Visual Studio's Toolbox is empty

Question

I am using visual studio 2015. I have my toolbox open and I checked on Show All. I unchecked this an now my entire toolbox is empty except for the General Tab (which there is nothing in). I tried resetting the toolbox but that did not fix the problem. Has anyone encountered this before? If so, what was the fix? Thanks.

Spontaneity

What type of file do you have open in the IDE? In code files it is empty, but Razor/WebForms should have items in the toolbox. – Cantabrigian

It might be because the IDE has somehow determined you are not a Seattle Seahawks fan. This happens to me sometimes, too; if you simply try a second or third time to open the Toolbox, it will eventually acquiesce (provided, as Sam says, an appropriate file is open). BTW, say hi to Rod for me. – Zeralda

This issue still affects later versions of Visual Studio (e.g. VS2019), see how to fix this in my answer below. – Mercaptide

Answer 1

Try right clicking in the toolbox and select 'show all'.

You can also start /reset

From your description, it seems that your issue might be related with IDE. I suggest you to try to execute the following commands:

Devenv.exe /SafeMode

Devenv.exe /ResetSettings

Ennis

This is a working solution. For those who don't know the path "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE" first you must CD to such director through CMD. then execute Type "Devenv.exe /ResetSettings" – Carminecarmita

show all did the trick! – Twyla

Selecting "Show all" fixed it for me. Thanks! – Daltondaltonism

Answer 2

I just had the same thing happen to me in Visual Studio 2022 with a .NET 6 WinForms application. After updating VS 2022 to version 17.2.0, my Toolbox entries were blank when I tried to use them to drag and drop into the designer of a project I had just recently created in version 17.1.x.

I ended up fixing this by:

1. Right-click the Toolbox
2. Select Choose Items from the resulting context menu
3. Press the Reset button in the resulting Choose Toolbox Items dialog
4. Press the OK button when the reset process completed.

Selfregulated

in my case, just doing steps 1, 2 and 4 (no step 3) and restarting VS worked for me. after step 2, VS looked to load stuff and i saw the various standard UI controls were checked, so i just clicked "ok" and restarted. ymmv. – Ballast

I also had to restart Visual Studio 2022. – Ass

2024 and still it causing issues. In my case I followed that with running VS2022 as an admin and that finally solved the issue. – Sesquipedalian

Answer 3

I have that problem still after using repair in VisualStudio Installer. But I found a solution here: https://thinkaboutit.be/2012/10/my-toolbox-is-empty/

The localization off that files can be in different places, for VS 2022 I found some hidden files here:

C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\17.0_dbab3d69

Deleting those files and restarting VS solved the problem.

Dunbarton

Answer 4

I had the same problem. I solved it by right-clicking on the Design window and adding " Toolbox" (SSIS Toolbox in my case).

Subtropics

Answer 5

In the case of an SSIS toolbox not appearing. On the top ribbon menu click on View -> Other Windows -> SSIS Toolbox, this will show the toolbox with SSIS related items.

Litre

Please explain your answer more thoroughly. – Grig

Answer 6

I don't know why this bug exists, but I fixed mine using the steps below:

• Right click on toolbox -> Show All -> Check.
• Wait it to load the controls, then click OK
• Rigth click on Toolbox and select -> Show All -> Uncheck

Twopenny

Answer 7

I had a similar problem(Visual Studio 2022). None of the solutions solved my problem. Eventually my problem was solved by repairing the visual studio.

Go to Start >> All Programs >> “Visual Studio 2022” >> “Visual Studio Installer”. Now, click Visual Studio Installer. After clicking repair options progress options open. The repair will take some minutes to complete.

Brucie

Answer 8

I encountered the same problem and solved it by:

1. closing the toggled/opened toolbox
2. opening any windows form [designer]
3. re-opening the toolbox

toolbox components will be reloaded again

Facing

Answer 9

I fixed this by just stopping the program from running; if you are running your app to test it, the toolbox will be empty/unshown until you stop the debugger!

Brazzaville

Answer 10

In my case, I had opened with ctrl+alt+x. I noticed in the newer versions of VS, there is some confused crossover of toolboxes. In my case, it opened the SSRS toolbox, which was not applicable to my SSIS file.

Closed that, right-clicked in design area, and chose SSIS Toolbox. This opened a toolbox called "SSIS Toolbox" rather than just "Toolbox". All fixed.

Kingship

Answer 11

In Visual Studio 2019 you can just right click the dark area inside the toolbox and select "Reset Toolbox".

This will remove custom-added controls or any other auto-detected control, and you will be left only with the standard controls.

The issue should be fixed without completely reseting Visual Studio's settings.

Laoag

Answer 12

I just right-clicked on toolbox area and choose "show all" :) Now it works

Bannockburn

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Anticlerical

This is the same answer as https://mcmap.net/q/478233/-visual-studio-39-s-toolbox-is-empty posted in 2018, just worse. – Gand

Answer 13

Just restart visual studio and it will pop right back

Homophony