Ошибка root element is missing

How to fix «Root element is missing.» when doing a Visual Studio (VS) Build?

Any idea what file I should look at in my solution?

Actually, I am getting this error message inside of «Visual Build Pro» when using using the «Make VS 2008» command. This command works just fine when building other solutions (like about 20) and I am not really sure why mine is getting the error.

Any help would be very much appreciated. :)

I am using VS 2008 and Visual Build Pro 6.7.

Community's user avatar

asked Sep 22, 2010 at 18:29

Gerhard Weiss's user avatar

Gerhard WeissGerhard Weiss

9,26318 gold badges64 silver badges67 bronze badges

0

In my case it was the xxxxxxxxxxxx.vcxproj.user file that was causing the problem; it was blank after a crash. I renamed it and the problem went away.

answered May 18, 2015 at 20:57

Elliot's user avatar

2

Make sure any XML file (or any file that would be interpreted as an XML file by visual studio) has a correct XML structure — that is, one root element (with any name, I have use rootElement in my example):

<?xml version="1.0"?> 
<rootElement>
 ...
</rootElement>

answered Sep 22, 2010 at 18:36

Oded's user avatar

OdedOded

488k99 gold badges881 silver badges1007 bronze badges

3

You will also get ‘root element is missing’ when the BOM strikes :). BOM = byte order mark. This is an extra character that gets added to the start of a file when it is saved with the wrong encoding.
This can happen sometimes in Visual Studio when working with XML files. You can either code something to remove it from all your files, or if you know which file it is you can force visual studio to save it with a specific encoding (utf-8 or ascii IIRC).

If you open the file in an editor other than VS (try notepad++), you will see two funny characters before the <? xml declaration.

To fix this in VS, open the file in VS and then depending on the version of VS

  • File > Advanced Save Options > choose an appropriate encoding
  • File > Save As > keep the filename, click the drop-down arrow on the right side of the save button to select an encoding

answered Sep 22, 2010 at 19:07

stombeur's user avatar

stombeurstombeur

2,72222 silver badges45 bronze badges

0

In my case.I was getting missing element error pointing to NuGet.Config file.
At that time it was looking some thing like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<settings>
  <repositoryPath>Packages</repositoryPath>
</settings>

then I just added configuration tag that actually wraps entire xml. Now working fine for me

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <settings>
     <repositoryPath>Packages</repositoryPath>
  </settings>
</configuration>

answered Jun 24, 2016 at 18:21

Malik Khalil's user avatar

Malik KhalilMalik Khalil

6,2732 gold badges39 silver badges32 bronze badges

1

This error is caused by corrupted proj file.

Visual Studio always has backup project file at specific folder.

Please browse to:

C:Users<Your user>DocumentsVisual Studio <Vs version>Backup Files<your project>

You should see 2 files like this:

Original-May-18-2018-1209PM.<your project>.csproj
Recovered-May-18-2018-1209PM.<your project>.csproj

You only need copy file:

Original-May-18-2018-1209PM.<your project>.csproj

And re-name as

<your project>.csproj 

and override at root project folder.

Problem is solved!

marc_s's user avatar

marc_s

729k174 gold badges1327 silver badges1455 bronze badges

answered May 18, 2018 at 10:43

user3037124's user avatar

1

My project did not load and gave me a Root Element Missingerror. I just deleted ****.csproj.user file and reloaded it again. The problem was solved this way

answered Sep 27, 2020 at 10:31

Fereshteh Mirjalili's user avatar

In my case, when I opened the .csproj file, it was empty so I went to my previous commit in git and copied the contents of that file and pasted it my current .csproj file. After which I deleted the .csproj.user file, reloaded my project, and everything started working again.

answered Mar 2, 2017 at 21:50

Alf Moh's user avatar

Alf MohAlf Moh

7,1095 gold badges40 silver badges50 bronze badges

You can also search for the file. Navigate to your project directory with PowerShell and run Get-FileMissingRoot:

function Get-FileMissingRoot {

    dir -recurse |
        where {
            ($_ -is [IO.FileInfo]) -and 
            (@(".xml", ".config") -contains $_.extension) 
        } |
        foreach {
            $xml = New-Object Xml.XmlDocument;
            $filename = $_.FullName
            try {
                $xml.Load($filename)
            }
            catch {
                write ("File: " + $filename)
                write ($_.Exception.Message)
            }
        }
}

answered Aug 6, 2015 at 19:06

Sam Porch's user avatar

Sam PorchSam Porch

7515 silver badges11 bronze badges

0

I had this issue running VS 2017, on build I was getting the error that the ‘root element was missing’. What solved it for me was going to Tools > Nuget Package Manager > Package Manager Settings > General > Clear all Nuget Caches. After doing that I ran the build again and it was fixed.

