How do I get my solution in Visual Studio back online in TFS?

Question

I searched for the solution online and found this solution but wasn't too keen on the registry change.

I found a better way: right-click on the solution name right at the top of the Solution Explorer and select the Go Online option. Clicking this allowed me to select the files that had been changed when I was offline and make the solution online again.

After finding the solution, I found the following msdn forum thread which confirmed the above.

Go to File > Source Control > Go Online, select the files you changed, and finish the process.

Rename the solution's corresponding .SUO file. The SUO file contains the TFS status (online/offline), amongst a host of other goodies.

Do this only if the "right-click on the solution name right at the top of the Solution Explorer and select the Go Online option" fails (because e.g. you installed VS2015 preview).

(Additional step from solution above for if you are missing the AutoReconnect or Offline registry value)

For Visual Studio 2015, Version 14

1. Turn off all VS instances
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\TeamFoundation\Instances{YourServerName}\Collections{TheCollectionName} (To get to this directory on Windows, hit the Windows + R key and search for "regedit")
3. Set both the Offline and AutoReconnect values to 0.
4. If you are missing one of those attributes (in my case I was missing AutoReconnect), right click and and create a new DWORD(32-bit) value with the desired missing name, AutoReconnect or Offline.
5. Again, make sure both values are set to zero.
6. Restart your solution

Additional info: blog MSDN - When and how does my solution go offline?

I am using Visual Studio 2017 15.4.0 version. Especially when i started use lightweight solution option, this offline thing happened to me. I tried to above solutions which are:

1. Tried to regedit option but can not see appropriate menu options. Didn't work.
2. Right click on solution, there is go online option and when i choose it that gives this error message: "The solution is offline because its associated Team Foundation Server is offline. Unable to determine the workspace for this solution."

Then from File -> Source Control -> Advanced -> Change Source Control. I saw my files. I select them and then chose bind option. That worked for me.