How to solve: The "Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.References.UnresolvedBuildDependencyProjectReference" reference could not be resolved?

Question

In the Solution Explorer, the vcxproj projects that have references, show a warning symbol on each of the references associated with the project. When the reference is highlighted, the properties panel indicates that the Full Path is:

The Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.References.UnresolvedBuildDependencyProject Reference" reference could not be resolved.

If the "..." box is pressed, the same error messagebox is shown and I am unable to select a new reference. I have tried deleting the reference and adding it again, but the result is the same. When new projects references are added, the result is the same.

All this happens when I compile using the Visual Studio 2008 (v90) toolset. If I compile using the Visual Studio 2015 (v140) toolset, the Full Path to the referenced library is shown correctly.

Some Background:

I upgraded my project from Visual Studio 2008 to Visual Studio 2015. This project contains a mix of managed and unmanaged with type .vcxproj. On this machine, the Visual Studio 2008 redistributable has been installed. This enabled me to compile using the Visual Studio 2008 (v90) toolset. My intention is to first compile my project with my VS2008 settings within VS2015 (For restrictive reasons, I have to use the v90 toolset). Thus, I configured the VC++ directories accordingly. There is no Linker option in the Configuration properties of the linking project. In the properties of the reference, the following configurations are enabled:

• Copy Local - True
• Copy Local Satellite Assemblies - False
• Reference Assembly Output - True
• Link Library Dependencies - False
• Use Library Dependency Inputs - False
• Full Path - The "Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.References.UnresolvedBuildDependencyProjectReference" reference could not be resolved

Garnierite

Have you read: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ayds71se(v=vs.90).aspx – Placate

Thanks for the link. No I haven't seen this link, I saw one similar, but the only topics there were path deleted and path renamed. I will take a look at this. – Garnierite

I'm not sure this is an answer, but more of a speculation. Since I'm dealing with an unmanaged project, references shouldn't be used. It's primarly used for managed projects. If an unmanaged project needed to reference another unmanaged project, the correct approach would be to use project dependencies. I think I got confused because after upgrading my project to VS2015, all these references were created automatically. I double-checked my original project in VS2008 and discovered that the same projects did not have references before. – Garnierite

To summarize: It's an odd behaviour that VS2015 tried to automatically create references from the existing project dependencies of an unmanaged project. – Garnierite

By using project dependencies, you Are adding references. They are the same for VC++ projects. – Bidding

I'm seeing the same thing in vs2022. The weird thing is that this only happens in one project in the solution, there are other projects that have the same project references that work fine. For this particular project, all the references have this 'UnresolvedBuildDependencyProjectReference' error. – Miniver

Answer 1

I ran into the similar issue. In my case just closing the solution and opening it again fixed the issue.

Kissel

Odd enough but this indeed worked! – Renteria

Answer 2

Link Library Dependencies must be Yes and then you need to close the solution and open it again.

Bloodsucker

Answer 3

When trying to add a reference from one unmanaged project to another unmanaged project in Visual Studio 2022 (right-click the References node, left-click Add Reference...), IDE warns you about "Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.References.UnresolvedBuildDependencyProjectReference" reference could not be resolved in the case when you have yet to build this another referenced project.

Although Link Library Dependencies option is set to Yes, there is no library file to be linked in the library dependencies directory, and IDE informs you about the fact with this (I must admit) rather cryptic warning. Or you can name this message 'ambiguous'.

So, build first the project to be referenced, if you want to get rid of the message and the warning icon on the reference item.

Wordbook