All Visual Studio 2017 references in solution project are broken.

[slayczar]

I have an existing Visual Studio solution with many projects. All projects are using .net version 4.7.1 (no core). The solution is composed of WinForms projects, wcf services projects, asp.net projects and MVC projects. All projects are pointing to the same .dll references. Upon adding an existing, outside asp.net MVC project, all of the references have broken. The project was set to .net 4.6 so I updated to 4.7.1 and the references are still broken. Building the project yeilds a single error:

"This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. Use NuGet Package Restore to download them."

I've gone through all of the nuget-added packages and updated them and still the errors remain.
So affter changing the .net version to match all the other projects and double-checking the nuget packages, I've tried the following:

- Clean/close/open/rebuild
- Set nuget package to automatically restore in settings
- Clean/close/clear temp files/open rebuld
- Delete reference, re-add reference using same path as other asp.net MVC project referencing same assembly
- Updating Visual Studio to latest 2017 version
- Remove project/clean/build/re-add project.


Version/install information:

Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2017
Version 15.9.43
VisualStudio.15.Release/15.9.43+28307.1778
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 4.8.04084

Installed Version: Professional

Application Insights Tools for Visual Studio Package 8.14.20131.1
Application Insights Tools for Visual Studio

ASP.NET and Web Tools 2017 15.9.04012.0
ASP.NET and Web Tools 2017

ASP.NET Core Razor Language Services 15.8.31590
Provides languages services for ASP.NET Core Razor.

ASP.NET Web Frameworks and Tools 2012 4.0.30625.0
For additional information, visit ASP.NET | Open-source web framework for .NET

ASP.NET Web Frameworks and Tools 2017 5.2.61435.0
For additional information, visit ASP.NET | Open-source web framework for .NET

Azure App Service Tools v3.0.0 15.9.03024.0
Azure App Service Tools v3.0.0

Azure Functions and Web Jobs Tools 15.9.03024.0
Azure Functions and Web Jobs Tools

C# Tools 2.10.0-beta2-63501-03+b9fb1610c87cccc8ceb74a770dba261a58e39c4a
C# components used in the IDE. Depending on your project type and settings, a different version of the compiler may be used.

Common Azure Tools 1.10
Provides common services for use by Azure Mobile Services and Microsoft Azure Tools.

ConvertToDevExtremeCommand Extension 1.0
ConvertToDevExtremeCommand Visual Studio Extension Detailed Info

DevExpress Reporting Extension 1.4
A Visual Studio extension that invokes the Report Designer editor for report definition VSREPX files.

DevExpress Reporting Tools Extension 1.0
Extends Visual Studio with tools required for the Report Designer editor.

DevExpress.DeploymentTool 1.0
A useful tool for deploying DevExpress assemblies.

DevExpress.Win.LayoutAssistant Extension 1.0
DevExpress.Win.LayoutAssistant Visual Studio Extension Detailed Info

JavaScript Language Service 2.0
JavaScript Language Service

Microsoft Azure Tools 2.9
Microsoft Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 - v2.9.20417.1

Microsoft Continuous Delivery Tools for Visual Studio 0.4
Simplifying the configuration of Azure DevOps pipelines from within the Visual Studio IDE.

Microsoft JVM Debugger 1.0
Provides support for connecting the Visual Studio debugger to JDWP compatible Java Virtual Machines

Microsoft Library Manager 1.0
Install client-side libraries easily to any web project

Microsoft MI-Based Debugger 1.0
Provides support for connecting Visual Studio to MI compatible debuggers

Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Containers 1.1
Develop, run, validate your ASP.NET Core applications in the target environment. F5 your application directly into a container with debugging, or CTRL + F5 to edit & refresh your app without having to rebuild the container.

NuGet Package Manager 4.6.0
NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio. For more information about NuGet, visit NuGet documentation.

Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2017 ENU 15.0.29728.00
Microsoft Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2017 ENU

ProjectServicesPackage Extension 1.0
ProjectServicesPackage Visual Studio Extension Detailed Info

ResourcePackage Extension 1.0
ResourcePackage Visual Studio Extension Detailed Info

ResourcePackage Extension 1.0
ResourcePackage Visual Studio Extension Detailed Info

SQL Server Data Tools 15.1.62002.01090
Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools

TypeScript Tools 15.9.51025.2003
TypeScript Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio

Visual Basic Tools 2.10.0-beta2-63501-03+b9fb1610c87cccc8ceb74a770dba261a58e39c4a
Visual Basic components used in the IDE. Depending on your project type and settings, a different version of the compiler may be used.

Visual Commander 3.1.2
For more information about Visual Commander, see the website at Visual Commander - Modern alternative to Visual Studio macros.

Visual F# Tools 10.2 for F# 4.5 15.8.0.0. Commit Hash: 6e26c5bacc8c4201e962f5bdde0a177f82f88691.
Microsoft Visual F# Tools 10.2 for F# 4.5

Visual Studio Code Debug Adapter Host Package 1.0
Interop layer for hosting Visual Studio Code debug adapters in Visual Studio

Visual Studio Tools for Containers 1.0
Visual Studio Tools for Containers

WiX Toolset Visual Studio Extension 1.0.0.4
WiX Toolset Visual Studio Extension version 1.0.0.4
Copyright (c) .NET Foundation and contributors. All rights reserved.

Workflow Manager Tools 1.0 1.0
This package contains the necessary Visual Studio integration components for Workflow Manager.

 

[slayczar]

the error appeared only after MOVING the project to a different directory - using both xcopy and TFS "Move" tool. So I guess the path to that file was incorrect once moved?

 

[Skydiver]

Is there a ".nuget" directory under the destination solution directory?

 

[slayczar]

There is not

 

[Skydiver]

And that's why that <Error> element in the build script is firing. If it can't the file in the directory, it'll declare an error. Since the directory doesn't even exist, then there's no possibility that the file would exist. And unfortunately, before the better Nuget integration is later versions of Nuget, the only way the build script could know how to invoke Nuget is through that "Nuget.targets" file that has all the build rules for restoring packages.

Still kind of strange that VS would mark all the references with warning icons when it should have been only the references that would have been brought in by Nuget should have been marked. The others which come with the SDK should have been fine. I guess the more complex the system, the more esoteric the failures become.