answered Nov 26, 2018 at 15:51

Shawn Hill's user avatar

Shawn HillShawn Hill

512 silver badges2 bronze badges

2

I got same error. showing error Microsoft.Data.Entity could not loaded root element missing. When i delete that file from C:WindowsMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv4.0.30319 and again open my solution my problem was solved. Everything woks fine

answered Jan 22, 2015 at 9:55

0

In my case, .csproj was changed to encoded format. I did undo changes to csproj in Git(Team explorer) and reloaded the project file. This solved the problem.

answered Aug 12, 2019 at 18:03

Archana R's user avatar

In my case, the file C:UsersxxxAppDataLocalPreEmptive SolutionsDotfuscator Professional Edition4.0dfusrprf.xml was full of NULL.

I deleted it; it was recreated on the first launch of Dotfuscator, and after that, normality was restored.

answered Nov 27, 2014 at 11:20

pascal's user avatar

pascalpascal

3,2871 gold badge17 silver badges35 bronze badges

1

This error can sometimes occur when you edit some Project Toolchain settings Atmel Studio 6.1.2730 SP2.

In my case I tried to edit Project Properties > Toolchain > Linker > General settings with ‘All Configurations’ selected in the Configuration. When I checked or unchecked a setting, a dialog with the error popped up. However, I found that I could make the same edits if I made them to only one build configuration at a time; i.e. with only ‘Debug’ or ‘Release’ selected instead of ‘All Configurations’.

Interestingly, I later was able to edit the same Linker settings even with ‘All Configurations’ selected. I don’t know what changed in my project that made this possible.

answered Dec 25, 2013 at 11:52

ptschnack's user avatar

ptschnackptschnack

1712 silver badges5 bronze badges

1

I had Blue Screen while running Visual Studio 2013, when I Restart I intended to run again my project, but I had always this headius Error.
anyway

Deleting The Folders with the Temp info Fix this problem.
in my case the Project was a Windows Server, and Basically it Creates a Folder with some Tem info.

the folder was

C:UsersUser_NAMEAppDataLocalNAme_OF_THeProject

inside Exist a Folder with the Name of the Project+ some Generated GUI
Service.ServerHostLoader_Url_u2jn0xkgjf1th0a3i2v03ft15vj4x52i

this is the Folder I deleted and now I can run again the Project.

Robert's user avatar

Robert

5,27843 gold badges65 silver badges115 bronze badges

answered Mar 2, 2015 at 15:35

emamones's user avatar

In my case I upgraded to VS2017 and wanted to build all projects with MSBuild 4 with my build script (which had been using MSBuild 3.5 when we were using VS2015). That MSBuild upgrade appeared fine for the Windows desktop applications but the ones for Windows CE with compact framework would give me this confusing error. Reverting to MSBuild 3.5 for Windows CE projects fixed the issue for me.

I did have the BOM in .csproj files by the way and removed them for all projects in a solution that would not build but that did not help.

answered Feb 23, 2018 at 22:00

Martin Maat's user avatar

Martin MaatMartin Maat

7144 silver badges23 bronze badges

In xamarin form project. I deleted

.VS Project folder.
ProjectName.Android.csProj.User
ProjectName.Android.csProj.bak

answered Jan 12, 2019 at 8:23

A.Goutam's user avatar

A.GoutamA.Goutam

3,3628 gold badges40 silver badges89 bronze badges

In my case I received a message like this:
See this picture

I just commented the snipped code below in the project file (.csproj) and the problem was fixed.

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

Tunaki's user avatar

Tunaki

132k46 gold badges332 silver badges419 bronze badges

answered Mar 2, 2017 at 18:03

Eduardo Sobrinho's user avatar

In my case xxxx.pubxml.user was not loaded when tried to publish the application. I deleted the file and restart the Visual studio then created a new profile to publish it, problem is solved and published successfully.

answered Jun 17, 2017 at 6:10

Muhammad Masud's user avatar

Hey, I have the same issue on Mac working on a Cocoa C# solution.
(But I solved it !)

