Debug Target Is Missing?

Question

When I try to build my solution, I get the following error:

Visual Studio cannot start debugging because the debug target 'c:\target' is missing. Please >build the project and retry, or set the OutputPath and AssemblyName properties appropriately >to point at the correct location for the target assembly.

My output path is set correctly to bin\Debug, but the exe is never created in that folder. Instead, all I get are the exe.config, vshost.exe, and vshost.exe.config files.

Any idea what's going on?

Solution 1

You could open the project file with a text editor and replace 'c:\target' by 'bin\Debug'

EDIT

There are other more helpful answers but I can't delete mine since it's the accepted one.

@CZFox Answer

@Yehuda Shapira Answer

steps for changing target path is

1. Go to Properties
2. Then go to Debug
3. Browse the Start external program and select the bin/Debug/.exe file

Solution 2

1. Make sure that output path of project is correct (Project > Properties > Build > Output path)

2. Go in menu to Build > Configuration Manager, and check if your main/entry project has checked Build. If not, check it.

3. Go to properties > Application , and select the output type of your project

Solution 3

I've had the same problem;

Here are solutions that didn't work for me:

• Building/rebuilding entire solution
• Making sure the output path was correct (MyProject > Properties > Build > Output > Output path)

Here's the solution that did work for me:

• Rebuilding just the project

Solution 4

I have solve this type of problem follow this step

1.VS2010 right click on the solution explorer and select the Build.

1. Again press Ctrl+F5 or F5

Solution 5

You can try the following steps to resolve the problem.

Step 1:

Right click on the solution and select the property

Step 2:

In Configureation property select the Build option button

View more solutions

Comments

[Denis Besic]

Did you find what is cousin this problem?

[arviman]

2 did it for me, still haven't figured out how it got unchecked.

[Johnny Graber]

Why is the switch to x64 needed?

[BenAlabaster]

Exactly the same problem... this is the only thing that worked! Thanks, +1

[Brad Cathey]

I had this problem after I added Slow Cheetah config transformations to my projects. The Build option in the Configuration Manager was no longer checked for any of my build targets.

[Starnetter]

My project file had that path still. Interesting that the answer marked correct has 0 votes but the CZFox answer with 37+ fixed it for me too.

[Donny McCoy]

Year and a half later and still going strong. I somehow unchecked my build in the configuration and never thought to look there for this issue. Thanks much CZFox!

[LazyGeek]

I just had this "problem" today. Is there a hotkey so that I may accidentally switched off "Build" in the Configuration Manager?

[LikePod]

thank you, it worked for me. i think, the op should check this first.

[BMB]

Item #2 solved my issue, didn't find this suggestion anywhere else in my Googling, I was pulling my hair out, thanks!

[Jakub Sisak GeoGraphics]

Excellent! this is the solution for Express. Just had to also delete the Obj and debug folders then rebuild before it worked.