Build Failure. Error: 'path' cannot be an empty string ("") or start with the null character

Question

I have a solution that builds fine in VS2015. I just installed VS2017 RTM and after conversion, attempts to build the solution fail immediately with the error:

Build Failure. Error: 'path' cannot be an empty string ("") or start with the null character.

How can I get around this?

Drew Noakes · Answer 1 · 2017-03-08T09:22:32.453

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The problem seems to be with the new lightweight solution loading feature of VS2017.

To fix it, first clean up:

Close Visual Studio 2017
Delete or rename the .vs folder
Reopen the solution

Afterwards, don't re-enable lightweight solution loading for that solution.

You can completely disable lightweight solution loading for all solutions in the options, but if the problem only applies to some solutions then that might be a bit heavy handed.

edited Mar 08 '17 at 09:22

answered Mar 07 '17 at 17:05

Drew Noakes

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This resolves it temporarily, but it returns quickly. – CaseyB Mar 07 '17 at 22:39
@CaseyB, are you enabling lightweight solution loading? I suspect it is related. Also, do you have any exotic project types in your solution? I have VSIX/WiX/netcore/aspnetcore/WPF. – Drew Noakes Mar 07 '17 at 22:40
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May ReSharper have an impact on this? After enabling leightwight solution loading I had no issues, but after installing ReSharper 2016.3 the problem occurred. – flo Mar 10 '17 at 08:02
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@flo, it's possible. I also use ReSharper. – Drew Noakes Mar 10 '17 at 09:07
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Accidently enabled it. Got an error 1 minute later. Thanks microsoft. – Christo S. Christov Apr 16 '17 at 16:49
Early adopter trouble ;-) Can I report the bug somewhere? – anhoppe Jul 01 '17 at 21:24

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 08 '17 at 09:15

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I also had this problem with all of my VS2015 (aka project.json) - projects. Deleting the .vs folder didn't solve the problem.

I finally come up with disabling the "lightweight solutions load" checkbox under Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> Lightweight solution load for all solutions

answered Mar 08 '17 at 09:15

Christian Metz

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Interesting that this happened in VS2015 too. I didn't think the concept of lightweight solution loaded existed there. I ran some more experiments earlier today and came to the conclusion that the feature doesn't work for my current solution. Are you using any uncommon project types? – Drew Noakes Mar 08 '17 at 09:26

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 21 '17 at 10:33

I ran into the same problem in visual studio 2017, with a large solution that loaded light weight. I looked at :https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/15861/unable-to-build-solution-after-upgrading-to-the-la.html

And they also suggest not to light weight load solution:
a) right click on you solution
b) disable the lightweight loading
c) close the solution
d) reload and recompile the solution.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 09 '17 at 02:33

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I ran into this problem with a bad bower.json configuration. Back up the bower.json file and clear the dependencies. See if that removes the error. If so, re-add the dependencies one by one until the problem goes awa

answered Mar 09 '17 at 02:33

Trevor Germain

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Interesting. I will give this a shot, thanks. I also have a bower file which isn't used and might be broken. Will report back. – Drew Noakes Mar 09 '17 at 07:20
I removed bower completely from the solution and still see this error if I remove the `.vs` folder, start VS and enable lightweight solution load. – Drew Noakes Apr 17 '17 at 20:30

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 08 '17 at 19:51

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These solutions didn't work for me, but I found .vs\config\applicationhost.config and it had

    <location path="" overrideMode="Allow">

I added the folder to which I would deploy the project, and it built. (or would have if I didn't have compiler errors :)

answered Aug 08 '17 at 19:51

theGleep

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I had high hopes for this, but trying it out gave me [this problem instead](https://stackoverflow.com/q/45695002/24874). Lightweight solution load seems to quite unreliable. Glad this worked for you though. What did you set the path to? Does it have to be a file path? If so, absolute or relative? – Drew Noakes Aug 28 '17 at 12:44
I think it was an absolute path, but I don't remember for sure. I've had the problem recur, but turning off lightweight load has fixed it more permanently. – theGleep Aug 29 '17 at 17:41

Build Failure. Error: 'path' cannot be an empty string ("") or start with the null character

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