NuGet Package Restore Not Working

Question

I checked in a project on one computer, checked out on another, and find that the binaries installed by NuGet are missing. I could check them in to source control as well, but it looks like there's a better solution:

http://docs.nuget.org/docs/workflows/using-nuget-without-committing-packages

I followed those instructions, now have a .nuget folder where one should be, have the following entries in my .csproj file:

<RestorePackages>true</RestorePackages>
<Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\nuget.targets" />

and yet when I rebuild my solution, the missing packages are not restored.

What am I missing? How can I diagnose this problem?

Answer 1

Note you can force package restore to execute by running the following commands in the nuget package manager console

Update-Package -Reinstall

Forces re-installation of everything in the solution.

---

Update-Package -Reinstall -ProjectName myProj

Forces re-installation of everything in the myProj project.

Note: This is the nuclear option. When using this command you may not get the same versions of the packages you have installed and that could be lead to issues. This is less likely to occur at a project level as opposed to the solution level.

You can use the -safe commandline parameter option to constrain upgrades to newer versions with the same Major and Minor version component. This option was added later and resolves some of the issues mentioned in the comments.

Update-Package -Reinstall -Safe

Answer 2

For others who stumble onto this post, read this.

NuGet 2.7+ introduced us to Automatic Package Restore. This is considered to be a much better approach for most applications as it does not tamper with the MSBuild process. Less headaches.

Some links to get you started:

• The right way to restore NuGet packages
• Migrate away from MSBuild-based NuGet package restore
• Migrating MSBuild-Integrated solutions to use Automatic Package Restore

Answer 3

You have to choose one way of the following :

Re-installing a package by it's name in all solution's projects:

Update-Package –reinstall <packageName>

Re-installing a package by it's name and ignoring it's dependencies in all solution's projects:

Update-Package –reinstall <packageName> -ignoreDependencies

Re-installing a package by it's name in a project:

Update-Package –reinstall <packageName> <projectName>

Re-installing all packages in a specific project:

Update-Package -reinstall -ProjectName <projectName>

Re-installing all packages in a solution:

Update-Package -reinstall 

Answer 4

Did you enable package restore mode in the project that has the missing packages/binaries ? There's a known issue that requires the packages to be correctly installed when enabling the restore mode :

http://nuget.codeplex.com/workitem/1879

---

Original link is dead; this might be a replacement: https://github.com/NuGet/Home/issues/1968

Answer 5

VS 2017

Tools>NuGet Package Manager>Package Manager Settings>General Click on "Clear All NuGet Cache(s)"

Answer 6

I have run into this problem in two scenarios.

First, when I attempt to build my solution from the command line using msbuild.exe. Secondly, when I attempt to build the sln and the containing projects on my build server using TFS and CI.

I get errors claiming that references are missing. When inspecting both my local build directory and the TFS server's I see that the /packages folder is not created, and the nuget packages are not copied over. Following the instructions listed in Alexandre's answer http://nuget.codeplex.com/workitem/1879 also did not work for me.

I've enabled Restore Packages via VS2010 and I have seen builds only work from within VS2010. Again, using msbuild fails.My workaround is probably totally invalid, but for my environment this got everything working from a command line build locally, as well as from a CI build in TFS.

I went into .\nuget and changed this line in the .nuget\NuGet.targets file:

from:

<RestoreCommand>$(NuGetCommand) install "$(PackagesConfig)" -source "$(PackageSources)" -o "$(PackagesDir)"</RestoreCommand>

to: (notice, without the quotes around the variables)

<RestoreCommand>$(NuGetCommand) install $(PackagesConfig) -source $(PackageSources) -o $(PackagesDir)</RestoreCommand>

I understand that if my directories have spaces in them, this will fail, but I don't have spaces in my directories and so this workaround got my builds to complete successfully...for the time being.

I will say that turning on diagnostic level logging in your build will help show what commands are being executed by msbuild. This is what led me to hacking the targets file temporarily.

Answer 7

If anything else didn't work, try:

1. Close Project.
2. Delete packages folder in your solution folder.
3. Open Project again and restore Nugget Packages again.

Worked for me and it's easy to try.

Answer 8

If none of the other answers work for you then try the following which was the only thing that worked for me:

Find your .csproj file and edit it in a text editor.

Find the <Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild"> tag in your .csproj file and delete the whole block.

Re-install all packages in the solution:

Update-Package -reinstall

After this your nuget packages should be restored, i think this might be a fringe case that only occurs when you move your project to a different location.

Answer 9

Just for others that might run into this problem, I was able to resolve the issue by closing Visual Studio and reopening the project. When the project was loaded the packages were restored during the initialization phase.

