How can I fix missing nuget references after moving project in Visual Studio 2015

Question

I had a project structure like this:

 WebApp -- WebApp -- WebApp.sln  WebApp.Tests -- WebApp.Tests.csproj 

I moved WebApp.Tests into WebApp using a move (simple click & drag into the WebApp folder). I edited WebApp.sln to fix the project reference so that it will load.

When I build, Nuget complains that packages are missing and to do a restore. I downloaded and used nuget.exe restore on my solution and it reported everything was there.

Based on other Stack Overflow answers, I have tried the following:

• Edit the test project reference hint paths. I changed from ..\WebApp\packages\PACKAGE to ..\packages\PACKAGE
• Reload Visual Studio (multiple times)
• Delete contents of packages folder and bin/obj folders of the projects
• Use the package manager console to reinstall packages on the Test Project

All of these failed to fix the problem. When I used the package manager to try to reinstall the packages with the command, it gave me the same error that project building does - I must restore the packages first.

Is there any quick way to fix my project? I really don't want to go through each package and uninstall/reinstall manually. Also, how could I have prevented this problem in the first place? Is there a built-in way to move project locations?

Answer 1

There was XML similar to this at the end of my project file:

<Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">   <PropertyGroup>     <ErrorText>This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. Enable NuGet Package Restore to download them.  For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=322105. The missing file is {0}.</ErrorText>   </PropertyGroup>   <Error Condition="!Exists('..\WebApp\packages\SPECIFICPACKAGE')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', '..\WebApp\packages\SPECIFICPACKAGE'))" /> </Target> 

By changing the ..\Webapp\packages to ..\packages like the rest of the file, my solution compiles just fine now.