VS 2012 debugging Unexpected symbol reader error while processing <file.exe>

Question

I have a problem with debugging my program in Visual Studio 2012 - when I try to debug the code by inserting some breakpoints, they seem not to work - when I hover on them a message pops up

The breakpoint will not currently be hit. Unexpected symbol reader error while processing <file.exe>

I tried searching for similar problems in the internet but I haven't found any solutions I'd appreciate any help, thanks!

Answer 1

In VS2017, I have to clean up and close the whole solution, then delete the .vs folder from the solution folder, then recompile to fix it.

Answer 2

Just a side note to the answer accepted, you should checkout /DEBUG:FULL in Linker->Debugging in Visual Studio 2017 upwards

Beginning in Visual Studio 2017, the build system in the IDE defaults to /DEBUG:FASTLINK.

This limited PDB can't be used for debugging when the required build products are not available, such as when the executable is deployed on another computer.

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/reference/debug-generate-debug-info?view=vs-2019

Answer 3

For Visual Studio 2017, closing all open instances and restarting worked for me. I might have gotten away with closing fewer, for example instances with unrelated solutions open, but I have not tested that.

Answer 4

I had a VS 2017 C++ DLL called from VS 2013 C# application. Upgrading the application to VS 2017 solved the problem.

Answer 5

[VS 2012] Ok I got the answer that fixed this problem, so I'll post this here so that people have no such problem in the future.

A solution is to change

   Debug -> (app) Properties-> Configuration Properties -> Debugging

from Auto to Mixed. The breakpoints will automatically work.

[VS 2015] Closing all instances of VS 2015 and restarting fixes the problem for a while at least. The 2012 fix does not work.