The publish components are not available

Article
2015-11-23

Question

_{Monday, November 23, 2015 2:40 AM}

Error on the Publish tab in Visual Studio 2013 Pro and Visual Studio Community 2015:

An error occurred trying to load the page.
The publish components are not available. You need to reinstall Visual Studio to publish your application.

I've uninstalled VS 2013 twice (tried to clean up left over installed components using Program & Features), reinstalled VS 2013, still had the error. Installed VS 2015 Community and still have the error. I'm publishing an Office Outlook add-in - I've created a 'blank' (simple) add-in and still get the error. I'm running Windows 10 on both PCs (the one that publishes fine and a new laptop with Windows 10 - I'm trying to get set up).

What do I need to clean after VS Studio uninstall to avoid this error once VS is reinstalled. I've been messing with this all day, and it is getting a bit frustrating.

thx
Chris

All replies (17)

_{Tuesday, November 24, 2015 5:38 AM}

Hi Clindstrom,

Thank you for posting in MSDN forum.

>> What do I need to clean after VS Studio uninstall to avoid this error once VS is reinstalled. I've been messing with this all day, and it is getting a bit frustrating.

I suggest you could uninstall your visual studio completely, please take the following steps to remove the shared components of visual studio 2015 or 2013:

1.Download the setup application you used to originally install Visual Studio 2015. If you installed from media, please insert that media.
2.Open a command prompt.
a.Click Run on the Start menu (Start + R).
b.Type cmd and press OK (Enter).
3.Type in the full path to the setup application and pass the following command line switches: /uninstall /force
Example: D:\vs_xxx.exe /uninstall /force

4.Click the Uninstall button and follow the prompts.

Best Regards,

Jiayi Li

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_{Monday, November 30, 2015 3:41 PM}

Jiayi -

Thanks for the note.

I wanted to let you know that your suggestion didn't work for the VS 2015 Community install. I downloaded the .exe from the web (that installs VS 2015 Community version) and ran it with the command line switches you specified and that .exe didn't understand the specified switches.

I have the CD for VS 2013 and will try that (I haven't made the time - Thanksgiving holiday).

thx
Chris

_{Wednesday, December 2, 2015 3:18 AM}

>>I have the CD for VS 2013 and will try that (I haven't made the time - Thanksgiving holiday).

How about the result now? Chris!

So you deploy the office app using the clickonce, am I right?

If so, how about publishing other project type like a simple winform app or others? If all projects have the same issue, one issue is that whether you install your VS using the custom wizard, for example, you could repair your VS from control panel, and enable the option "ClickOnce Publishing Tools" like the following screen shot:

Please also install the VS2013 update 5 for your VS2013, the VS2015 update 1 for your VS2015 version.

And then create a simple app, publish it again.

To make sure that it is not the VS setup issue, please use http://aka.ms/vscollect to gather the VS and .Net Frameowrk installation logs. After using it, you will find vslogs.cab from %temp% folder. Please upload the file to Onedrive and share the link here.

Best Regards,

Jack

_{Thursday, December 3, 2015 4:07 PM}

I had a chance to uninstall VS2013 using the /uninstall /force switch.

It didn't do anything, just installed VS2013 again. I had an error that the VSTO runtime didn't install properly, so I repaired that package - and still had the publish issue.

I'm attempting to uninstall VS2013 using the control and then will try to install again using the 'Custom' config option.

thx
Chris

_{Thursday, December 3, 2015 6:58 PM}

Ok - after uninstalling VS2015 Community and uninstalling VS2013 and then reinstalling VS2013 (from a CD) - I created another Test Addin for Outlook and the publish tab worked.

The original Test Addin for Outlook that was created still causes a crash when the publish tab is selected - so I compared the project files and noticed some differences, e.g. the <publish> keyword was missing from the first Test Addin - so attempted to make the both Test Addin project files (the XML file used to track the project's configuration) similar and the first still crashes on the Publish tab. The second add-in works fine.

I updated VS2013 to update 5 and tried the two add-ins again and got the same result.

