debugging information cannot be found or does not match visual studio's

Question

I copied an existing project and renamed the folder. Now I get this error when I try to compile the application

debugging information cannot be found or does not match. No symbols loaded.
Do you want to continue debugging ?

If I click yes, it compiles and runs fine. But now I have to deal with that message. Just curious about what I change in the projects properties to get it to stop.

Answer 1

You probably have deactivated the debugging information for your project:

• Right click on your project -> Properties
• Configuration properties -> Linker -> Debugging
• Switch "Generate Debug Info" from No to Yes

Rebuild your project and retry, it should now run without the message :)

Answer 2

The main reason is that you don't have a matching pdb and exe.

Some possible solutions:

• You are compiling in release instead of debug
• You need to clean/build or rebuild
• You don't have your pdb files being generated in the same directory as the exe
• You have a mismatching pdb, maybe the copied source is newer than today's date and something isn't building properly.
• Try cleaning out all debug object files
• You are attaching to a process that you started from a different location from where your build exe and pdb exist
• Restart Visual Studio