Enable NuGet Package Restore on Visual Studio 2013

Question

I'm following this easy tutorial to start coding with the Google+ API in C#. However, I've been stuck for hours on Step 3, where the first substeps are:

1. In Visual Studio, click Project > Enable NuGet Package Restore > answer Yes in the dialog.
2. Right-click on the gplus-quickstart-csharp project and select Manage NuGet Packages.
3. Click Restore on the Manage NuGet Packages window. This will install the Google API Client libraries.

When I click on Projet, there is no option "Enable NuGet Package Restore".

There is a Manage Nuget Packages option, but no Restore button or option whatsoever.

The project doesn't build and gives me the error:

Error 1 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 C:\Users\Documents\google+\gplus-quickstart-csharp\.nuget\NuGet.targets. C:\Users\Documents\google+\gplus-quickstart-csharp\gplus-quickstart-csharp\gplus-quickstart-csharp.csproj 201 5 gplus-quickstart-csharp

I went on the microsoft website and it only redirects to the NuGet documentation where I didn't find anything that works. I tried the following commands (described in the examples):

• D:\projects\contoso> nuget.exe restore
• D:\projects\contoso> nuget.exe restore contoso.sln
• D:\projects> nuget.exe restore contoso

but to no avail. And yes, NuGet is installed. Any ideas? Thanks!

Answer 1

To find the menu item: "enable nuget package restore" right-click in the solution explorer on the solution - not on the project.

You get a message:

Do you want to configure this solution to download and restore missing NuGet packages during build?

Wasn't that what you were looking for?

Answer 2

You don't want to use the project based nuget package restore!

Make sure you have the latest Nuget version (Tools -> Extensions and Updates)

When you go to build the project it should tell you it needs to download the nuget packages (or might just auto download them).

Edit not sure whats with the downvotes:

http://blog.davidebbo.com/2014/01/the-right-way-to-restore-nuget-packages.html

What the NuGet team is now recommending is both a lot cleaner and a lot simpler. In short, you don't do anything special, and it just happens! This is because NuGet now always restores packages before building in VS. So no changes whatsoever are needed on your files, which is beautiful!

Since people are still having issues editing to include more information:

https://docs.nuget.org/consume/package-restore#common-issues-with-automatic-package-restore

Answer 3

Rename your .nuget folder then right-click on your solution. Enable Nuget package restore should then be visible.

Answer 4

I think you just want to know where to enable "Allow Nuget to download missing packages"

In VS2013: Right Click on the project Select "Manage NuGet Packages for Solution" Then Click on "Settings" in new dialog click on "Manage NuGet Package Manager" root level Tick/Untick "Allow NuGet to download missing packages"

Answer 5

I had this problem and found a fix that may or may not work for you. I had to edit the csproj files because they were pointing to wrong or non-existent packages folders.

Look for the reference paths in your csproj file and be sure the packages folder path is correct:

<HintPath>..\packages\path\to\file.dll</HintPath>

Maybe because of an unusual folder setup, that needs to be ..\..\packages. Also, towards the top, NuGet adds this line:

<SolutionDir Condition="$(SolutionDir) == '' Or $(SolutionDir) == '*Undefined*'">..\</SolutionDir>

If you had to edit your HintPaths, you probably also need to edit this. In my example you'd change the value to ..\..\. Finally, at the bottom, NuGet adds a target with the name EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports. You'll see a couple of attributes with the ..\packages paths in them. Again using my example, you'd have to change this to ..\..\packages. The base for all of these values is of course the folder containing the csproj file.

It may be unusual for your folder paths to be set up in a non-default manner, but mine were, and this information would have been useful to me.

Answer 6

If you right-click on a project, and don't see the option to "Enable Nuget Package Restore", The reason why you do not SEE this option is because you do not have the latest version of nuget package installed in Visual Studio.

The following steps will show you how to install the appropriate nuget package for the version of Visual Studio you are using. Click on Tools->Extensions and Update. Extensions and Update Dialog will appear. Click on online in the left hand column of the dialog. You should see as first package in list "Nuget Package Manager for Visual Studio 2013. Click on the 'download' button to install. You may then have to restart Visual Studio.

Now re-open your solution and right-click on the solution name. You should now see a dialog popup asking you if you want to restore packages for this solution. If you select 'yes' then anytime you build your solution nuget will attempt to download and of the corresponding packages your solution is using.

Answer 7

In my situation, I just created a new solution and the solution file hadn't been saved yet. Make sure the solution is saved before "Enabling Nuget Package Restore"