CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-studiotfsvisual-studio-2017
Elaskanator
Elaskanator

Reputation: 1216

Visual Studio - Save All does not save pending changes

Why does this not behave as stated, or at least, how can I achieve the expected behavior?

When I do a "Save All" command (Ctrl+Shift+S), it is reasonable to expect my pending changes information to be saved to my workspace, but when Visual Studio crashes, it reverts to how it was the last time I exited Visual Studio gracefully (but with newly checked-out files included in the Pending Changes list).

This has caused me to lose my check-in notes and associated work items/etc. numerous times now.

To clarify, if I close Visual Studio normally, my check-in notes etc. are preserved for the next time I open VS, but if VS crashes they are not, therefore they are saved somewhere, thus the "Save All" command is not behaving as clearly stated by its name.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1140

Answers (2)

ackh
ackh

Reputation: 2052

The problem here is that you need to distinguish between the state of your files and the state of the Visual Studio IDE.

"Save all" will only ever write the in-memory changes of the files down to the disk. It does not have anything to do with the check-in comments or linked work items. These are part of the state of the Visual Studio IDE. That state is only saved to disk when you close Visual Studio.

If Visual Studio crashes, its state is simply not persisted which is why you just loose the state, in your case the comment and associated work items.

Its the same with the size and position of the Visual Studio windows. If you move a window around and close Visual Studio the position of the window is saved. Next time you open it the position is restored.

This is particularly an issue if you have multiple instances of Visual Studio open. Closing an instance will overwrite the state that was persisted by closing another instance before that.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any way to save the state of Visual Studio other than actually closing it. It's unfortunate but that's how it is.

Personally, I maintain a dedicated text file where I write my check-in comments and just paste those comments into Visual Studio before I do a check-in.

Upvotes: 1

PatrickLu-MSFT
PatrickLu-MSFT

Reputation: 51183

We do not use "Save All" to save unfinished work in TFS.

  1. If you have work in progress that you cannot finish now so you want a backup copy that is stored on your server and available to other team members who might need to access it.
  2. Or you just want to backup your code before leaving office at evening.

Under both situation, you should use shelvesets to handle this.

You can move your pending changes to a shelveset on the server and then clean your workspace. The shelveset saves and stores not only your file revisions, but also the Comment, the list of Related Work Items, and check-in notes (if you evaluate policies before shelving).

enter image description here

When you are going to resume to work, you could simply unshelve the shelvest, just make sure "Restore Work items and check-in notes" checked

enter image description here

Then you will not lose any check-in notes and associate work items even Visual Studio crashed. More details about the shelvest, please take a look at our official tutorial here: Suspend your work and manage your shelvesets

Update:

According to your supplementary , it's more related to Visual Studio's design of crash and recovery. Which seems not related to TFS part.

What we could do is using shelvest frequently to protect your data losing. After all, totally cash in visual studio won't happen very often. This will also help to make lose reduced.

Upvotes: -2

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