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IDE tells me 'This document is opened by another project' when I click an error message to open the file
Edit:
This bug is marked as fixed but isn't. All the problems are still in the latest version. New report here:
https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/127185/document-opening-problem-marked-as-fixed-but-isnt.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previous text:
nb. I previously reported this bug in VS2013 and VS2015 (id: 1339594). Every time the bug gets marked as 'fixed in next version' and closed but it isn't fixed so I'm reporting it again.
There's several ways to open a file in the IDE: eg. You can click on it in Solution Explorer, double-click an error message, etc.
In previous versions of Visual Studio you could open the same file twice in the IDE by using two different methods to open it. eg. by double-clicking an error message when the file was already opened via Solution Explorer. This usually crashed the IDE.
In VS2017 it doesn't re-open the file any more but it still pops up a dialog saying 'This document is opened by another project'. This is very annoying if you're trying to go to an error and it doesn't let you.
ObservationsI noticed that I can right click an editor tab in VS2017 and copy the full path name of a file via the menu.
I opened a file in different ways and copied the path. I found several variants of the filename by doing this, eg.
C:\Users\Fungus\Work\moonsilver\air\air.h c:\Users\Fungus\Work\moonsilver\air\air.h C:\USERS\FUNGUS\WORK\MOONSILVER\AIR\AIR.H
Maybe the problem is that the "check if a file is already open" code is case-sensitive and different parts of the IDE are reporting different variants of the name.
More info
I noticed this bug might still cause big problems as well as just being an annoyance.
Sometimes when the message appear the filename will disappear from the editor tab (see image - the tab said "jpg.h" until a few seconds ago when I clicked an error message).
When file names disappeared in VS2015 it usually led to a problem where I couldn't close the IDE. It would say "Not enough memory to complete the operation" (or something like that) then refuse to close. Task manager was needed to kill it, with possible loss of work.
This has only happened once so far in VS2017 the still IDE closed OK but it still smells of a general memory corruption caused by this bug. Next time it might be more serious.
Ooops! I just got the full version of the bug a couple of minutes after the previous post.
The file name disappeared from the tab and Visual studio freaked out.
If I try to close the bad editor tab I get this:
If I try to close the IDE I get this:
Task manager was needed to kill / restart Visual Studio.
I had this bug many, many times yesterday. Had to kill/restart Visual Studio each time.
It's not random. Some files definitely seem to trigger it more than others.
It mostly happens when I go to an error after a failed compile (by clicking the error message).
C:\Users\Fungus\Work\moonsilver\air\air.h c:\Users\Fungus\Work\moonsilver\air\air.h C:\USERS\FUNGUS\WORK\MOONSILVER\AIR\AIR.H
I just noticed the file name variants in the initial post got HTMLised. Reformatted them... :-)
I'm sure this problem has something to do with the case of the filenames.
eg. I'm editing a file right now and I get the error every single time I click an error message.
If I right-click the editor tab and copy the path I get this:
C:\Users\Fungus\Work\topaz\topaz\stuff\viewer\plugin_common\plugin_constraints.cpp
If I right-click on an error message and copy it I see this path in the text:
c:\users\fungus\work\topaz\topaz\stuff\viewer\plugin_common\plugin_constraints.cpp
ie. it's been converted to lower case somewhere along the line.
If the lower case name is compared directly with the name in the editor then it won't match and will try to reopen the file. It needs a case insensitive compare.
Same here. When I try to double-click on the error (Output pane) IDE tells me TWICE that "This document is opened by another project". However in my case IDE activates proper pane with the file and position the cursor on line with an error. Anyway, these message boxes and beeps produced by them are very annoying.
@Conemu Maximus Yes, it goes to the correct file/line after you close the popups. That's not the issue.
Do you get the disappearing editor tab labels and IDE crashes as well?
Just an additional observation: I have the same problem, but not because of the filename case but because of \ vs / in the path. The solution explorer references a file as C:\devel\path\to\include\file.h while in the error window some of the path separators are different C:\devel\path\to\include/file.h
Thank you for your feedback! We have fixed the problem in an upcoming release (VS 2017 15.4 Preview 2). Thank you for helping us build a better Visual Studio!
I don't remember ever experiencing this before moving to 2017. It has become an almost-daily dance now.
Yep, it's about once a minute sometimes. I spend more time closing the popup than coding.
NOT fixed. ALL the problems are still in the latest version.
See new report here
https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/127185/document-opening-problem-marked-as-fixed-but-isnt.html
This is definitely still a problem and I opened up a new ticket for it.
Unable to open sql file in project
https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/128698/unable-to-open-sql-file-in-project.html
I was having this problem. I tried restarting VS multiple times with no success. Eventually I closed ALL tabs (the file i couldnt open wasnt present as a tab). I then opened it in task manager and killed the whole process tree of visual studio. Upon reopening my solution, I was able to open the file successfull
There's still some issues when the same filename with mixed path separators occur in various parts of the IDE code. The VC compiler will by default still output mixed paths in errors so if you open a file via the output window/error list and via a different mechanism that use different path separators (/ vs. ) for the same file it can still get VS into a confused state.
Please try adding the "Use Full Paths" option to your build command lines to work around the problem until the IDE can be fixed to be more forgiving even in the presence of mixed path separators.
What about 2015, we have hundreds of licenses and it's annoying as hell to deal with the bug.
MICROSOFT cannot even figure out basics for so many years? Are you exploiting students to write visual studio, so that internally it's complete trash now that you cannot even fix it, and report that the bug is fixed while it's not?.. what a freaking joke. Every single day I have these errors, I'm just used to these bugs, I love Visual studio, but this bug is unacceptably annoying as hell. JUST FIX IT!
Suggestion for management if they ever pass by and read suggestions from users: use some fire to fix problems like that. It shouldn't be tolerated. Fire!
And please avoid suggesting us to resort to workarounds. If you know the problem exists, then you have to fix it, instead of treating us like idiots and making thousands of paying customers wasting our time.
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