TypeScript “Compile on save” feature not working in Visual Studio 2015

Question

The \"Compile on save\" feature isn\'t working for me after upgrading to Visual Studio 2015. When I make a change to a .ts file in my project and save, the sta

Answer 1

In my case, I had installed Visual Studio Community 2015 along side VS 2012. I had been using Web Essentials for typescript in 2012 which appeared to conflict with 2015.

Uninstalling Web Essentials in 2012 fixed the issue for me.

Answer 2

I had a similar but not the same issue in Visual Studio 2019

• My project was set up to use TypeScript 2.9
• I had TypeScript 3.8 installed, and the code did compile, but wouldn't compile on save

I installed the older version, TypeScript 2.9, restarted VS and then it burst into life

Answer 3

For me it was this option in tsconfig.json:

"compileOnSave": true,
"compilerOptions": { ... },

Restart Visual Studio for this change to take effect.

Answer 4

Not sure if this will help anyone.

I though I was having issues compiling, but it was compiling on save. I just didn't have my solution explorer toolbar toggled to show all files.

The file was there, just waiting impatiently to be added to the project.

Answer 5

Solution:

For me, and I am quite sure this is also the case for others, this was due to a mistake in the tsconfig.json.

You need to add "compileOnSave": true. But in the global section not inside compilerOptions.

Wrong:
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "noImplicitAny": false,
    "noEmitOnError": true,
    "removeComments": false,
    "sourceMap": true,
    "target": "es5",
    "compileOnSave": true

  },
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules",
    "wwwroot"
  ]
}

Correct:
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "noImplicitAny": false,
    "noEmitOnError": true,
    "removeComments": false,
    "sourceMap": true,
    "target": "es5"

  },
"compileOnSave": true,
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules",
    "wwwroot"
  ]
}

Best regards,

Anders Both Basechat.

Answer 6

Exact same problem here. I am using Visual Studio 2015 update 3 and TypeScript 2.9.2.0. In tools/options/projects and solutions/external web tools, I upgraded $(PATH) to the second position. With all these configurations, compileOnSave: true doesn't work for me. The workaround solution is open a command line, run ng build --watch on the side and let node take care of auto compilation