Visual studio doesn't support specific csproj file

Question

I am getting this error when I try to open the solution file of my project. The solution is 2012 file (checked using notepad).

If I click on Ok, The solution opens up except for one csproject which does not load. I get a migration report in UpgradeLog.htm file, with the following error for the project which failed to load. Could not figure out much from it.

Error:

The application which this project type is based on was not found. Please try this link for further information: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?prd=12395&pver=11&sbp=ProjectTypeDeprecated&plcid=0x409&clcid=0x409&ar=MSDN&sar=ProjectCompatibility&o1=82b43b9b-a64c-4715-b499-d71e9ca2bd60

Does the upgrade report mean that it is a project from previous version of Visual studio? It does not open in Visual Studio 2010 either.

Solution 1

The error doesn't say that Visual Studio doesn't support .csproj files at all, it says it doesn't support a specific project type in that particular project file. This means this either isn't your project as you claim, or you are trying to build it on a different machine from the one used to create the project.

Visual Studio uses various elements in a .csproj file to determine its project type. See How do you tell the Visual Studio project type from an existing Visual Studio project and What is the significance of ProjectTypeGuids tag in the visual studio project file. It does this so it knows how to compile your project, what properties tabs to show, what context menu options should be available and so on.

Certain project types can cause this error. Usually they require some kind of SDK to be installed on the machine used to open or build the project.

You should search the web for the GUID mentioned in the error message you show (the value after o1=). You can also open the project file in a text editor and find the <ProjectTypeGuids> elements, which contains comma-separated project type GUIDs.

Then search the web for those GUIDs to find out which SDK or tool you need to install in order to be able to open or build the project.

If you paste the specific GUID from your error message in your favorite web search engine, you'll find Problem solved: Visual Studio / There is a missing project subtype. Subtype: '{82b43b9b-a64c-4715-b499-d71e9ca2bd60}' is unsupported by this installation., where it is mentioned you'll need to install the Visual Studio 2013 SDK. This means that in this case, your project is a Visual Studio 2013 extension.

This is what documentation is for. You should at least put a ReadMe.txt file in your project directory, explaining what the prerequisites for building a project are, especially when it won't open or build with Visual Studio out of the box.

Solution 2

I had this issue when I used Update 5 for VS 2013.

For me I had to click ok and read the next few steps, that popped up. I was initially clicking cancel.

On mine the project was missing Web Tools, so had to reinstall those and once done it was working.

Hope that helps someone.

Solution 3

This issue also appears when trying to import an ASP.Net project into Visual Studio 2015 Express for Desktop, and can be solved by simply downloading and installing Express 2015 for Web - or by using Visual Studio Community/Standard.

Solution 4

I solved this problem by downloading and installing (Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Projects). Close the project then install. After the installation, open your project then reload .csproj file

Solution 5

I am currently using VS 2017 v 15.7.4. This error came out of no where without any updates on my part. Usually when I have errors like this I just delete the .vs folder in my solution and that clears the problem. In this case that is what I did and the problem was fixed.

1. Close VS
2. Delete .vs folder
3. Load VS

Note: This was for a Xamarin based solution.

View more solutions

Comments

[artm]

Can you open it in VS 2012?

[Bernd Linde]

What kind of project is it? What edition of VS2010 and VS2012 are you using? There are many different kind of csproj files, all different sub types which not all editions of VS2012 or VS2010 can open up.

[ShaQ.Blogs]

Does not open in 2012. I have professional edition of VS 2012. Are you telling me i need higher version than professional (Maybe Ultimate)?

[ShaQ.Blogs]

Was able to remove the GUID for the project type and the project opens up. I now need to ensure the pre-requisite related to the GUID is installed! Thanks.

[Dan Csharpster]

That sounds like a hack that is coming back to haunt you. And it sounds like this definitely isn't "your" project. Go check out where you got this source code from and see if they have any prerequisites that you need to install. I would suggest trying CodeCaster's idea of installing the VS2013 SDK. I had a similar problem and am in the process of trying the SDK to fix it.

[Kokodoko]

So it's not possible to open a project that somebody else created? That makes it very hard to share tutorial files - which is what I'm trying to do. Even examples from Microsoft generate this error and won't open. Pretty clumsy!

[Matthew]

@Kokodoko It's possible to open a project that someone else created. Otherwise VS would not be very useful for collaborative development! What CodeCaster means is that to open a project, you need the relevant SDKs. This is common to all software engineering: You can't develop without your libraries!

[songuke]

Inspecting the content of the .csproj file could help. My case is that the Microsoft Web Developer Tools is not installed so any .csproj that includes System.Web cannot be opened.

[XtraSimplicity]

For anyone who may be looking, here's a list of common VS Project Type GUIDs: codeproject.com/Reference/720512/…

[Post Impatica]

This was my issue. I can't find VS Community though, I had no choice but to use Express 2015 for web.