Visual Studio Show All Files not working - not showing some folders and files

Question

I've started a new project and I've copied and pasted in some test files from another project. Normally to include them in the project I'd toggle on the "Show all files" option in the solution explorer. However that isn't working and I can't work out why!

I've updated to the latest version of VS Professional 2019. I've restarted the application and my machine. I've deleted the sln file and rebuilt. I can exclude files - I just can't get them all to show! Below I've attached a screenshot of an empty project with two test files that should be showing but aren't.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? :(

Answer 1

"Show All Files" is a project level option. In a multi-project solution you would need to turn it on for each project in turn.

This was reported on the VS Developer Community here, with the suggestion that it be extended to work at the solution level as well. Microsoft's answer suggests that that's not expected to happen anytime soon: "although this is a very valid suggestion, at this time we are closing it as is not among the features we are able to fit into the near future roadmap".

Another way to show all files under the entire solution directory is to Switch View to Folder View using the dropdown next to Home, though this loses the project structure.