TFS Error: "Source Control - Unable to Access Database"

Question

I am currently using TFS with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and getting this error when I try to open up my solution:

The associated source control plug-in is not installed or could not be initialized. Common causes for this error include server unavailability and/or incorrect workspace mappings.

My connection to TFS and the VPN we have to use work, I have tried them on another machine and there are no problems. There is only a problem on my machine. It isn't holding any of the bindings either.

What could the problem be? Something with my install of Visual Studio?

Answer 1

It sounds like your bindings to the TFS server are messed up in your solution file. You should try removing the bindings manually in there by editing the solution file using a text editor.

There should be a Global section in the file, which is where all of the settings for this are located. look for GlobalSection(TeamFoundationVersionControl) and remove that entire section down to EndGlobalSection.

Once you do that, reload the solution and tell it to go back online and your bindings should be working again.

Answer 2

I opened a solution in VS2010 (not my project), and got the same message. It gave me the options to either temporarily work with the solution uncontrolled, or to permanently remove source control association bindings. I went with the option to permanently remove source control association bindings.

Now open your project/solution. Goto File -> Source Control -> Change source control Select your projects and click bind.

Now bindings are correctly working online. This is how i was able to fix this issue. Hope it helps.

Answer 3

I had to reset my Visual Studio configuration and cache by following the below steps:

Delete the contents from the following folders

C:\Users\<>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Team Foundation
C:\Users\<>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio
C:\Users\<>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VSCommon

Go to the Visual Studio IDE folder in command prompt and Run the following command "devenv /resetuserdata" from the Visual Studio IDE folder.

Typical location for 62 bit: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE
Typical location for 32 bit: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE

I found these steps in the article below:

If you have problems with TFS or Visual Studio flush the user cache … or not?