Enable NuGet Package Restore on Visual Studio 2013

Question

I'm following this easy tutorial to start coding with the Google+ API in C#. However, I've been stuck for hours on Step 3, where the first substeps are:

1. In Visual Studio, click Project > Enable NuGet Package Restore > answer Yes in the dialog.
2. Right-click on the gplus-quickstart-csharp project and select Manage NuGet Packages.
3. Click Restore on the Manage NuGet Packages window. This will install the Google API Client libraries.

When I click on Projet, there is no option "Enable NuGet Package Restore".

There is a Manage Nuget Packages option, but no Restore button or option whatsoever.

The project doesn't build and gives me the error:

Error 1 This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. Enable NuGet Package Restore to download them. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=322105. The missing file is C:\Users\Documents\google+\gplus-quickstart-csharp\.nuget\NuGet.targets. C:\Users\Documents\google+\gplus-quickstart-csharp\gplus-quickstart-csharp\gplus-quickstart-csharp.csproj 201 5 gplus-quickstart-csharp

I went on the microsoft website and it only redirects to the NuGet documentation where I didn't find anything that works. I tried the following commands (described in the examples):

• D:\projects\contoso> nuget.exe restore
• D:\projects\contoso> nuget.exe restore contoso.sln
• D:\projects> nuget.exe restore contoso

but to no avail. And yes, NuGet is installed. Any ideas? Thanks!

Solution 1

To find the menu item: "enable nuget package restore" right-click in the solution explorer on the solution - not on the project.

You get a message:

Do you want to configure this solution to download and restore missing NuGet packages during build?

Wasn't that what you were looking for?

Solution 2

You don't want to use the project based nuget package restore!

Make sure you have the latest Nuget version (Tools -> Extensions and Updates)

When you go to build the project it should tell you it needs to download the nuget packages (or might just auto download them).

Edit not sure whats with the downvotes:

http://blog.davidebbo.com/2014/01/the-right-way-to-restore-nuget-packages.html

What the NuGet team is now recommending is both a lot cleaner and a lot simpler. In short, you don't do anything special, and it just happens! This is because NuGet now always restores packages before building in VS. So no changes whatsoever are needed on your files, which is beautiful!

Since people are still having issues editing to include more information:

https://docs.nuget.org/consume/package-restore#common-issues-with-automatic-package-restore

Solution 3

Rename your .nuget folder then right-click on your solution. Enable Nuget package restore should then be visible.

Solution 4

I think you just want to know where to enable "Allow Nuget to download missing packages"

In VS2013: Right Click on the project Select "Manage NuGet Packages for Solution" Then Click on "Settings" in new dialog click on "Manage NuGet Package Manager" root level Tick/Untick "Allow NuGet to download missing packages"

Solution 5

I had this problem and found a fix that may or may not work for you. I had to edit the csproj files because they were pointing to wrong or non-existent packages folders.

Look for the reference paths in your csproj file and be sure the packages folder path is correct:

<HintPath>..\packages\path\to\file.dll</HintPath>

Maybe because of an unusual folder setup, that needs to be ..\..\packages. Also, towards the top, NuGet adds this line:

<SolutionDir Condition="$(SolutionDir) == '' Or $(SolutionDir) == '*Undefined*'">..\</SolutionDir>

If you had to edit your HintPaths, you probably also need to edit this. In my example you'd change the value to ..\..\. Finally, at the bottom, NuGet adds a target with the name EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports. You'll see a couple of attributes with the ..\packages paths in them. Again using my example, you'd have to change this to ..\..\packages. The base for all of these values is of course the folder containing the csproj file.

It may be unusual for your folder paths to be set up in a non-default manner, but mine were, and this information would have been useful to me.

View more solutions

Comments

[mp31415]

Yes, I copied the whole solution folder to another location which caused NuGet problems. As you suggested the project file still had some relative paths to now missing folders. Manual editing of the project file fixed that.

[Harald Coppoolse]

Way too elaborate. Right click on the solution (not project!) where you can find "Manage Nuget Packages for Solution". There you can check: "Allow Nuget to download missing packages"

[Harald Coppoolse]

Does this mean that with every build your nuget packages are restored? Doesn't this slow down my builds considerably?

[John]

@HaraldDutch only if they are missing, if the packages are already there it doesn't cause any additional slowdown.

[Chinh Phan]

It works for me. Btw, edit the place we put nuget packages is another option. In order to do so, just need to add config in the nuget.config file <br/> <config> <add key="repositorypath" value="$\..\..\..\Packages" /> </config> <br/> stackoverflow.com/a/19259947/2793768

[Dave Alperovich]

Apparently you also need to enable on Project basis as well

[Dave Alperovich]

This answer seems to miss the point. Solutions and Projects seem to be auto configured NOT to auto update Nuget packages. I had the latest Nuget and was not getting missing DLL's on build. After I enabled "Nuget Package Restore" Solution and Project levels, they were all updated on build. @HaraldDutch, has the right direction.

[Harald Coppoolse]

If I right-click on a project I don't see "Enable Nuget Package Restore", unlike when right clicking on the solution. So what do we need to enable on Project basis as well?

[Dave Alperovich]

Once enabled, the option disappears. We're probably using slightly different versions or configured solutions. My response is probably situational. Still helped me, but I'd suggest adding this to your answer. Ronalds has the other part.

[John]

@DaveAlperovich except, you don't want to use that version of nuget package restore! The version I'm talking about happens automatically and has been like that since 2013 when nuget 2.7 released. docs.nuget.org/consume/package-restore

[Markus Knappen Johansson]

So simple - so hard to find =D Thank you! Saved my day!

[Alex White]

Although I'm not upvoting because it doesn't seem to be specific to the question, I'm very glad that you posted this answer because it helped me with a very specific problem of my own - I had hint paths in a long ago project which was no longer correct. Fixing them up and everything worked. So thanks!

[Kmeixner]

Could you elaborate?

[nwestfall]

@Kmeixner Because I had to generate a new solution from a number of projects, a new solution (.sln) file had not been saved. The "Enabled Nuget Package Restore" does not show when you right click until you create the solution file.

[mattumotu]

If you have previously enabled automatic restore (with old nuget aka MSBuild-integrated restore) and then want to move to the new automatic restore VS will get very confused. Follow the instructions under Migrating to automatic restore here: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/consume-packages/…

[Darth Scitus]

This fixed my issue.