Cannot navigate to the symbol under the caret in VS2017

Question

User2108892867 posted

Hello everyone, I am just wondering if someone has experienced this problem in VS 2017. I have a JS file with angularjs functions. When I tried to navigate to a definition of a function by right clicking and go to definition, I could not do it. It pop up with a message:

"Cannot navigate to the symbol under the caret"

If I used VS2012, it works fine. I created a test JS file with pure javascript and navigate to definition, it works fine. Not sure if I need to install an extension or something to get this to work. 

Any suggestion of how I could solve this? I did a lot of search, but none of the solution worked for me. 

Thanks. 

Answer 1

User-719153870 posted

Hi asplearning,

This seems a really common issue which you can see in

• VS2015: Go To Definition: “Cannot navigate to the symbol under the caret.”
• VS2017: Cannot navigate to the symbol under the caret
• And even in vs2019: Cannot navigate to the symbol under the caret in ASP.NET MVC Projects

As you can see in the 2017 one, the problem can possibly be solved by below ways:

1. Update your VS2017 to latest version
2. Right click on your project - Reference -> Manage Nuget Packages -> search for "Microsoft.Net.Compilers" -> install or update it
3. Delete the .vs folder and open the solution again (please remember to back up the .vs folder in case)

If none of above solutions can help with the problem, please go to the visual studio general questions forum and open a thread there where your problems are more likely to be solved since this forum is about Asp.Net.

Best Regard,

Yang Shen

Answer 2

User2108892867 posted

Thank you for your reply. Yes I tried the solution. But didn't work. Anyway I will post it on the other forum.

Regards