Today, the "Upload Last Build" feature of Visual Micro for VS 2019 stopped working.  The "Micro Build" Output is like that shown below.
Before selecting "Upload Last Build", I can see in the build folder that the last build happened and there are the appropriate .bin files.
After selecting "Upload Last Build" all the files in the build folder get deleted (which should not occur!) so of course the upload then fails.

This feature used to work great but now it is broken.

I was using build 2025_0120_1900 so I just upgraded to 2025_0314_1900.  However, the problem persists.

Any advice on what has gone wrong and how to fix the problem?

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Uploader started for board ESP32 Dev Module(esp32_esp32)
Upload method will be: bootloader
Uploading via Bootloader 
ool.exe --chip esp32 --port "COM7" --baud 921600 --before default_reset --after hard_reset write_flash -z --flash_mode dio --flash_freq 80m --flash_size 4MB 0x1000 .ino.bootloader.bin" 0x8000 .ino.partitions.bin" 0xe000 s/partitions/boot_app0.bin" 0x10000 .ino.bin"
usage: esptool write_flash [-h] [--erase-all]
                           [--flash_freq {keep,80m,60m,48m,40m,30m,26m,24m,20m,16m,15m,12m}]
                           [--flash_mode {keep,qio,qout,dio,dout}]
The uploader process failed
                           [--flash_size {detect,keep,256KB,512KB,1MB,2MB,2MB-c1,4MB,4MB-c1,8MB,16MB,32MB,64MB,128MB}]
                           [--spi-connection SPI_CONNECTION] [--no-progress]
                           [--verify] [--encrypt]
                           [--encrypt-files <address> <filename> [<address> <filename> ...]]
                           [--ignore-flash-encryption-efuse-setting] [--force]
                           [--compress | --no-compress]
                           <address> <filename> [<address> <filename> ...]
esptool write_flash: error: argument <address> <filename>: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: .ino.bootloader.bin'
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Thank you for that response.  When I made my post, the "error" was happening very frequently (but not every time).  While waiting for your thoughts, I did other (non Visual Micro related) work.  After your response, I went back to gather the build data you requested but I could not replicate the error - very frustrating.   

I can watch for it to recur but it means that I will have always do a build and then a separate "upload last build".  This also means that I will always need to save to a file every build in the hopes that the subsequent "upload last build" gives the error.  That is starting to sound tedious.  Is there a way to have Visual Micro save the output of each build to a separate log file?  If so, then I can do that and, when the "upload last build" error occurs again, I can just send the most recent build log that is associated with that error.

Please let me know if that is a possibility.

Related question:   

What would cause the "upload last build" feature to delete files in the build folder (For me, using an ESP32 board in Windows, that is the "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp\VMBuilds\[SolutionName]\esp32_esp32\[SolutionConfigurationName]\" folder.   

Normally, the only time I see files disappear from the [SolutionConfigurationName] folder is when I use the Visual Studio "Build > Clean Solution" menu sequence.  Does the "upload last build" feature do some kind of check and then sometimes trigger a "Clean Solution"?  At least that is what it looked like to me.

None of the changes you described were done.

One thing that might have been different is that I might have had the option "Save Board, Port and Programmer For Each Configuration" on (I normally have it off).  However I have since then tried "Upload Last Build" with that option both on and off and the "Upload Last Build" worked so that is not, by itself at least, the problem.

Another thing that may be a factor is that I use custom Visual Studio Build Configurations (not "Release" and "Debug" but instead things like "BuildVariant_1" and "BuildVariant_2") to manage the builds on different variants of the same project.  This creates the following types of Visual Micro build paths:

"C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp\VMBuilds\Project_A\esp32_esp32\BuildVariant_1\"
"C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp\VMBuilds\Project_A\esp32_esp32\BuildVariant_2\"

This approach prevents the various builds from overwriting each other.  To be clear, the differences in the build variants is in my code, NOT in how Visual Micro is configured.  In all cases, I use the same Visual Micro configuration (including the board package, board options, etc. - yes, I know that above I indicated I was trying out the "Save Board, Port and Programmer For Each Configuration" feature at one point but I stopped because I was never actually changing said configuration).

This use of different Visual Studio Build Configurations is a good strategy for my use case though I suspect it may not be commonly used so it is an area you might look at for tracking down this "Upload Last Build" failure issue.

I will email you the Build_Output.txt and Upload_Last_Build_Output.txt files separately.

Thanks for the report.  From your folder paths it looks like your build folder is being synced by OneDrive.

Does it help if the build folder is located outside of any OneDrive (or other) Synchronisation software which may be causing locks (which generates the error "A clean Visual Micro build is required but the temporary build folder was in use and could not be deleted").

also the issue does not happen tell i t hit the upload button

Quote:


Understood about the folder, and that it clears when you press the "Upload Last Build" button.

The Build Folder can be set in the project under Tools > Options > vMicro > Compiler > Build Folder (I believe yours is set to:
C:\Users\beent\OneDrive - Two Sense LLC\Chatterbox

Quote:

It sounds odd that it didn't prompt for the IDE, and the log attached previously shows it being the "Arduino 1.6/1.8" IDE selection (with the path set to C:\Program Files (x86) Arduino1).

Could you attach the full build output from the same project again so we can review if anything else has visibly changed from the reinstallation?

Thanks for the update and continued detail on this issue.

When it clears the Build Folder when clicking Upload Last Build, do you see the .vm_sys folder is still present?

The only way I have been able to replicate this fully is to lock that folder from deletion, which then gives the same error messages you are seeing, and when I click Upload Last Build it clears all files from the build folder (except .vm_sys as it is locked).

Either way we will improve the logging in this area to ensure it is clearer as to the specific reason this is happening.

The latest release (2025.0423.0) has the improved logging for this scenario (example below), and can be downloaded from the top of the below board:
https://www.visualmicro.com/forums/YaBB.pl?board=VS_ARDUINO_EXT_RELEASES

We have also added a documentation page covering this below:
https://www.visualmicro.com/page/Error-Build-Folder-In-Use.aspx

im sorry i just realized the messages in this thread were out of order as far as question about folders all folders are there but they are all empty see attachment

all sub folder are there but all contents are gone no files just folders   

I was able to delete manually all the folders

Thanks for the detail about the folders, we will continue to look at improving the logging and any resilience we can to this issue.

If it does happen again on the latest build the additional logging should help determine what is locking the folders at the time.