To start VS2012:-" above) ...

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 17 '13 at 17:22

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Myself and several other developers have been trying to look for a solution for this problem for about 3/4 hours as Visual Studio crashed then this error would occur (twice in 2 days). I then suddenly (after a lot of debugging and trying other suggestions and headbanging) I somehow realised that the file which was highlighted had changed and when I was trying to debug was not the MVC app project, once I changed it to my project's one it then worked.

Hope this helps and saves people from hours of pain!

answered Dec 17 '13 at 17:22

Liam Swinney

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?? What does that even mean. Could you expound on 'I somehow realised that the file which was highlighted had changed and when I was trying to debug was not the MVC app project'? Thanks. – shawn.mek Jan 17 '14 at 21:47
"file highlighted" probably refers to the start-up project (it's bold/highlighted in the solution/projects window) (right click, 'Set as StartUp Project') – freedomn-m Feb 19 '14 at 15:16
Yeah apologies for the lack of clarity with 'file highlighted' but @freedomn-m is correct, it was the start up project – Liam Swinney Mar 06 '14 at 12:19

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 02 '14 at 12:36

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I also got this error, I usually run sites under a named user (which is also a database user) and forgot to set the Application Pool. (parliament's answer also helped me)

answered Feb 02 '14 at 12:36

Mark Redman

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 14 '14 at 12:23

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For me this worked in VS2013: Save your work, close Visual Studio then reopen your project

answered Oct 14 '14 at 12:23

Emmanuel

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered May 13 '15 at 04:08

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I encountered this error as well.

The cause of mine was that I had accidentally emptied out the following property

Properties->Debugging->WorkingDirectory

Changing it to:

inherit from parent or project defaults

Solved the issue.

answered May 13 '15 at 04:08

Colin Basnett

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Are you going to the properties of the startup project? I don't have a Debugging section in those properties. We're still getting this error, and so far nothing we've tried works, and we have tried all of the solutions in this post, and on other SO posts, and other forums also. – Bryan Aug 12 '15 at 00:19
I'm pretty sure this fix only applies to startup projects. – Colin Basnett Aug 12 '15 at 00:20

score 0 · Answer 11 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

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If you are using Microsoft's Azure, try attaching manually the debugger:

I have outlined the steps in the following answer:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/35738995/1057052

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

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answered Mar 02 '16 at 05:13

Jose A

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Unable to start debugging - Visual Studio 2012

11 Answers11

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