The name 'InitializeComponent' does not exist in the current context

Question

If I create a new project in Visual Studio 2010 SP1 and select "WPF Application" and tries to build the generated application, I get the error

The name 'InitializeComponent' does not exist in the current context.

I got a similar error this morning when I tried to build my current project. Yesterday, I had no problem compiling and running it.

I created a new project and got the error whenever I compiled the project. I have just sent the project to a colleague, and he has just compiled without any errors.

What is wrong?

Answer 1

I've encountered this a couple times and keep forgetting what causes it. I ran into this when I renamed the namespace on my code behind file but not in my XAML.

So check if you've done the same.

The namespace and class names need to match since they are both part of a partial class

namespace ZZZ
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow
    {
         //...
    }
}

<!-- XAML -->
<Window x:Class="ZZZ.MainWindow">

Answer 2

The Build Action for the .xaml file must also be set to "Page", when moving a xaml file between projects this setting gets lost (in VS 2010 at least).

Answer 3

For those who have no errors in Debug mode, but do have the specified error in Release mode (and yet the project runs fine), here is something simple to try:

1. Open the XAML file corresponding to the offending xaml.cs file.
2. Make an edit--any edit, like add a space somewhere
3. Save the file and close it

This method worked for me in VS 2015, and according to other users, also 2017 and 2019

Answer 4

1. Navigate to the solution directory
2. Delete the \obj folder
3. Rebuild the solution

I encountered this error during refactoring where I renamed some files/folders and the prexisiting *.g.cs files needed to be re-generated.

Answer 5

There's a very specific reason for this, and it's in the project settings. This usually happens whenever you try to add a WPF control/window to a .NET 2.0 class library or project. The reason for this error is that the project does not know it's building a WPF control or window and therefore tries to build it as a C# 2.0 project.

The solution involves editing the .csproj file. Right click on the project causing the problem and select “Unload Project”. Right click the unloaded project and select “Edit .csproj”. The .csproj file will open and you can see the XML. look for the following line:

<Import Project=…..

It's near the end of the file, and the only line that you have is probably

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

This tells Visual Studio to build the project as a .NET 2.0 project. What we want to do is to tell Visual Studio that this is actually a WPF project, so we have to add the following line:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.WinFX.targets" />

This line will tell Visual Studio to build the project as a WPF project. Now your .csproj file bottom should look like this:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.WinFX.targets" />

Save the .csproj file, right click it in Solution Explorer and select “Reload Project” compile and that's it, you're all done!

Answer 6

this happened with me when I accidentaly deleted the class reference from the xaml definition:

I've replaced the

<Window x:Class="myapp.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">

first line with this:

<RibbonWindow 
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">

I know this isn't the answer to the original question (because thats project builds on another machine), but the error message was the same, so maybe I'll help someone with this situation.

Answer 7

You might get this error when you import a class from another project, or change the path of the xaml file, or the namespace of either the xaml or behind .cs file.

One: It might have a namespace that is not the same as what you have in you new project

namespace TrainerB.MVC.Forms
{
     public partial class AboutDeveloper : ContentPage
     {
          public AboutDeveloper()
          {
               InitializeComponent();
          }
     }
}

As you can see the name space in the imported file begins with the old project name: "TrainerB", but your new project might have a different name, so just change it to the correct new project name, in both the .xaml file and the behind .cs file.

Two:

change the properties of the .xaml file to:

Build Action: Embedded Resource

Custom Tool: MSBuild:UpdateDesignTimeXaml

Answer 8

I've had this (although it was very much my fault and was caused after I copied and pasted some code in); it can occur when the namespace doesn't match between the XAML and code behind

EG

<UserControl x:Class="DockPanel.TreeView" />

and the code behind is

namespace NotDockPanel

Answer 9

Check the Designer file.

I had this same issue. In my case, the cause was that the namespace for FileName.Designer.cs did not match the (correct) namespace used in FileName.cs.

Changing the namespace of FileName.Designer.cs to match that of FileName.cs solved the problem immediately.

