TFS checkin problem after a couple of directories renames & file moves

Question

I get following error from TFS now when I try to checkin my entire solution.

TF203057: Cannot check in the rename change for folder $/XXX because there are files or folders in this folder with pending rename or delete changes. You must check in the rename and delete changes together. No files checked in.

Of course I am checking in everything together. I cannot checkin even a single unrelated file now cause it still fires this I am unable to find a page with such TF error. What can be done to get TFS to checkin ?

I tried to checkout whole project, but it didnt help. Now its whole on checkout by me ..

Answer 1

Hmm actually it wasn't working when checked in from solution view. When I went to team explorer and checked in from source code panel there it worked fine. Ill leave this cause it appears it will be the first time that error is mentioned.

Answer 2

I just ran into a similar issue and got it resolved by checking the changes in from within 'Source Control Explorer' instead of 'Solution Explorer'.

My scenario: With VS2013, I tried to check-in changes from within 'Solution Explorer' after I had dragged and dropped folders and files from one checked-in project to another in the same solution. I received the same error as the original poster for hundreds of files. I opened 'Source Control Explorer' and checked in from there. I received a different warning message about conflicts which I ignored and was able to check-in.

Answer 3

I have encountered this issue after moving source code to different directory in TFS. I was not able to check-in the pending files in the newly moved directory. The below approach worked for me:

1. Exclude all the files that has pending changes.

2. Checked in only renamed folder from the Source Control.

3. Take Latest.

4. Include all pending changes.

5. Checked in pending changes.

This worked perfectly for me.

Answer 4

Expect to see this warning message when you are trying to modify files that have already been locked as part of a previous edit. Best way around is to get the latest on the branch and resolve any pending conflicts locally before reattempting to check in.

Answer 5

I attempted to rename a folder, this caused the error mentioned above. The only resolution I found was to keep the old folder name and create a new folder then copy its content. I checked that in then deleted the old folder and checked that in. Apparently just doing a rename is too complicated for TFS to resolve.

Answer 6

I got this error when using VS2013, from Source Control Explorer panel. I resolved this issue by turning off VS debugger in a separate VS2013 instance.

I often run with multiple instances of VS2013 running.

Answer 7

I got a similar message in VS2012. I got the error using Team Explorer, not Solution Explorer.

We use folders in our projects to represent namespaces, and an object moved namespaces, and thus moved folders, generating the error.

My fix was to:

1. "scope" a check in to just the Project file first
2. and then I was able to check in the source files in their new folder locations.

Edward Thomson's comment pointed me in the right direction, much thanks!

Answer 8

Ran into the same issue. This is what worked for me.

1. Checked in renamed folder from the Solution Explorer
2. Excluded renamed folder from Pending Changes in Team Explorer
3. Checked in other pending changes
4. Got latest
5. Included renamed folder back into Pending Changes
6. Checked in renamed folder

Great success!

Answer 9

This is weird so I want to give a short answer for passers by and a long answer for those who are interested.

Short Answer: Try changing the View Options in Pending Changes to 'Show All' and see if your rename change appears.

Long Answer: This issue has been bugging me recently and I found that the issue was with the view options in the team explorer (pending changes) panel. If I selected 'Show Solution Changes' then the rename (or folder move in my case but same error) did not show in the included changes section (while the changes to the child files did, hence the error). If I changed the view opens to 'Show All' then I could see the rename change and was able to check in. So for me, this was caused by a bug in the TFS VS integration. This was confirmed as a bug by an MSFT 12 years ago (if you can believe it) here on msdn.

I hope this helps.

Answer 10

Confirmed, this an unfixed bug inside Visual Studio 2010 TFS. To fix it check in via the 'Team Explorer' Menu as opposed to the Solution Explorer and the incorrect display error will not appear.