Unable to Install Any Package in Visual Studio 2015

Question

I've tried every package I could possibly find and none of them will install in my project. I've installed every update listed in the Extensions and Updates list that were available. When I attempt to install SendGrid for example, this is the result (as is the result with all other packages):

Attempting to gather dependencies information for package 'Sendgrid.6.1.0' with respect to project 'UI\MyApplication.MVC', targeting '.NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2'
Attempting to resolve dependencies for package 'Sendgrid.6.1.0' with DependencyBehavior 'Lowest'
Resolving actions to install package 'Sendgrid.6.1.0'
Resolved actions to install package 'Sendgrid.6.1.0'
For adding package 'SendGrid.SmtpApi.1.3.1' to project 'MyApplication.MVC' that targets 'net452'.
For adding package 'SendGrid.SmtpApi.1.3.1' to project 'MyApplication.MVC' that targets 'net452'.
Adding package 'SendGrid.SmtpApi.1.3.1' to folder 'C:\Users\Keith\Source\Workspaces\MyApplication\MyApplication.MVC\packages'
Install failed. Rolling back...

I can't be the only one on the planet having issue with Visual Studio 2015 and the new and "improved" NuGet Package Manager.

UPDATE:
Well, must be something odd in my solution because I created a new project from the VS2015 template (web) and the packages install just fine. When I find out the issue, I'll post the resolution in the event others run into the same problem.

UPDATE 2:
Ok, it's not our solution. We created a new solution from scratch again (this has wasted a lot of our development time might I add), added a couple of packages (Identity, EF, SendGrid) and after checking the solution in to VSO, another developer performs a fresh creation of the branch and build errors occur. When I go to the NuGet packages for an individual project, it acts as though none of the packages I have added are available. Anyone else experiencing this?

Answer 1

tl;dr - Delete this:

%AppData%/Nuget/Nuget.config

Warning: If you had custom NuGet sources, this will remove them, and you'll have to re-add them.

---

Longer version:

You might have corrupted your NuGet config. Oh no :(

Nuget.config is a file used to keep track of all of the places that NuGet pulls from, as well as configuring other things. More likely than not, this xml file got broken somehow.

• Go to this path: C:\Users\{{username}}\AppData\Roaming\
• Delete Nuget.config
• Restart VS for good measure

---

For reference: in the good days of 2017, your file should look something like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <packageRestore>
    <add key="enabled" value="True" />
    <add key="automatic" value="True" />
  </packageRestore>
  <activePackageSource>
    <add key="nuget.org" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" />
  </activePackageSource>
  <packageSources>
    <add key="nuget.org" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" protocolVersion="3" />
    <add key="nuget.org" value="https://www.nuget.org/api/v2/" />
    <!-- Others -->
  </packageSources>
  <packageSourceCredentials>
    <!-- secret stuff -->
  </packageSourceCredentials>
</configuration>

Answer 2

Closing and re-opening VS2015 resolves the issue.

It seems that in some cases, simply reloading the affected project will work.

Answer 3

I found a solution for this in my case, try to update the NuGet Package Manager.

To do this:

1. From VS, go to Tools -> Extensions and Updates
2. Open the Updates menu option at the left, then select Visual Studio Gallery.
3. If there is an update for Nuget Package Installer, it should show in the list to the right. Click Update
4. Restart Visual Studio

This let me install packages without problem again.

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

In my case updating Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform and Microsoft.Net.Compilers caused the problem.

Deleting bin, obj, and packages folders and restarting Visual Studio 2015 solved the problem for me.

Answer 5

In general closing and re-open VS 2015 fixed most problems I have ran across. Once I did need to run a repair on one of my computers.

However I was about to do this Closing and re-opening VS2015 resolved the issue for me I figured that I would instead right click on the project and Unload Project then right click and Reload project THEN Manage Nuget worked!

Answer 6

You need to Clear All NuGet Caches; for this you need go to Options and click on it like this:

Answer 7

Just to help out anyone who has landed on this page after updating VS2015 to update 2 and trying to manage packages on a website, receiving the "NuGet configuration file is invalid" error, this is a known and acknowledged issue:

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/2698136/nuget-configuration-is-invalid-manage-nuget-packages-for-solution-disabled

I got mine working again by installing package manager 3.4.4 (beta) from http://dist.nuget.org/index.html

They do also state update 3 for Visual Studio will also contain a fix

Answer 8

My guess is Nuget Package Manager is messing up with VSO. I create a new project, add packages to it just fine, check in TFS. Then I go home, "Get Latest Version", and Run, and fail because Nuget Package Manager doesn't restore my packages. Solution: on my home machine

1. open Nuget Package Manger, uninstall every packaged that have installed
2. Open References folder, right click > Delete for all the packages you've installed
3. Re-install them via Nuget Package Manager
4. Check in

Answer 9

I was able to resolve this issue by reinstalling Nuget Package Manager via Tools -> Extensions and Updates

Answer 10

I had this problem with Visual Studio 2017: It turns out that there are two class library projects - one for .Net and the other for C#. I created the one for .Net and when I tried to install a specific package (Nunit in my case) I got the error message.

Recreating the project as C# class library fixed the problem

Answer 11

In my case, This problem was caused by a mismatch in my Target framework setting under each project. When I created a new project, VS 2015 defaulted to 4.5.2, however all my nuget packages were built for 4.6.

For some reason, VS 2015 was not showing me these errors. I didn't see them until I created a new empty project and tried to add my nuget project there. This behavior may have been aggravated because I had renamed the project a few times during the initial setup.

I solved the problem by

• changing the Target Framework on my projects to 4.6
• closed VS 2015
• deleted "packages", "obj" and "bin" folders
• re-open the solution and try to add the nuget package again.

Answer 12

I am using Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 and I managed to reproduce this error (despite Update 3 allegedly containing a fix).

As suggested above, a reliable fix is to do the following... 1) Exit Visual Studio, 2) Delete the packages folder, 3) Restart VS.

But... if you don't want to immediately exit VS for some reason, I was still able to add/remove packages from all projects by choosing the 'Manage NuGet Packages for Solution' option, rather than the individual Project with the issue.

Answer 13

Repairing Visual Studio 2015 seems to have resolved this issue for me. See this issue for NuGet in GitHub.

Answer 14

Simply restarting Visual Studio works for me.. try restarting Visual Studio.

Answer 15

I had this problem, which seemed to be caused by something broken in the solution level packages folder. I deleted the contents of the folder and let nuget install all the packages again.

I could then install new packages again.

Answer 16

Open the packages folder. Check if files with extension .deleteme exists, example Newtonsoft.Json.9.0.1.deleteme. Delete all the packages which have a .deleteme file manually. Delete the .deleteme files. Close and open the Nuget Explorer.

Answer 17

Change the "package source" in nuget to All

Details: None of the above helped in my case. My problem was that I restricted to only one private feed. Once I changed the "package source" to All, my problem was solved. I believe the crux of the matter is that my private pkg has a dependency on other pkgs from nuget.org.

I hope this can help someone

Answer 18

In my case, nothing of the above helped. The root cause of the problem in my case was, that I uninstalled the package before and did not check in the change into source control (TFS in my case). After checking in the change (=the deletion of file in the packages folder), I could reinstall the package.

Answer 19

In my case, there was an empty packages.config file in the soultion directory, after deleting this, update succeeded