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So, I was using Visual Studio 2013, it crashed, and when I restarted it the Search Solution Explorer had stopped functioning correctly:

  • It fails to find any file if you type in the exact file name
  • It fails to find any static files e.g. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.
  • It fails to find any configuration files e.g. Web.config

It seems to still find some files on a partial match, but not all files that you'd expect it to match e.g. if I search for Account I'd expect it to find AccountController.cs and AccountControllerTest.cs but it only finds the latter.

Some further info:

  • If I start VS 2013 in safe mode Search Solution Explorer works fine without any problems
  • If I manually disable or uninstall the extensions I'm using and start VS normally, the problem with Search Solution Explorer reappears

Has anyone come across anything similar to this, or got any suggestions of what to try to get Search Solution Explorer working again?

Update

I've had some joy running devenv /ResetSkipPkgs and devenv /ResetSettings. After a I ran those command Search Solution Explorer started working again, and works most of the time now. It still fails occasionally. Sometimes restarting Visual Studio will get it working again, but sometimes it just plain refuses to find certain files that are there.

Update 2

I installed Visual Studio 2013 Update 2, and Search Solution Explorer ran without any problems for just over a week before this problem reappeared. Restarting Visual Studio got Search Solution Explorer working again.

Community
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Ian Oxley
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  • Im using Visual Studio 2010 and also crashed I was also had that error. Some of my forms are deleted and I cant find it anymore. Do you have any backups? – Never Stop Learning Feb 12 '14 at 10:36
  • All the files are still there. But not being able to do ctrl+; and search for a file is becoming a real pain. – Ian Oxley Feb 12 '14 at 11:13
  • I've come across this, and so have many others in my office. A solution would be very valuable, perhaps a bounty would help? – Grahame A Feb 19 '14 at 14:57
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    total shot in the dark, but have you tried deleting your .suo file? This file is generated by VS, and if it becomes corrupt, you can get lots of strange behavior (though I've never seen this specifically). It's kind of like the "did you try rebooting" question for Visual Studio. VS will generate a new one if there is not one there. You can back it up to be safe, the only thing I've ever lost by deleting it is the "memory" of the last set of files I had opened when I closed the solution. – JMarsch Feb 19 '14 at 15:11
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    have you tried using `devenv /log` when you run, to see if package failures are ending up in the activity log? – John Gardner Feb 26 '14 at 01:31
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    Can you post the contents of you %AppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\ActivityLog.xml file (maybe as github gist if it's long)? – dmck Feb 26 '14 at 14:47
  • @JohnGardner I'll give that a try the next time it starts playing up. – Ian Oxley Mar 21 '14 at 15:11
  • @dmck I'll give your suggestion a try too the next time it starts misbehaving - thanks. – Ian Oxley Mar 21 '14 at 15:13
  • Looks like this will be fixed in Update 2 http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/808136/visual-studio-2013-solution-explorer-search-doesnt-find-all-matching-files – redcalx Apr 10 '14 at 10:34
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    @locster installed update2. Still a problem :) – Andrey Borisko May 19 '14 at 09:18
  • Yeh. Don't know what they have fixed, but they haven't fixed the one thing that annoys me multiple times per day! – redcalx May 21 '14 at 10:55

7 Answers7

3

I was able to narrow this down to the extensions I was using, "Productivity Power Tools 2013" seems to break the search feature for me in IIS, so I've disabled it for now. I'm getting a full set of results when searching now.

I came to this conclusion by uninstalling all of my extensions and reinstalling them one by one until the problem reappeared.

A coworker also had some success with this solution, launching DevEnv.exe with /ResetSkipPkgs

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms241276.aspx

Update

The problem returned for me after about 30 minutes, no specific cause noted. It was nice while it lasted. Removing all extensions gets me the same behavior as OP, only running in safe mode appears to work.

Deleting the .suo file also seems to fix the problem for a while, and then it comes back. I'm about to resort to a reinstall of vs2012 just to get this search feature back.

Grahame A
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Please try to install VS2013 update 2 CTP before reinstalling everything and see if it fix the bug:

Gomino
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Weird that it works in Safe Mode, or that you manage to fix by removing extensiosn and it then re-appears...

but if some of your projects are in solution folders, then there is a known bug, fixed but not released yet apparently:

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/801836/solution-explorer-doesnt-search-files-projects-inside-solution-folders

Thierry_S
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I have the same issue and confirmed it related to VS2013 Update 2 RC. Uninstall it will fixed this issue.
Wait for GM version of VS 2013 update 2.

Evan Lin
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I still had this issue both prior to and after installing VS update 3. I should note that it went away after I installed that for a while, and then came back. I suspect (but cannot confirm) that the broken behavior's return coincided with a lockup of my system which necessitated a reboot...

Anyway, I had the Productivity Power Tools installed, and after reading the answers here wondered if it might be complicit, and so I went to disable it and noticed it had a pending update. I went ahead and updated the add-on, and that resolved the issue for me (again). We'll see if it stays fixed.

ctb
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This may caused by other extensions you have installed in your visual studio. I have some issue, found out Telerik JustTrace caused this issue.

Kejing Chen
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Running devenv /ResetSkipPkgs will fix the problem but, as noted, it will return. For a permanent solution, add this parameter to the target in the exe's properties:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" -ResetSkipPkgs

JohnyTwoLegs
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