C# – How to enable NuGet Package Restore in Visual Studio

asp.netc++nugetnuget-package-restorevisual-studio-2015

There's a similar post on stack but it doesn't help with my issue possibly because I am using Visual Studio 2015.

How do I get the "Enable NuGet Package Restore" option to appear in VS2015?

I chose File > New Project and created an empty ASP.NET Web Application. I'm looking for this menu option.

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I should mention that I have looked for any pre-existing nuGet files in my project folder and there are none.

Best Solution

It took far too long but I finally found this document on Migrating MSBuild-Integrated solutions to Automatic Package Restore and I was able to resolve the issue using the methods described here.

  1. Remove the '.nuget' solution directory along from the solution
  2. Remove all references to nuget.targets from your .csproj or .vbproj files. Though not officially supported, the document links to a PowerShell script if you have a lot of projects which need to be cleaned up. I manually edited mine by hand so I can't give any feedback regarding my experience with it.

When editing your files by hand, here's what you'll be looking for:

Solution File (.sln)

Project("{2150E333-8FDC-42A3-9474-1A3956D46DE8}") = ".nuget", ".nuget", "{F4AEBB8B-A367-424E-8B14-F611C9667A85}"
ProjectSection(SolutionItems) = preProject
    .nuget\NuGet.Config = .nuget\NuGet.Config
    .nuget\NuGet.exe = .nuget\NuGet.exe
    .nuget\NuGet.targets = .nuget\NuGet.targets
EndProjectSection
EndProject

Project File (.csproj / .vbproj)

  <Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets" Condition="Exists('$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets')" />
  <Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
    <PropertyGroup>
      <ErrorText>This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. Enable NuGet Package Restore to download them.  For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=322105. The missing file is {0}.</ErrorText>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <Error Condition="!Exists('$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', '$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets'))" />
  </Target>
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