I also created a test Winforms app and the publish works fine.

Running out of ideas -

Exasperated -
Chris

_{Monday, December 7, 2015 4:25 AM}

Hi clindstrom,

>>The original Test Addin for Outlook that was created still causes a crash when the publish tab is selected - so I compared the project files and noticed some differences, e.g. the <publish> keyword was missing from the first Test Addin - so attempted to make the both Test Addin project files (the XML file used to track the project's configuration) similar and the first still crashes on the Publish tab. The second add-in works fine.

>>I also created a test Winforms app and the publish works fine.

If just the specific apps have this issue, I'm afraid that it is not VS IDE's issue, we would think about the project itself.

Maybe you could check the detailed steps using the following MSDN document:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb772100(v=vs.120).aspx

To really make sure that whether it is related to your projects, please also publish it in other VS machine.

Actually this forum is to discuss the VS IDE, maybe you could share me a simple sample using one drive, I will publish it in my side using the same Environment as yours.

Best Regards,

Jack

_{Tuesday, December 8, 2015 5:34 PM}

Jack -

How do I share the project files with you? You said use OneDrive, do you have a specific location you'd like me to post the project folders? If you have a specific email address, let me know and I'll share out a folder with both projects.

thx
Chris

_{Wednesday, December 9, 2015 12:17 PM}

@Chris,

Sorry for that we couldn't provide the Email address, but as my previous reply, you could upload it to your OneDrive share folder, and then share me the download link in your new reply, I will download and really repro this issue in my side.

Best Regards,

Jack

_{Friday, December 11, 2015 5:47 PM}

Thanks Jack -

You should be able to view both TestAddins at the following link:

http://1drv.ms/1NSDdvu

TestOutlookAddin is the problem project (i.e. it opens but crashes VS2013 when the Publish tab is selected)

TestOutlookAddin2 works fine.

thx
Chris

_{Monday, December 14, 2015 11:59 AM}

Hi Chris,

Before you publish your app, could you compile your app normally? Did you get any build error in the output or the Error list window?

I just download the TestOutlookAddin, before I publish it using the VS2013 ultimate with update 5, it seems that there are compiled error in my side.

Do I need to modify anything in my side?

Best Regards,

Jack

_{Monday, December 14, 2015 8:45 PM}

Remove the signing certificate - it should compile without it. Or you could create a temporary certificate on your end. SHould be the same result.

thx
Chris

_{Tuesday, December 15, 2015 11:45 AM}

Hi Chris,

I think I could repro this issue as yours.

Since I could repro this issue, to get the issue confirmed and diagnose by product team, would you please create connect report for it? You will get email notification for update.http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/CreateFeedback.aspx

If you submit a report, please share me the link here, I will help you vote it.

Best Regards,

Jack

_{Tuesday, December 15, 2015 6:06 PM}

Thanks Jack -

I've posted the bug report on Connect:

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedbackdetail/view/2132333/publish-components-are-not-available - [Link]

thx
Chris

_{Sunday, March 13, 2016 1:37 AM | 2 votes}

I wanted to mention that I had exactly the same problem.

I couldn't publish my project but I could publish a new project.

The fix for me was to edit the "OfficeVersion" in the ProjectProperties section of the .vbproj.

I basically diff'ed my .vbproj with the .vbproj from the project that worked and found a few differences. Changing the OfficeVersion to 15 (it was 16) is what finally fixed it.

Hope this helps!

_{Wednesday, January 3, 2018 10:14 AM}

I have seen so many forums with this problem and i am experiencing this issue myself. There is no solution for this problem. It is a bug in VS that the developers could not fix before the product was published, hence the reason why you wont find any help, documentation or solution for this. The best option is to do a complete re-install of Windows and try loading VS again. I have found that at least three out of five times it will solve this problem.

_{Thursday, January 18, 2018 8:04 PM}

That did the trick for me, many thanks!!

_{Tuesday, March 6, 2018 3:40 AM}

Does it work? Can you show screenshots for me , Im new in VS 2017

-Thanks

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The publish components are not available

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