VS 2019 Debugger returns Unable to perform function evaluation on the process being debugged error on any Watch.

Paul Sander 1

I'm attempting to debug a VB function in a Winform app with VS2019 in a project that was recently migrated from VS2010. I had no problems with Watches in VS2010 - the problem has only cropped up since upgrading to VS2019. I get the following on anything that isn't a static variable:

Any feedback would be appreciated.

1 answer

Michael Taylor 56,346 Reputation points

2022-02-03T19:28:15.75+00:00

The additional info indicates optimizations so are you building your solution with the Debug configuration? If not then you need to build using debug settings otherwise the debugger won't be able to show you anything useful.

Also note that this can happen if you are trying to view something that requires code to execute (aka a property) and that code requires that the debugger run other code (hence the thread info in the message).
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Paul Sander 1 Reputation point

2022-02-03T20:20:07.53+00:00

Running with debug build (or at least it is as far as I can determine):

Michael Taylor 56,346 Reputation points

2022-02-03T21:09:38.403+00:00

It seems you are running a debug build. In the screenshot you are not paused in the debugger so, of course, none of the variable windows will work. Can you show a screenshot of what VS looks like when you're paused in the debugger on a breakpoint and when you are watching a variable in scope. Note that if you are watching variables that aren't in scope then it won't work. Alternatively show the Locals or Autos window instead.
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VS 2019 Debugger returns Unable to perform function evaluation on the process being debugged error on any Watch.

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