2

Whenever I try to delete (or even exclude) any file from my VS2015 C++ project, I get the following message:

File '...' cannot be removed. The most likely reason is that the file is under source code control and cannot be removed at this time.

Trying to search for this error message gives no results anywhere - am I the only one that has ever got it?

I use perforce, and all the files are checked out, so VS should not know anything about version control.

The only solution I can find is to remove the files from vcxproj file manually, which is very tedious.

Update: the problem seems to be with Perforce plugin. Disabling it allows me to remove files again. This is strange, because I never configured it for this specific project. I also tried to switch source control to None, but it kept resetting every time I restart VS.

Improve this question
1
  • This was happening to me. I had to uninstall the Perforce plugin, restart Visual Studio, and then I was able to remove files. Just disabling the plugin had no effect :( Commented Oct 13, 2018 at 22:37

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

I just ran into this issue with Visual Studio 2017. I did some pretty extensive troubleshooting, and found a workaround:

  1. Open the solution/project for which you are seeing this problem.
  2. Open a connection to a perforce depot - even though your solution isn't supposed to be managed by Perforce - by using this option: File / Open Connection to a Perforce Depot...
  3. You should see either a warning dialog or a warning line in the Output tab under Perforce Source Control that says something like "Solution is not under your client's root folder". If you don't see either, you should probably either move your entire solution somewhere that isn't in your client spec (if possible), or exclude the entire solution folder from your perforce client spec. That way, P4VS shouldn't automatically add files in that solution to Perforce.

  4. Navigate to:

    Tools / Options / Source Control / Perforce - General

    ...and uncheck this option to suppress the annoying warning dialog from step 3 that would otherwise appear every time you open that solution:

    Warn if solution is outside workspace root

Now, you should be able to remove files again without P4VS interfering. (Fair warning: This workaround may have other side effects that I don't know about, but it has worked for me so far.)

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

0

Nothing worked for me so I just opened the project file in a text editor and manually removed the offending files. At some point my build target had changed as well, so a possible reason for this happening was I was trying to remove the files while a different build target was selected to when they were added.

Improve this answer

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.