It always say that the root element is missing so it cannot load my C# project file.

I have the 2017 Visual Studio Mac Community Edition.
I finally managed to find a solution after several hours (painful!).

My solution is because the frameworks related to the Visual Studio are old or broken.
I found this because I tried to create a new Mac solution by Cocoa and it said «failed to save the solution». Then, I tried to create an Android Solution and it is working fine.
Go to your «Finder» and «Go» -> «Go to a Folder» then go to the «Library/Frameworks». I have deleted mono.framework and frameworks related to Xamarin because I believe these Xamarin frameworks are broken.

Then, uninstalled the Visual Studio and reinstalled it.
Now everything works fine!

answered Aug 7, 2017 at 21:14

Can Gao's user avatar

In my case, I just renamed the .csproj.user and restart the visual studio and opened the project. It automatically created another .csproj.user file and the solution worked fine for me.

answered Jul 25, 2019 at 6:22

MBA's user avatar

MBAMBA

351 silver badge6 bronze badges

Ho i simply solved this issue by going to source control explorer and selected the issue project, right clicked and selected the option Get Specific Version under Advanced menu. And then selected Type as Latest Version and ticked following two check boxes and clicked Get button. Then i refreshed the solution and my project came back to live and problem gone. Please note that This may overwrite your local projects so your current changes may lose. So if you dont have any issues with your local copy then you can try this. Hope it helps

answered Jul 31, 2015 at 11:32

Nithin Paul's user avatar

Nithin PaulNithin Paul

2,1392 gold badges32 silver badges55 bronze badges

I got this issue on a Web API project. Finally figured out that it was in my «///» method comments. I have these comments set to auto-generate documentation for the API methods. Something in my comments made it go crazy. I deleted all the carriage returns, special characters, etc. Not really sure which thing it didn’t like, but it worked.

answered Aug 10, 2016 at 17:24

Jarrette's user avatar

JarretteJarrette

1,0852 gold badges16 silver badges40 bronze badges

In my case the RDLC files work with resource files (.resx), I had this error because I hadn’t created the correspondent resx file for my rdlc report.

My solution was add the file .resx inside the App_LocalResources in this way:

rep
repmyreport.rdlc
repApp_LocalResourcesmyreport.rdlc.resx

answered Feb 7, 2017 at 21:15

Wilson's user avatar

WilsonWilson

5008 silver badges8 bronze badges

I had a few massive VS2015 Community crashes.

Delete all the .csproj.user files

which were full of null characters, and also these

C:UsersUserNameAppDataLocalTemp

.NETFramework,Version=v4.0.AssemblyAttributes.cs
.NETFramework,Version=v4.5.AssemblyAttributes.cs
.NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2.AssemblyAttributes.cs

answered Feb 9, 2017 at 13:03

CRice's user avatar

CRiceCRice

12.2k7 gold badges57 silver badges84 bronze badges

In my case, I got this error because of an empty packages.config file.
This caused the NUGET package manager to fail and show the error Root element is missing.
The resolution was to copy over elements from another non-empty file and then change it according to the needs.

Example (packages.config):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<packages>
 <package id="Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization" version="1.1.3" targetFramework="net451"/>
 <package id="Newtonsoft.Json" version="5.0.4" targetFramework="net451"/>
</packages>

answered Mar 1, 2018 at 14:38

Matt's user avatar

MattMatt

25.2k18 gold badges119 silver badges184 bronze badges

In my case, i was using vs 2010 with crystal report. Innerexception revealed root element is missing error. Go to directory like C:UserssamAppDataLocaldssmsdssms.vshost.exe_Url_uy5is55gioxym5avqidulehrfjbdsn131.0.0.0 which is given in the innermessage and make sure user.config is proper XML (mine was blank for some reason).

answered Mar 29, 2018 at 10:40

Nie Selam's user avatar

Nie SelamNie Selam

1,3232 gold badges24 silver badges55 bronze badges

In my case the problem occurred due to closing my PC while visual studio were remain open, so in result csproj.user file saved empty. Thankfully i have already backup, so i just copied all xml from csproj.user and paste in my affected project csproj.user file ,so it worked perfectly.

