SyntaxError: Unexpected token M (when running cordova project from Visual Studio 2015)

Question

When I attempt to run my Cordova app using Visual Studio 2015 using Remote Device, I get an error "SyntaxError: Unexpected token M". Visual Studio is installed on windows 10 which is a Parallels VM on my Mac. I have followed the steps to setup remotebuild on my Mac. From Visual Studio - Tools - options, I can successfully connect to the running remotebuild on my mac. The project runs fine when I run it on Ripple in chrome.

Here's a little more background. When I first started working on this project, it was working fine and I was able to run it on the iOS simulator on my Mac. At one point, it started giving me a different error which was related to my iOS developer account. I opened up Xcode on my mac and realized that I needed to login to the developer website and accept the latest license agreement. Once I did that, I attempted to run the project again from Visual Studio. At that point I saw an error related to certificate. I ran the project again, and from then on I keep getting this "SyntaxError: Unexpected token M" error.

I attempted to run an old backup of the same project. The error I get with that is:

An error occurred uploading to the build server https://10.0.1.31:3000/cordova: Error: self signed certificate in certificate chain

Here's the part of the output log where I see the "SyntaxError: Unexpected token M":

1>  ------    changeList.deletedFilesIos:  (TaskId:11)
1>  ------    changeList.addedPluginsIos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected] (TaskId:11)
1>  ------    changeList.deletedPluginsIos:  (TaskId:11)
1>  ------    changeList.addedPlugins: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected] (TaskId:11)
1>  ------    changeList.deletedPlugins:  (TaskId:11)
1>  ------ Updating plugins (TaskId:11)
1>  SyntaxError: Unexpected token M (TaskId:11)
1>Done executing task "MdaVsCli" -- FAILED. (TaskId:11)
1>Done building target "BuildMDA" in project "MyPyaarApp.jsproj" -- FAILED.: (TargetId:12)
1>
1>Project Performance Summary:
1>      672 ms  C:\svn\mypyaar\trunk\MyPyaarApp\MyPyaarApp\MyPyaarApp.jsproj   1 calls
1>                672 ms  build                                      1 calls
1>
1>Target Performance Summary:
1>        0 ms  BuildOnlySettings                          1 calls
1>        0 ms  CompileTypeScript                          1 calls
1>        0 ms  AfterBuild                                 1 calls
1>        0 ms  TrackJsChanges                             1 calls
1>        0 ms  BeforeBuild                                1 calls
1>        0 ms  PreComputeCompileTypeScript                1 calls
1>        0 ms  CoreBuild                                  1 calls
1>       16 ms  _CheckForInvalidConfigurationAndPlatform   1 calls
1>      266 ms  EnsureNodeJsRequirementsAreAtCorrectVersion   1 calls
1>      266 ms  InstallMDA                                 1 calls
1>      391 ms  BuildMDA                                   1 calls
1>
1>Task Performance Summary:
1>        0 ms  MdaVerifySetup                             1 calls
1>        0 ms  MdaTrackJsChanges                          1 calls
1>        0 ms  Message                                    2 calls
1>        0 ms  VsTsc                                      2 calls
1>        0 ms  AssignTargetPath                           1 calls
1>      266 ms  RunMdaInstall                              1 calls
1>      266 ms  CallTarget                                 1 calls
1>      391 ms  MdaVsCli                                   1 calls
1>
1>Build FAILED.
1>
1>Time Elapsed 00:00:00.65
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
========== Deploy: 0 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========

Answer 1

Found the solution to this!!!

Luckily I had an old backup of my project which didn't produce the "SyntaxError: Unexpected token M" when running it on the remote device. I used a compare tool to see the differences in files/folders. It turned out that the "remote_ios.json" file located in the plugins folder was corrupted. I deleted it and on the next run it generated a proper one and everything now works as expected. I can deploy to the iOS simulator on my mac as well as my iPhone.

I did notice a few more times that the file did get corrupted. So every time I just deleted the file and it got recreated and everything worked. Sounds like a bug in Visual Studio 2015.

Here's how my corrupted remote_os.json file looked like:

{
    "prepare_queue": {
        "installed": [],
        "uninstalled": []
    },
    "config_munge": {
        "files": {
            "framework": {
                "parents": {
                    "ImageIO.framework": [
                        {
                            "xml": true,
                            "count": 1
                        }
                    ],
                    "CoreLocation.framework": [
                        {
                            "xml": false,
                            "count": 1
                        }
                    ],
                    "CoreGraphics.framework": [
                        {
                            "xml": false,
                            "count": 4
                        }
                    ],
                    "AssetsLibrary.framework": [
                        {
                            "xml": false,
                            "count": 3
                        }
                    ],
                    "MobileCoreSe