Visual Studio with Web Essentials, unused CSS is not working

Question

I am working on a .NET 4.5.1 project in Visual Studio and have Web Essentials installed and functioning in all other ways except finding unused CSS. When I test with a new project, it works as expected.

Is there a known situation in which Unused CSS will not work?

Environment:

• VS2013 Pro
• Win7 Pro

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start debugging the app in Chrome
2. Once the site opens in a new tab, select Start Recording in the Browser Link Dashboard
3. Change content by clicking through the site

Results:

• Recording has started and Stop Recording is now available
• There are no messages sent to the output window
• Clear CSS Usage Data option in the Browser Link toolbar (in the top menu) is disabled. It never is enabled whether recording or not.

Expected:

• Messages in the output view
• Ability to clear CSS usage data

Attempts to troubleshoot:

• Installed prior version of extension - same result
• Verified the issue exists on Chrome, Firefox and IE
• Other features of Browser Link work as expected
• Creating a new project works as expected and "Clear CSS usage data" is not greyed out

Browser Link drop down menu

Answer 1

I know it's a long time since you asked this, but this solution might actually help someone else...You can identify unused CSS using Chrome Dev tools

1. Open your chrome Dev tools
2. Click on the Audits tab
3. Click on Run at the bottom, wait for the audit to finish
4. You will get unused CSS under Remove unused CSS rules in the Web Page Performance section