How can I fix missing nuget references after moving project in Visual Studio 2015

Question

I had a project structure like this:

 WebApp
-- WebApp
-- WebApp.sln
 WebApp.Tests
-- WebApp.Tests.csproj

I moved WebApp.Tests into WebApp using a move (simple click & drag into the WebApp folder). I edited WebApp.sln to fix the project reference so that it will load.

When I build, Nuget complains that packages are missing and to do a restore. I downloaded and used nuget.exe restore on my solution and it reported everything was there.

Based on other Stack Overflow answers, I have tried the following:

• Edit the test project reference hint paths. I changed from ..\WebApp\packages\PACKAGE to ..\packages\PACKAGE
• Reload Visual Studio (multiple times)
• Delete contents of packages folder and bin/obj folders of the projects
• Use the package manager console to reinstall packages on the Test Project

All of these failed to fix the problem. When I used the package manager to try to reinstall the packages with the command, it gave me the same error that project building does - I must restore the packages first.

Is there any quick way to fix my project? I really don't want to go through each package and uninstall/reinstall manually. Also, how could I have prevented this problem in the first place? Is there a built-in way to move project locations?

Solution 1

There was XML similar to this at the end of my project file:

<Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <ErrorText>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 {0}.</ErrorText>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Error Condition="!Exists('..\WebApp\packages\SPECIFICPACKAGE')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', '..\WebApp\packages\SPECIFICPACKAGE'))" />
</Target>

By changing the ..\Webapp\packages to ..\packages like the rest of the file, my solution compiles just fine now.

Solution 2

I had the same issue where I physically moved a project folder into the src folder and got the missing packages error. My fix was to open up the .csproj file in notepad and replace every instance of this:

..\packages\

with this:

..\..\packages\

It solved the issue...

Comments

[Pritesh Acharya]

Do you have idea how to restore reference from nuget restore command. I mistakenly delete all my project reference and i don't wanna add it manually.

[Lee.Winter]

Just as future reference - I move my projects into a project folder which causes this problem. ..\packages needs to be changed to ..\..\packages and then add the project back into the solution

[The Lazy Coder]

Oh My Goodness, I thought I was going insane. Once again, stack overflow to the rescue. Now I know to look at error conditions in the app for these types of ghosts.

[Hypenate]

For me, I just deleted the XML you mentioned