Answer 10

I encountered this while renaming a usercontrol. The way I fixed it was to comment out InitializeComponent, verify that all the names were correct (xaml and code behind), build the project, uncomment InitializeComponent, then build again. It sounds like there may be a couple causes/solutions for this issue, but this way did it for me.

Answer 11

None of the above answers worked for me. I tried them all except the duplicate ones. However for some weird reason this worked in my cross-platform project in Visual Studio 2015:

1. Right-click the project that is causing the problem in the Solution Explorer. In the pop-up menu choose: Add --> Class
2. Select cross-platform --> Forms Xaml Page. Keep the pretty Page1.cs standard name and click Add.
3. Notice how the previous InitializeComponent()-problem just disappeared for some reason.
4. Delete the newly created Page1.cs and continue programming as if Visual Studio was working just fine.

Answer 12

I agree with the answer above that the namespaces have to match. However, I had a problem like this where the namespaces matched.

To fix, I simply changed the namespace in the XAML to an INCORRECT one, saved, then changed it back to the CORRECT one. Voila!

Answer 13

I try all suggestions above. If you try too without success get the more easy way. Create a new page.xaml then copy your code for new class and delete class XAML with problems. Don't spend more time.

Answer 14

Unload the entire solution and then reload it again. Then Rebuild the solution. This resolved the issue for me.

Answer 15

If you are using Xamarin Forms and you move a XAML file the "build action" of the file is changed. Xamarin Forms requires "build action = Embedded Resource".

Apply "build action" in Visual Studio:

Select the XAML file -> Properties -> Build Action = Embedded Resource

Answer 16

What helped me - is to change first line in .csproj to

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.WindowsDesktop">

Answer 17

Another common cause of this error is if you did something in this:

1. Right click on folder in project to create new UserControl. This creates a class and xaml file that derives from user control in the namespace of the folder.

2. Then you decide to change the namespace of the class because you're really just using folders for organization of code. The x:Class attribute will not get automatically updated so it will be searching for a class that doesn't exist. Could probably use a better error message like "x:Class type could not be found in namesace bla.blaa.blaaa."

Answer 18

Another solution to this problem is to simply change the property-> Build Action on the XAML from Embedded Resource to anything else, save, then change it right back to Embedded Resource. The error goes away.

Answer 19

This happened to me because a Nuget package uninstaller blew away all the attributes on the <Application> element in App.xaml. This included the x:Class attribute, which specifies the application class name. So the partial class containing the InitializeComponent() method was never generated.

I fixed the problem by reverting App.xaml to the source-controlled copy.

Answer 20

This solved it for me.

I had commented out the resources in the App.xaml file

<Application x:Class="MyApp.App" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
  <Application.Resources>
    <!--<ResourceDictionary>
      <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        <ResourceDictionary
            Source="/PresentationFramework.Aero, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, ProcessorArchitecture=MSIL;component/themes/aero.normalcolor.xaml" />
      </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
    </ResourceDictionary>-->
  </Application.Resources>
</Application>

Commenting thiis back in to fixed the build error.

<Application x:Class="MyApp.App" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
  <Application.Resources>
    <ResourceDictionary>
      <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        <ResourceDictionary
            Source="/PresentationFramework.Aero, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, ProcessorArchitecture=MSIL;component/themes/aero.normalcolor.xaml" />
      </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
    </ResourceDictionary>
  </Application.Resources>
</Application>

Digging a bit deeper I found that the app.g.cs file in {Project}\obj\debug only contained the following when I left the resource commented in.

/// <summary>
/// InitializeComponent
/// </summary>
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerNonUserCodeAttribute()]
public void InitializeComponent() {
    if (_contentLoaded) {
        return;
    }
    _contentLoaded = true;
    System.Uri resourceLocater = new System.Uri("/MyApp;component/app.xaml", System.UriKind.Relative);

    #line 1 "..\..\..\App.xaml"
    System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent(this, resourceLocater);

    #line default
    #line hidden
}

Answer 21

If the Namespaces are correct then also there is a same error,

Just close your application and open it again.