This file just contain building device info and some more.

answered Jan 15, 2019 at 6:35

Mir's user avatar

MirMir

4011 gold badge7 silver badges16 bronze badges

No one of these solutions fixed my problem.

In my case, I finished my work and I shut down my computer. The day after I wasn’t able to compile my project. I tried some of these solutions and I realized all my projects weren’t work.

To Fix it, I reinstall .net core Framework.

Visual Studio 2017

answered Jul 17, 2019 at 0:18

AFetter's user avatar

AFetterAFetter

3,3256 gold badges37 silver badges60 bronze badges

Microsoft Customer Care Framework 2009 Microsoft Customer Care Framework 2009 Service Pack 1 More…Less

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

  • You run an application that uses the Microsoft Customer Care Framework 2009 Service Pack 1 (SP1) quick fix engineering (QFE) client.

  • You do not configure any non-hosted applications.

  • You start the Customer Care Framework client.

In this scenario, you receive an error message that resembles the following:

root element is missing.

Cause

This issue occurs because the Customer Care Framework client does not check whether the list of non-hosted applications is null when the client retrieves the list. When you start the client, the startNonHostedApplicationsClient_GetNonHostedApplicationsCompleted method in the Microsoft.Ccf.Desktop.UI.Core assembly starts. The method is used to check the list of non-hosted applications. However, the method does not check whether the list is null. This causes the error that is described in the “Symptoms” section.

Resolution

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft. However, it is intended to correct only the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Customer Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=supportNote In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

Prerequisites

You must have CCF 2009 SP1 Quick Fix Engineering (QFE) installed to apply this hotfix.

Restart requirement

You do not have to restart the computer after you apply the hotfix if the affected files are not being used.

Hotfix replacement information


This hotfix does not replace any other hotfixes.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time item in Control Panel.

File name

File version

File size

Date

Time

Platform

Microsoft.Ccf.Desktop.Ui.Core.dll

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

Status

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the «Applies to» section.

Need more help?

Want more options?

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

User1491413197 posted

Hi there,

Am trying to create a conctact form where in the webservice i have a method call insert.

But when i invoke the method i get an error:

System.Xml.XmlException: Root element is missing.
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ThrowWithoutLineInfo(String res)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadNode(Boolean skipOverWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc)
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(String filename)
   at Service.insert(String firstname, String lastname, String age, String StreetAddress, String City, String State, String Country, String PostalCode, String phonenumber, String mobilenumber, String officenumber, String emailaddress) in c:UsersJayDocumentsVisual Studio 2013WebSitesWebSite3App_CodeService.cs:line 31

Here is my code >

[WebMethod]
public string insert(string firstname, string lastname, string age, string StreetAddress, string City, string State, string Country, string PostalCode, string phonenumber, string mobilenumber, string officenumber, string emailaddress)
{
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();

xmlDoc.Load(«C:/Users/Jay/Documents/Visual Studio 2013/WebSites/WebSite3/App_Data/contact.xml»);
XmlNode rootNode = xmlDoc.DocumentElement;
String save = «»;
try
{
XmlNode userNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«ContactXML»);
rootNode.AppendChild(userNode);

XmlNode FirstName = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«FirstName»);
FirstName.InnerText = firstname;
userNode.AppendChild(FirstName);

XmlNode LastName = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«LastName»);
LastName.InnerText = lastname;
userNode.AppendChild(LastName);

XmlNode Age = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«Age»);
Age.InnerText = age;
userNode.AppendChild(Age);

XmlNode Address = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«Address»);
XmlNode streetAddress = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«streetAddress»);
streetAddress.InnerText = StreetAddress;
XmlNode city = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«city»);
city.InnerText = City;
XmlNode state = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«State»);
state.InnerText = State;
XmlNode country = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«Country»);
country.InnerText = Country;
XmlNode postalCode = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«postalCode»);
postalCode.InnerText = PostalCode;
Address.AppendChild(streetAddress);
Address.AppendChild(city);
Address.AppendChild(state);
Address.AppendChild(country);
Address.AppendChild(postalCode);
userNode.AppendChild(Address);

