“Files already in version control are hidden” but I cannot find them them in TFS?

Question

Steps I made leading up to this problem:

1. I created a project in Visual Studio Online (TFS) and checked in the entire contents (about 200mb) of a folder called classic.
2. I created another project and checked in the entire contents of a folder called dlls.
3. I decided that it would make more sense if these two folders were apart of the same project, so I deleted both of the ones I created in steps 1 and 2.
4. I created a new project and mapped it to a folder on my computer that contains both the classic and dlls folders.
5. In Visual Studio 2013, I go into "Source Control Explorer", right click and select "add existing item", and try to add both folders.

In this prompt, none of the files that I need to add are shown! The prompt gives me a message at the top that says "Files already in version control are hidden". If I click through each folder they are blank except for other folders. I verified that the files are still there on my local machine.

The problem is, I deleted those 2 projects in TFS that had the files. Do those projects still exists somewhere? How do I completely get rid of them? Where can I find those files at if they are "already in version control"?

Answer 1

This may be happening because even though you deleted the files from the server, you local workspace still thinks they are available on the server. The easiest way to recover is if you can delete your workspace and recreate it. Be careful not to delete your local files without creating a backup.