Symbol file not loading for debugging custom project in Visual Studio 2012

Question

I have a large solution in Visual Studio 2012 which consists of executables and class library projects. When debugging the application the breakpoints in one particular clas

Answer 1

I tried a few tools to check if the pdb and the dll actually matched, and using chkmatch I could see that the GUIDs in the dll being run and the pdb in the obj folder didn't match.

So it turns out that although the dll and pdb in the project's obj folder are a match, the dll that was actually getting copied to the application's destination folder by a post-build event was the old dll from the previous build.

The post-build event was running before that particular project had built, or at least finished building, and was copying in the existing dll from the bin which was subsequently overwritten by the continuing build.

I have resolved the problem by editing the project dependencies for the solution and ensuring that the project with the post-build event is dependent on the project that wasn't loading, and now the pdb loads during debug.

Answer 2

I simply deleted bin and obj folder from the startup project folder and rebuild the solution.

Answer 3

Reminder: Put the project into "Debug" configuration... for those like me who forget and feel silly.

Answer 4

Bit late to the party here - just in case this is helpful.

We have a couple of separate websites (in different solutions in Visual Studio). On initial load of one of the sites, we were making a call to the other site which would return an image.

Both of these sites referenced a common DLL, but while working on one site, had not realised that the other site had been left in a 'Release' build - after the site loaded, the offending DLL was rebuilt, but without symbols.

Kudos to Nanhydrin for both mentioning the modules debug window (very helpful) and for putting me on the right track with the post build event.

Answer 5

Check for permission to ASP.NET Temporary folder:

"c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files"

User of application pool has to have the rights to subfolder with ASP.NET files, something like:

root\60039743\c28e12ee

Answer 6

Answer from another thread that worked for me: https://stackoverflow.com/a/28476665/5969306
- In Visual Studio: Project Properties -> Build -> Advanced button -> Debug info drop-down and make sure the value is not “none”.