Answer 10

For me, I had an empty tag NuGetPackageImportStamp in .csproj

<NuGetPackageImportStamp>
    </NuGetPackageImportStamp>

It should ideally contain some valid GUID.

Removing this tag and then "Restore Nugets" worked for me.

Answer 11

Sometimes something strange happens and using Visual Studio to automatically restore doesn't work. In that case you can use the NuGet Package Manager Console. That is opened within Visual Studio from Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Package Manager Console. The commands within the console are simple. And to get context help while typing a command just press the button and it will give you all options that start with the letters you're typing. So if a package isn't installed, for example log4net, type the following command:

Install-Package log4net

You can do a whole lot more, like specify the version to install, update a package, uninstall a package, etc.

I had to use the console to help me when Visual Studio was acting like a weirdo.

Answer 12

Automatic Package Restore will fail for any of the following reasons:

1. You did not remove the NuGet.exe and NuGet.targets files from the solution's .nuget folder (which can be found in your solution root folder)
2. You did not enable automatic package restore from the Tools >> Options >> Nuget Package Manager >> General settings.
3. You forgot to manually remove references in all your projects to the Nuget.targets file
4. You need to restart Visual Studio (make sure the process is killed from your task manager before starting up again).

The following article outlines in more detail how to go about points 1-3: https://docs.nuget.org/consume/package-restore/migrating-to-automatic-package-restore

Answer 13

I had NuGet packages breaking after I did a System Restore on my system, backing it up about two days. (The NuGet packages had been installed in the meantime.) To fix it, I had to go to the .nuget\packages folder in my user profile, find the packages, and delete them. Only then would Visual Studio pull the packages down fresh and properly add them as references.

Answer 14

The best workaround that I found creating a new Project from scratch, then import all the source files with the code. My project was not so complicated so I had no problem from there.

Answer 15

None of the other solutions worked in my situation:

AspNetCore dependencies had been installed/uninstalled and were being cached. 'AspNetCore.All' would refuse to properly update/reinstall/remove. And regardless of what i did, it would use the cached dependencies (that it was not compatible with), because they were a higher version.

1. Backup Everything. Note the list of Dependencies you'll need to reinstall, Exit VisualStudio
2. Open up all .proj files in a text editor and remove all PackageReference
3. In each project, delete the bin, obj folders
4. Delete any "packages" folders you find in the solution.
5. Open solution, go into Tools > Nuget Package Manager > Package Manager Settings and Clear all Nuget caches. Check the console because it may fail to remove some items - copy the folder path and exit visual studio.
6. Delete anything from that folder Reopen solution and start installing nuget packages again from scratch.

If that still doesn't work, repeat but also search your drive in windows explorer for nuget and delete anything cachey looking.

Answer 16

In VS2017, right-click on the solution => Open CommandLine => Developer Command Line.

Once thats open, type in (and press enter after)

dotnet restore

That will restore any/all packages, and you get a nice console output of whats been done...

Answer 17

vs2015 no enable nuget restore problem. My solution:

1. add folder .nuget, add file NuGet.Config and NuGet.targets in Directory .nuget

2. each project file add: build

  <RestorePackages>true</RestorePackages>

  <Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets" Condition="Exists('$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets')" />
  <Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
    <PropertyGroup>
      <ErrorText>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 {0}.</ErrorText>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <Error Condition="!Exists('$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', '$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets'))" />
  </Target>

Answer 18

If the error you are facing is "unable to connect to remote server" as was mine, then it would benefit you to have this check as well in addition to the checks provided in the above comments.

I saw that there were 2 NUGET Package Sources from which the packages could be downloaded (within Tools->Nuget Package Manager->Packager Manager Settings). One of the Package Source's was not functioning and Nuget was trying to download from that source only.

Things fell into place once I changed the package source to download from: https://www.nuget.org/api/v2/ EXPLICTLY in the settings

Answer 19

In my case, an aborted Nuget restore-attempt had corrupted one of the packages.configfiles in the solution. I did not discover this before checking my git working tree. After reverting the changes in the file, Nuget restore was working again.

Answer 20

There is a shortcut to make Nuget restore work.

1. Make sure internet connection or Nuget urls are proper in VS Tools options menu

2. Look at .nuget or nuget folder in the solution, else - copy from any to get nuget.exe

3. DELETE packages folders, if exists

4. Open the Package manager console execute this command

• paste full path of nuget.exe RESTORE full path of .sln file!

5. use Install-pacakge command, if build did not get through for any missing references.