XmlNode ContactNumber = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«ContactNumber»);
XmlNode PhoneNumber = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«PhoneNumber»);
PhoneNumber.InnerText = phonenumber;
XmlNode MobileNumber = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«MobileNumber»);
MobileNumber.InnerText = mobilenumber;
XmlNode OfficeNumber = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«OfficeNumber»);
OfficeNumber.InnerText = officenumber;
XmlNode EmailAddress = xmlDoc.CreateElement(«EmailAddress»);
EmailAddress.InnerText = emailaddress;
ContactNumber.AppendChild(PhoneNumber);
ContactNumber.AppendChild(MobileNumber);
ContactNumber.AppendChild(OfficeNumber);
ContactNumber.AppendChild(EmailAddress);
userNode.AppendChild(ContactNumber);

save = «Contact succesfully added»;
xmlDoc.Save(«C:/Users/Jay/Documents/Visual Studio 2013/WebSites/WebSite3/App_Data/contact_xml.xml»);

}
catch (Exception ex)
{
save = «Access Denied!»;

}

return save;

}

When updating all Chocolatey packages, the following error message appears:

Root element is missing.
See the log for details (C:ProgramDatachocolateylogschocolatey.log).

chocolatey.log details

2020-05-19 11:44:14,947 22876 [DEBUG] - Sending message 'PostRunMessage' out if there are subscribers...
2020-05-19 11:44:14,953 22876 [ERROR] - Root element is missing.
2020-05-19 11:44:14,958 22876 [ERROR] - More Details: System.Xml.XmlException: Root element is missing.
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
   at System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Load(XmlReader reader, LoadOptions options)
   at NuGet.XmlUtility.LoadSafe(Stream input, Boolean ignoreWhiteSpace)
   at NuGet.Manifest.ReadFrom(Stream stream, IPropertyProvider propertyProvider, Boolean validateSchema)
   at NuGet.LocalPackage.ReadManifest(Stream manifestStream)
   at NuGet.UnzippedPackage.EnsureManifest(String manifestFilePath)
   at NuGet.LocalPackageRepository.OpenPackage(String path)
   at NuGet.LocalPackageRepository.GetPackage(Func`2 openPackage, String path)
   at NuGet.LocalPackageRepository.<GetPackages>d__28.MoveNext()
   at NuGet.CollectionExtensions.AddRange[T](ICollection`1 collection, IEnumerable`1 items)
   at NuGet.LocalPackageRepository.FindPackagesById(Func`2 openPackage, String packageId)
   at NuGet.PackageRepositoryExtensions.FindPackagesById(IPackageRepository repository, String packageId)
   at NuGet.PackageRepositoryExtensions.FindPackage(IPackageRepository repository, String packageId, SemanticVersion version, IPackageConstraintProvider constraintProvider, Boolean allowPrereleaseVersions, Boolean allowUnlisted)
   at chocolatey.infrastructure.app.services.NugetService.upgrade_run(ChocolateyConfiguration config, Action`1 continueAction, Boolean performAction, Action`1 beforeUpgradeAction)
   at chocolatey.infrastructure.app.services.NugetService.upgrade_run(ChocolateyConfiguration config, Action`1 continueAction, Action`1 beforeUpgradeAction)
   at chocolatey.infrastructure.app.services.ChocolateyPackageService.perform_source_runner_function[T](ChocolateyConfiguration config, Func`2 function)
   at chocolatey.infrastructure.app.services.ChocolateyPackageService.upgrade_run(ChocolateyConfiguration config)
   at chocolatey.infrastructure.app.runners.GenericRunner.run(ChocolateyConfiguration config, Container container, Boolean isConsole, Action`1 parseArgs)
   at chocolatey.infrastructure.app.runners.ConsoleApplication.run(String[] args, ChocolateyConfiguration config, Container container)
   at chocolatey.console.Program.Main(String[] args)

Version info

Tested with Chocolatey v0.10.15

You may get the ‘root element is missing’ error message if some of the XML files from  %localappdata%Red GateSQL Prompt 10 are corrupted.

To fix it, please try the following steps:

1. Uninstall SQL Prompt

2. Copy your style and snippets folder and save in another folder

3. Delete the files in %localappdata% > Red Gate > SQL Prompt 10

4. Reinstall SQL Prompt

5. If necessary, copy the custom style files and custom snippets over to the newly created SQL Prompt 10 folder respectively

Have more questions? Submit a request

Понравилась статья? Поделить с друзьями:
  • Ошибка requested service not found
  • Ошибка romeo p 59 100
  • Ошибка request failed with status code 503
  • Ошибка romeo c 30 116 the division
  • Ошибка request failed with status code 500 аршин