Error debugging code in visual studio 2012 - Failed to initialize client proxy: could not connect to

Question

I am having Issues debugging unit tests in visual studio. I can run them fine from test explorer. The issue is that I cannot step into the code and debug. Also, I am able to debug other parts of the code that are not unit tests.

When I right click on the test from test explorer and click debug I get a loading dialog saying "Loading symbols for vstest.executionengine.x86.exe from f:\biniaries\vset\mstestexecutor.x8g.csproj_1420192002\objr\x86". After a few more of these the test stops running and I get the following error displayed in the output window under "Tests".

  ------ Run test started ------   Failed to initialize client proxy: could not connect to .   ========== Run test finished: 0 run (0:01:05.45) ========== 

I have tried the following:

• Set new directory for the "Cache symbols in this directory" setting.
• Reinstalled VS2012 with Update 3
• Running with the safemode switch
• Ran the vs2012 repair tool

Answer 1

In my case I found that I needed to run visual studio as administrator. HTH.

Answer 2

This may happen when it takes too long to download debug symbol information from various symbol servers, possibly causing a timeout.

We solved this by going to the menu Debug->Options->Symbols and selecting "Only specified modules". It also makes debugging startup considerably faster.