Question

I’ve found this question many times on Google and on StackOverflow, though none answer my scenario.

I’m trying to remotely debug a web service, remote debugging is set up correctly, I’ve deployed the latest build (along with pdb files) and attached the debugger to the w3wp process on the remote machine. Once attached however, all of my break points are automatically disabled (Breakpoint will not currently be hit. No symbols have been loaded for this document). Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

I’ve tried the following so far:

• set ‘Generate Debug Information’ to ‘FULL’ in advanced compile options.
• set ‘Enable Optimisations’ to ‘False’ in advanced compile options.
• In the Modules window the symbol status is ‘Skipped loading symbols
  • tried loading symbols manually
  • tried changing symbol file locations in symbol settings to the remote pdb file
• cleaned and rebuild the solution before deployment
• I tried unchecking ‘Just My Code’ in the debugging options, that appeared to solve the problem, but when I called the web service, no break points were hit.
• This site looked promising, but didn’t help in the end
• the pdb is on the remote machine

Answer 1

After much messing around I seemed to have achived what I wanted:

• in advanced compile options
  • set ‘Generate Debug Information’ to ‘FULL’.
  • set ‘Enable Optimisations’ to ‘False’.
• Ensure symbol file locations (debug – modules window) in symbol settings point to the correct location
  • I added the remote location and the local location to the .pdb locations
• cleaned and rebuild the solution before deployment