Some Toolkit components could not be initialized. Some functionality may not work during this IDE session

[awschristou]

Symptoms

Within a minute of starting Visual Studio, the AWS Toolkit’s output pane displays one of the following messages:

• Some Toolkit components could not be initialized. Some functionality may not work during this IDE session.
• Some Toolkit components could not be initialized. Some functionality may not work during this IDE session. If this issue persists, please see guidance on https://github.com/aws/aws-toolkit-visual-studio/issues/452

When this happens, some features of the extension are not operational, for example:

• CodeArtifact authentication
• accessing CodeCommit from Team Explorer
• cloning CodeCatalyst Repositories
• Amazon Q functionality (including inline suggestions and Chat)

Solution

Have Visual Studio re-generate some of its internal cache files

It is possible that some of Visual Studio's internal bookkeeping got out of sync when an extension is installed. Visual Studio will rebuild these files the next time you launch Visual Studio.

• Close all instances of Visual Studio
• Navigate to %localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio
• Locate the folder corresponding with your Visual Studio 2022 installation. It will start with "17.0_". Go into this folder
• Make a backup copy of privateregistry.bin elsewhere, then delete this file.
• Navigate to the Extensions subfolder
• Make a backup copy of ExtensionMetadata.mpack elsewhere, then delete this file.
• Launch Visual Studio 2022. It will rebuild these cache files.

After this, the extension should be listed as installed, and the AWS Extension should no longer report one of the error messages listed at the top of this issue.

After working through these steps, please share in the comments below whether or not you continue to see the error messages.

Additional solutions

This is being investigated, help us out!

We are actively investigating the root cause of this problem, and are working with the Visual Studio team to find a solution. If this situation happens to you, providing details about your Visual Studio environment to the Visual Studio team will be valuable in helping to solve this problem.

Follow the instructions in this ticket on the Visual Studio developer community to capture and share your environment details over to the team. From the linked comment, click on Provide more info, fill out the form, attach any files privately (by selecting the Microsoft Only option under Privacy Settings) and press Submit.

Suggestions

Here are some actions you can run to try to bring Visual Studio back into a good state.

Check that the AWS Toolkit extension is listed in Visual Studio’s Extension Manager

First, make sure that Visual Studio thinks the extension is properly installed. In Visual Studio, open the Extension Manager, and check that the Installed extension list contains the AWS Toolkit extension. If it doesn’t, work through AWS Toolkit extension does not appear in the Visual Studio Extension Manager to get to a state where Visual Studio has the extension properly installed. Then see if this problem continues.

Check that you have the latest version of the Toolkit installed

Look at the Visual Studio Marketplace to see if there is a newer version of the Toolkit to install. We are continuing to release logging and fixes that help locate and reduce the problem.

Check that you have the latest version of Visual Studio installed

• Close all running instances of Visual Studio.
• From the Windows start menu, Launch Visual Studio Installer.
• Check if the affected installation(s) of Visual Studio have an update, and install it.
• Restart Windows
• After rebooting, launch Visual Studio and see if the “Some functionality may not work during this IDE session.” message continues to display as mentioned in the “Symptoms” section above.

Repair Visual Studio and Restart your system

• Close all running instances of Visual Studio.
• From the Windows start menu, Launch Visual Studio Installer.
• Run Repair on the affected installation(s) of Visual Studio. This will allow Visual Studio to rebuild its index of installed extensions.
• Restart Windows
• After rebooting, launch Visual Studio and see if the “Some functionality may not work during this IDE session.” message continues to display as mentioned in the “Symptoms” section above.

Rebuild Visual Studio’s MEF Component Cache

It is possible for Visual Studio’s MEF component cache to become corrupt when an extension is installed. When this cache is erased, it will be re-created the next time you launch Visual Studio. This is a safe operation that doesn't cause any unwanted side effects.

• Close all running instances of Visual Studio.
• Install the Clear MEF Component Cache extension
• Launch Visual Studio
• From the Tools menu, click Clear MEF Component Cache...
• Click Yes on the confirmation prompt.
• After the operation completes, close Visual Studio.
• You can now re-launch Visual Studio (which will rebuild the MEF cache), and see if the problem continues.

Try re-installing the AWS Toolkit

Try bringing Visual Studio to a clean slate, to flush out any unexpected files.

• Uninstall the extension from Visual Studio
• Reboot Windows
• After rebooting, launch Visual Studio to ensure the extension has been removed. One way you can check is to look under the Extensions menu for an AWS Toolkit menu. If you see one, the extension is still installed in Visual Studio.
• Try to install the latest version of the AWS Toolkit again.

