Cannot find or open the PDB file message, pdb exists [duplicate]

Question

I am using Visual Studio 2010, recently upgraded. The solution contains 25 projects, makes a dozen dll's and exe's. I am trying to debug a particular problem and I can't due to symbols not being loaded.

I get the "Cannot find or open the PDB file", this is for a PDB file one of the DLL's the project generates, all the other PDB files load just fine. The PDB file exists in the same directory as the dll, I have also cleaned and rebuilt the solution.

In addition I have ran process explorer filtering on the pdb name, this indicated that it was found, opened and read successfully. Oddly it also continued to look in other locations for the pdb as well.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Answer 1

In most cases Visual Studio has problems with the file handles. Visual Studio sees the PDB as being used by a process, but that process is Visual Studio (I know, kinda stupid).

Try rebooting the machine and manually deleting the PDB file before build. That usually works for me.