This may solve your problem

Answer 22

I know this was answered due to a different cause, but this is a highly hit posting and I had ran into the same issue with a class library. In this case, it turned out to be both a change in my namespace (answered in this post here) and that the compiler could not rebuild the Window.g.i.cs which defines the InitializeComponent() method. It couldn't because the class library was missing the ProjectTypeGuid value for WPF projects in the csproj file. Instructions for this are here and here. I thought I would share in case someone else has run into the same issue. Just changing the namespace isn't enough in this case.

Answer 23

For those who find this on the internet. Check the Windows.csproj file if the compilation is there. There should be 2 entries

<Page Include="YourFile.xaml">
  <SubType>Designer</SubType>
  <Generator>MSBuild:Compile</Generator>
</Page>

<Compile Include="YourFile.xaml.cs">
  <DependentUpon>YourFile.xaml</DependentUpon>
</Compile>

Answer 24

After some action the namespace of the .cs file and the one in .xaml file may be different (in xaml look for the x:Class="namespace.yourType").

Fix them to be the same.

Answer 25

I have discovered that the "Startup object" was (Not set) causing this error for me.

"Startup object" (Not set)

Answer 26

This issue happened for me when creating a "WPF Application Project" then changing its build target to "Class Library" to be used as an external tool by another program.

I changed all my .xaml files for my windows so their build action were set to "Page". What I did not realize was that that the project also contained "App.xaml" and "App.xaml.cs".

"App.xaml" needs to be set to "Page" as well, or deleted altogether (along with "App.xaml.cs"). I did the former, then the latter as I realized the files were useless.

Answer 27

Since this seems to be the go-to thread for the problem regarding missing 'InitializeComponent', I'll include my answer here.

I too was having this issue and I've tried everything I found here and in all other Forums that Google could find, however none resolved the issue for me. After two hours of trying everything, I finally figured out what was wrong with my setup.

In our project, we are using Metro components from MahApps. The view that was giving me trouble was a view inheriting from MetroWindow, like this:

<Controls:MetroWindow x:Class="ProjectNamespace.MyView"
                      xmlns:Controls="http://metro.mahapps.com/winfx/xaml/controls"
                      ... >

Now, I have defined my static resources as

<Controls:MetroWindow.Resources>
    <prop:Resources x:Key="LocalizedStrings"/>
    ...
</Controls:MetroWindow.Resources>

That's how I've defined Resources in UserControls in all my other views, so that's what I assumed will work.

That was, however, not the case with Controls:MetroWindow! There I absolutely needed the resource definition as follows:

<Controls:MetroWindow.Resources>
    <ResourceDictionary>
        <prop:Resources x:Key="LocalizedStrings"/>
        ...
    </ResourceDictionary>
</Controls:MetroWindow.Resources>

So my issue, in summary, was a missing <ResourceDictionary> tag. I really don't know why this produced the 'InitializeComponent' error and it weirdly didn't even produce it on every machine of mine, but that's how I fixed it. Hope this helps (the remaining 0.001% of people encountering this issue).

Answer 28

I just encountered this problem, and it turned out to be that my project is stored in my user folder, which is stored on the network, and we had a momentary network outage. I did a build; it complained that my files had been modified outside the editor (they hadn't; the file locks just got borked), and it built fine, removing the error regarding the InitializeComponent() method.

BTW, in case you're wondering, developing something from a network drive is bad practice. It becomes particularly problematic when you're trying to leverage .NET's managed code; in my experience, it freaks out every time you build. I forgot to put this little throw-away project in the proper folder, and ended up paying the price.

Answer 29

Another possible explanation is that you're building against x86. Right-click your Solution and choose Configuration Manager. See if you're building against x86 instead of Any CPU.

Answer 30

So I realize this is an older question, but we were having a similar issue. We were able to build a project using VS2012, but not using msbuild from the command line. I went into the .proj file and noticed it didn't have a record for "ProjectTypeGuids" under the default "PropertyGroup" section, so I added this:

<ProjectTypeGuids>{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>

which is the project GUID for WPF. I then deleted and re-added the UserControl and it started working. I'm not sure if I had to do that last step, but it works for me now.