Share your AWS Toolkit Logs

Each time we release a new version of the Toolkit, we want to know if you continue to have the same problem. Every time you run Visual Studio, the Toolkit writes a separate log file to %localappdata%\AWSToolkit\logs\visualstudio\17.0 . Please share a log from a session where you had this problem. You can do this by attaching the log file in a comment down below, or in a new issue.

You can always jump to the log for your current Visual Studio session from the Extensions menu, selecting AWS Toolkit, and View Toolkit Logs.

[jamesp-centrix]

I reinstalled the AWS Toolkit. And it's working for me.

AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio
Toolkit Version: 1.55.1.0
Visual Studio: VS Professional 2022, Version: 17.10.4

The toolkit still disappears on VS restart. To get a more stable solution I uninstalled it and reverted to v1.44.0.0

Get the previous version here: https://github.com/aws/aws-toolkit-visual-studio/releases/tag/v1.44.0.0

[genifycom]

log_2024-08-01_14-03-33_56844.txt
log_2024-08-02_17-40-43_40564.txt
log_2024-08-01_10-01-17_17248.txt

Uninstall and reinstall failed to show AWS Toolkit as installed.

Three logs from today included.

[genifycom]

Note that as before, Extension manager does not show the AWS Toolkit as installed, but the AWS Toolkit menu is available.

[shruti0085]

Hi @genifycom,

From your logs it seems you are on v1.55.0.0, can you please upgrade to the latest version 1.56.0.0 of the toolkit? Also, have you already attempted the guidance to repair Visual Studio and clean out the MEF cache?

If you have, from an instance of Visual Studio where you are encountering your problem can please follow through the steps below to help us collect more data about the problem. We are actively investigating the root cause of this problem, and are working with the Visual Studio team to find a solution.

Follow the instructions in this ticket on the Visual Studio developer community to capture and share your environment details over to the team. From the linked comment, click on Provide more info, fill out the form, attach any files privately (by selecting the Microsoft Only option under Privacy Settings) and press Submit.

[kbiasci-centrix]

Well, it crashes at startup everytime again.
I had removed version 56 and replaced it with version 44 and the version 56 got back somehow. Must have happened when updating Visual Studio to 17.10.6.

So here's how to uninstall v56 :
vsixinstaller.exe /uninstall:0B82CB16-0E52-4363-9BC0-61E758689176

[awschristou]

We have updated the set of instructions to help bring the extension back into a good state. Please see "Have Visual Studio re-generate some of its internal cache files" in the original issue post.

@genifycom, @kbiasci-centrix, and @SDMol if you are able to let us know whether or not this addresses the problem mentioned in the original post, we'd appreciate it. We recommend updating to the latest version available on the marketplace.

[kbiasci-centrix]

We have updated the set of instructions to help bring the extension back into a good state. Please see "Have Visual Studio re-generate some of its internal cache files" in the original issue post.

@genifycom, @kbiasci-centrix, and @SDMol if you are able to let us know whether or not this addresses the problem mentioned in the original post, we'd appreciate it. We recommend updating to the latest version available on the marketplace.

On it, thanks @awschristou :-)

[SDMol]

@SDMol if you are able to let us know whether or not this addresses the problem mentioned in the original post, we'd appreciate it. We recommend updating to the latest version available on the marketplace.

It seems to have worked. So far, so good... :)

[kbiasci-centrix]

So I have uninstalled version 17.11.1 then installed 17.11.2

If I open two instances of VS 2022 with Admin rights then the second one displays the warning:

`AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio
Toolkit Version: 1.57.0.0
Visual Studio: VS Professional 2022, Version: 17.11.2

Unable to initialize some Toolkit features. Some functionality may not work during this IDE session. If this issue persists, please see guidance on #452
Some Toolkit components could not be initialized. Some functionality may not work during this IDE session. If this issue persists, please see guidance on #452
`

After repeating multiple time the operation, it seem to do the same, the first line might doesn't pop every time but the second does.

log_2024-08-29_11-26-47_34932.txt
log_2024-08-29_11-26-03_24008.txt

[shruti0085]

@kbiasci-centrix thanks for sharing you logs.
Apologies for sounding repetitive but could you confirm if you have already tried the steps listed under “Have Visual Studio re-generate some of its internal cache files” in the issue description?

Can you also check if after performing the above steps is the extension listed in the installed list by the extension manager?

[kbiasci-centrix]

@kbiasci-centrix thanks for sharing you logs. Apologies for sounding repetitive but could you confirm if you have already tried the steps listed under “Have Visual Studio re-generate some of its internal cache files” in the issue description?

Can you also check if after performing the above steps is the extension listed in the installed list by the extension manager?

Sorry mate, I just did that and lo and behold, it works perfectly now.
Thanks a lot for the good work, team!