CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netvisual-studio-2010visual-studiopdb-files
Chris
Chris

Reputation: 4983

"PDB does not match image" error in C# VS2010 project

I've been using a library in my code base for a while now, and I wanted to debug right into the library level. To do that, I downloaded the source code and included the project as an existing project into my C# solution. I then had my other projects reference that project instead of the downloaded .DLL.

Once the project was referenced instead of the DLL, I ran my solution through the debugger and tried to step into a function call that would have called into the external project, but it stepped right over it. While debugging, I opened up the "Modules" window and saw that the DLL's Symbol Status read "PDB does not match image", which is the likely cause of not being able to debug this project.

My question is simple, why does the PDB not match the image if my project is directly referencing the .csproj file as a reference? There should never be any ambiguity as to what version to run.

Upvotes: 21

Views: 20156

Answers (5)

mahee96
mahee96

Reputation: 842

This happened to me today while I was trying to debug notepad++ dll plugin , I had to change build output directory to notepad++'s plugins directory and set the Debugger to launch notepad++ instead of the current project dll to proceed with set breakpoint. This had me nuts as Visual Studio 2019 was telling me that SYMBOLS were not loaded for the plugin dll which I was trying to debug.

Finally checking the modified date and time as others here suggested, made me realize the pdb was not up to date with the the build output dll timestamp. I tried rebuilding the solution but the pdb generated has same older timestamp though I delete them manually and initiate build. So all I had to do was to make a change in the source code by deleting a white space and rebuild. Voila! this time I got the debugger to load the symbols for my dll automatically and hit the set breakpoint.

Maybe cleaning the solution also might have worked.

Upvotes: 0

Neeraj Bopalkar
Neeraj Bopalkar

Reputation: 31

Faced same issue, it was due to old assembly and latest PDB. There was mismatch between both. The assembly was built properly, but again my post build dll copy script was overwriting it with older one. Removing the dll from post build script resolved issue. Need to ensure that dll or pdb are up to date when debugging finally commences.

Upvotes: 0

Lenny K
Lenny K

Reputation: 128

For me this happened for an Excel Add-In. I went to the modules window to see why it wasn't loading for my dll. I looked at the folder where the .dll was located and went to that location. There was an .ini file in that location. Opening it revealed the install location of my application, which turned out to be in "C:\Program Files\" as opposed to the bin\debug location of my project.

Basically I had an old version of the add-in already installed that was getting loaded up upon me trying to debug the project. I uninstalled the old project, deleted the old .dll location in "C:\Users[user]\AppData\Local\assembly\etc..." and voila, the debugger loaded up the newly compiled dll.

Upvotes: 0

DJ'
DJ'

Reputation: 1770

Sometimes it happens because you might have build the project as a release.

Right click on the solution and click on "Batch Build" > Check all your projects and click "Clean"

Upvotes: 0

rory.ap
rory.ap

Reputation: 35290

I've run into this issue before when I have another project open that also references the DLL and uses its debug info (PDB). Basically the other project puts a file lock on the PDB in the referenced project and when you compile or debug the referenced project, it quietly fails to generate an up-to-date PDB file.

If this is what is going on, make sure you have no other apps running or instances of VS open that reference your DLL, and then seek out and delete all copies of the PDB from beneath the BIN and OBJ folders, then recompile it.

I hope that helps.

Upvotes: 11

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