Troubleshooting Team Explorer
This topic lists the following common issues that occur when you work with Team Explorer.
The Documents node has a red x and does not list individual documents
The Reports node has a red X and does not list individual reports
Server Reports Version Errors
Cannot Edit Document in Team Explorer
Project Alerts not Working
Problems connection to Team Foundation Server
Problems Updating Work Items
Attachment Upload Failed with Error
Work Item Save is Slow
Web Pages Do Not Appear in Internet Explorer or Visual Studio
If you cannot resolve a problem after reviewing these tips and those in the individual error message help topic, visit the Microsoft Technical Forums for Visual Studio Team System (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54490). These forums provide searchable threads on a variety of troubleshooting topics and are monitored to provide quick responses to your questions.
The Documents Node Has a Red X and Does Not List Individual Documents
If a red X icon .gif "Lost connection icon")
appears on the Documents node in Team Explorer, it indicates that Team Explorer has lost communication with Windows SharePoint Services. You may also notice that the list of individual documents that appeared under the Documents node is no longer displayed.
Possible causes for the loss of communication include the following:
The local computer is not connected to the network.
The computer network is not operating.
The server that hosts Windows SharePoint Services is offline.
A critical file is missing from the server.
The permissions granted to your user account in Windows SharePoint Services are not sufficient to access the team portal site.
Team Foundation Server is using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the Visual Studio Team System version of Team Explorer does not have Service Pack 1 installed.
Solutions
Confirm that the local computer is plugged into the network and can access network resources.
Contact the administrator for the Windows SharePoint Services to confirm that the server is available on the network.
If the server is available on the network, ask the administrator for Windows SharePoint Services to add your user account to the Contributor group. The Team Foundation Server administrator may also be able to grant you the required permission.
If the problem persists, contact your Team Foundation Server administrator.
The Reports Node Has a Red X and Does Not List Individual Reports
If a red X icon appears on the Reports node in Team Explorer, it indicates that Team Explorer has lost communication with the SQL Server Reporting Services server. You may also notice that the list of individual reports that appeared under the Reports node is no longer displayed.
Possible causes for the loss of communication include the following:
The local computer is not connected to the network.
The computer network is not operating.
The server that hosts SQL Server Reporting Services is offline.
A critical file is missing from the server.
The permissions granted to your user account on the SQL Server Reporting Services server are not sufficient to access the reporting site.
Solutions
Confirm that the local computer is plugged into the network and can access network resources.
Contact the administrator for the SQL Server Reporting Services server to confirm that the server is available on the network.
If the server is available on the network, ask the administrator of the SQL Server Reporting Services server to add your user account to the Content Manager or the Readers groups. The Team Foundation Server administrator may also be able to grant you the required permission.
If the problem persists, contact your Team Foundation Server administrator.
Server Reports Version Errors
If there are version problems in the Windows SharePoint Services installation, you may see any one of the following symptoms:
The New Team Project wizard fails when it creates the project portal. The type of error is a SoapException and the error code is 0x81070504.
You receive the warning, "The Windows SharePoint Services virtual server has not been configured for use with ASP.NET 2.0.xxxxx.0" when you connect to the home page of any Windows SharePoint Services Web site on the virtual server.
You open the Windows SharePoint Service Central Administration Web page and click Configure virtual server settings. You can see an option to upgrade, but you cannot modify the settings. There are two possible causes of this problem:
Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 2 was installed, but the virtual servers were not updated correctly.
The version of the .NET Framework used by ASP.NET for any one of the Windows SharePoint Services managed Web sites was changed.
Solution
Log on to the server that hosts SharePoint Products and Technologies, open a Command Prompt window, change to the %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\bin directory, and run the following command:
stsadm.exe -o upgrade -forceupgrade
Cannot Edit Document in Team Explorer
If you modify a document and it becomes read-only, or you cannot save your changes, there may be problems with the Windows SharePoint Services site. This problem only occurs when you use the Documents node in Team Explorer.
Solutions
Edit the same document through the project portal to determine whether the problem is in Windows SharePoint Services or in Team Explorer. If you see the same problem on the project portal, the problem is likely a Windows SharePoint Services configuration problem. See the Windows SharePoint Services Administration Guide for information to help troubleshoot the Windows SharePoint Services configuration.
Wait several minutes and try again. Windows SharePoint Services maintains a lock when you modify a document. If the document was not closed correctly, the lock remains for about 3 to 10 minutes. For more information, see "You receive a "<FileName> is locked for editing by 'another user'" message when you try to modify a document in Windows SharePoint Services. This occurs even though you are the user who previously opened the document" on the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81234).
Project Alerts Not Working
If you create project alerts, but do not receive notifications from the alerts, the e-mail addresses may be incorrect, or the SMTP information or configuration may be incorrect.
Solutions
Check that the e-mail addresses are entered correctly. From the Team menu, select Project Alerts, and verify that each e-mail address is entered correctly.
Check the event log on the application tier to see whether any warnings or errors were reported related to sending alert notifications. Correct any problems reported.
If there are no warnings or errors in the event log, check the SMTP configuration to make sure that it is working correctly. Also check that the SMTP information is specified correctly. For more information, see How to: Configure SMTP Server and E-mail Notification Settings in the Services Web.Config File.
Problems Connecting to Team Foundation Server
If you experience problems connecting to Team Foundation Server from Team Explorer, then Team Foundation Server may not be running, there may be network problems, or you may not have sufficient permissions.
Solutions
Check that basic connectivity to Team Foundation Server is working. Open the following URL: http://<server>:8080/services/v1.0/serverstatus.asmx. If this URL does not connect, contact the Team Foundation Server administrator. For more information, see Strategies for Troubleshooting Team Foundation Server.
Check that you have sufficient permissions for the actions you are performing. If the errors you receive indicate read-only or blocked actions, you may not have permission to act on the data. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.
Check that network connections on your computer are functioning correctly. Try to run other applications that also require network connections. If they also have problems, you probably have a network problem.
Check to see whether the Team Foundation Server name has changed. If the Team Foundation Server name has changed, you must create a new connection to the new server name. For more information, see How to: Connect to Team Foundation Server.
Problems Updating Work Items
If you use Team Explorer to change one or more work items, and then save your work, you may see the error, "Team Foundation could not update the work item because it was already updated by another user, it does not exist, or you do not have permission to update it."
Solutions
Check that the work item is current. If another change was made to the same work item on the Team Foundation server after you opened the work item, you must refresh it before you can make changes to it in Team Explorer.
Check your permissions. You may be prevented from making some changes based on your permissions in the area path and iteration path. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.
Attachment Upload Failed with Error
If an error message appears when you try to save a work item that contains an attachment, see Attachment upload failed with the error: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive.
Work Item Save Is Slow to Complete
If you try to save a work item and the operation is slow or never finishes, see Work item save is slow to complete.
Web Pages Do Not Appear in Internet Explorer or Visual Studio
If you are running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista, you might have trouble opening Web pages or sites from Team Explorer. For example, you might not be able to open the project portal by right-clicking a team project in Team Explorer and then clicking Show Project Portal. For more information, see User Account Control on the Microsoft Web site.
Solutions
Start Internet Explorer as an administrator by clicking Start, clicking All Programs, right-clicking Internet Explorer, and then clicking Run as Administrator.
Add Report Manager, reports, or Web sites for SQL Server Reporting Services to the list of trusted sites in Internet Explorer.