<Subtype>Designer</Subtype> Added then removed by Visual Studio on load/unload

Asked 15/10, 2009 at 15:47 Answered 2/7, 2019 at 7:0

191

Anyone see this before? I have a large Visual Studio project that keeps adding [Subtype]Designer[/Subtype] to my .vcproj then removing it on the next open and close of the project. There is only one class defined in StoredImageControl.cs. Anyone know how to shut this off as it is really messing up my revision control.

This is before:

<EmbeddedResource Include="StoredImageControl.resx">
  <DependentUpon>StoredImageControl.cs</DependentUpon>
</EmbeddedResource>

This is after

<EmbeddedResource Include="StoredImageControl.resx">
  <DependentUpon>StoredImageControl.cs</DependentUpon>
  <SubType>Designer</SubType>
</EmbeddedResource>

Muhammadan answered 15/10, 2009 at 15:47 Comment(13)

Seeing the same thing with <SubType>UserControl</SubType> in VS 2005. Very strange. – Gemination 25/6, 2010 at 1:38

I also see this problem in VS 2008 – Lomond 7/7, 2010 at 7:32

Ran into this in VS 2010. Also confused. – Grantee 9/9, 2010 at 1:26

Same thing happening to me in VS 2008 all the time. I try to diminish its source control impact by reverting soon after checkouts, right before starting to do any actual work... but it's a kludge and I often forget to do it. Have you tried to report it via connect.microsoft.com? – Shields 25/9, 2010 at 11:12

I'm experiencing the same in VS 2010. Pretty mysterious. – Cultivar 6/10, 2010 at 19:30

Also experiencing this in VS 2010. It wasn't a problem for several months, then started happening with no obvious explanation. – Lupien 25/10, 2010 at 14:47

This is happening in VS2008 as well. Totally obnoxious. I don't have any fixes :( – Tother 27/10, 2010 at 16:42

Why do you have a C# source code file in a C/C++ project? – Quinte 31/10, 2010 at 21:28

Seeing this with VS2008. It will add subtypes for Form and UserControl, then remove them later. And only on one project in my solution that I'm not even working with. – Calumnious 2/3, 2012 at 15:15

[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategory("Code")] <br> look at this interact-sw.co.uk/iangblog/2004/06/10/codeviewinvs – Tempest 3/6, 2017 at 18:4

I opened an issue for this problem. Anyone who encounters it, please reply to it with information about how and where it occurred, so MS can fix it. The issue is currently closed until steps to reproduce have been provided. – Parma 27/2, 2018 at 7:59

Update: I reported the problem here where you can vote for the issue. – Parma 27/2, 2018 at 12:37

Also github.com/dotnet/project-system/issues/182 – Responsibility 12/1, 2022 at 13:59

This might be related to what files you have open in the saved solution state. I ran into this problem in VS2010 and found that if I close the solution while an .xml file was open in the editor, then on the subsequent re-open of the solution, the project containing that .xml file would get this <SubType>Designer</SubType> line added. If I close the solution without that file open, though, it does not try to add that line on the following re-open.

Infrequent answered 8/11, 2011 at 18:19 Comment(6)

That seems to have been the issue for me (VS 2010 also). Annoying though that Visual Studio would make its own changes to your files just based on which ones are open, especially since they show up in your source control system. Gotta love Microsoft's "features"... – Luong 11/1, 2012 at 23:53

This is still an open issue with MS : connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/757970/… – Eclipse 19/12, 2013 at 5:40

It's VS2015, and yet this still occurs. – Chowder 11/7, 2017 at 23:35

VS2017, still an issue. Makes using source control impossible, because VS is constantly adding these stupid <Subtype>Designer</SubType> tags sporadically. – Nauseate 21/2, 2018 at 17:59

They killed connect but developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/204355/… says it's solved at least for VS2019 Preview 2 – Indeterminacy 24/5, 2019 at 1:28

Still happens in VS2019 (16.7.2)! The dev case listed as solved... perhaps that's just 'fixed' for .NET Core project csproj files? – Stinkhorn 2/9, 2020 at 18:3

This has been an issue in at least 3 editions of Visual Studio, 2008, 2010 and now 2012. It is logged as a bug in Microsoft Connect but the MS answer is "We have recorded your request but are not planning on fixing this at this time." Suggest you up vote the bug report as it is still active and might get a better response from MS with enough up votes.

Wilfredowilfrid answered 16/4, 2013 at 13:59 Comment(6)

2013 and now 2015 have the same issue. – Asphaltite 5/10, 2015 at 12:58

Yup, saw it for the first time in VS2015 just now. – Wilfredowilfrid 30/11, 2015 at 20:48

No JohnC, it is not a bug, it is a criminal offense. – Ensheathe 19/9, 2016 at 13:11

Microsoft Connect has been deprecated, I opened a new issue on developercommunity.visualstudio.com. It is "Under Consideration", so vote it up! – Parma 27/2, 2018 at 12:52

"We have fixed this issue and it's available in Visual Studio 2019 Preview 2 Thank you for your feedback!" - according to a solution on the devcommunity issue. – Indeterminacy 24/5, 2019 at 1:27

VS2019 16.11.5 still does this. – Responsibility 12/1, 2022 at 13:50

Do you try to put the SubType as an attribute of the EmbeddedResource object?

<EmbeddedResource Include="StoredImageControl.resx" SubType="Designer"> 
  <DependentUpon>StoredImageControl.cs</DependentUpon> 
</EmbeddedResource>

I saw a question like yours in the following link and he solved his problem with this:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180209234638/http://community.sharpdevelop.net/forums/t/9977.aspx

Chicalote answered 26/10, 2010 at 18:4 Comment(1)

Using the SubType attribute trick does not work on <Content> elements: VS2010 complains that the attribute is unrecognized. – Diabolic 2/2, 2012 at 5:11

I am encountering the same problem in my ASP.NET web application's .csproj file:

<ItemGroup>
  <Content Include="site.master" />
  <Content Include="Web.config">
    <SubType>Designer</SubType>
  </Content>
</ItemGroup>

Versus:

<ItemGroup>
  <Content Include="site.master" />
  <Content Include="Web.config" />
</ItemGroup>

My annoyance with this issue is due to revision control changes as well. The issue seems to be present in VS 2005/2008/2010. Have found the following question on Microsoft forums, but the answer is not clear.

What is <SubType>Designer</SubType> for in .csproj?

I hope that a VS setting causes it, in which case, I will like you know when I find out what that setting is.

Protuberancy answered 21/11, 2010 at 18:38 Comment(2)

Issue is pressent in vs 2013 as well. – Rufina 21/10, 2014 at 14:32

Just another example of Visual Studio modifying files when it feels like. One day Microsoft will finally realize that the user should be in charge and randomly changing files without the users OK should NEVER happen – Extranuclear 14/9, 2015 at 22:0

I found that <SubType>Designer</SubType> changes the behaviour for Web.config.

We use WebDeploy to publish web service files.

If SubType is set for Web.config - it publishes this file correctly under the main directory where all content files go and .svc.

If SubType is not set - it does above but also copies Web.config under bin\ subdirectory - which is very strange! In MsBuild log this happens during CollectFilesFrom_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory target.

Jujutsu answered 22/10, 2015 at 15:41 Comment(0)

For me also this causes issues with version control when added new files to the project.

As a work around I did: undo pending changes to the project file and then manually added new files by right click -> add existing files to the project.

While doing this the tag < SubType >Designer< /SubType > doesn't come.

Hope this will help someone. Hence posting this.

Sharpwitted answered 2/7, 2019 at 7:0 Comment(0)

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