Error: The breakpoint will not currently be hit. No symbols have been loaded for this document

Came across this little problem today whilst trying to make some amendments to an old project. My first thought was that the projects compile configuration was set to release so the .pdb file (this contains the 'symbols' reffered to in the error message) was not being generated in the 'bin' folder of the project.

After several minutes of searching on Google I found some forum posts over at asp.net/forums and on MSDN which related but the solutions posted did not seem to make sense to me.

Word of Warning - If you are new to .Net development then please do not trust the first solution that you find. A lot of posts on forums etc. contain long winded or misleading solutions. Get a consensus from a couple of sources before attempting to fix the problem.

I sat and thought for several minutes and the best solution to my mind was to first ensure that all reference to the project output were set to Debug.

If you are having this problem then please check the following:

• Project Properties > Compile > Advanced Compile Options > Generate Debug Info is set to either Full or pdb-only
• Project Properties > Compile > Configuration set to Debug or Active (Debug)
• Build > Configuration Manager > Active Solution Configuration set to Debug, and debug is set for all projects displayed here.

After making the above checks then try REBUILDING your project. The pdb file should have now been regenerated. If not then close VS2005 delete all .pdb files for the project (from the bin folder). If you open your solution and try to rebuild again these pdb files should be rebuilt in the bin directory allowing you to debug normally.