Null reference pointer was passed to the stub when not debugging with IE

Question

In VS2012, my web project debugs fine like always. I use IIS Express. Today, I installed VS 2013 and when I press F5 to debug, I get

Answer 1

I've just had the opposite problem, which the last post solved for me!

I've upgraded a Silverlight project from VS2010 to VS2013 (and I can confirm that if you've used a Domain Service you're in trouble; despite what Microsoft say, the project would NOT compile under 2013 and gave an error for EVERY edmx datatype, stored procedure etc!).

When I finally got it compiled after a day's slog (and no it's not backwards compatible, this is a 1-way upgrade), it ran, but behaved slightly differently. So I put in some breakpoints which it proceeded to completely ignore.

The Silverlight debugger needs to be checked but wasn't. I assumed it was part of the vbproj file? Have had no problems with the IE settings.

Ade

Answer 2

Undesirable workaround for a seemingly related problem (not an answer):

I created a new Silverlight project in VS2013 (express edition, C#) and got nearly the same error upon trying to run the application in debug mode (by pressing F5). The error message also ended with 'A null reference pointer was passed to the stub.'

I set my default browser to IE10 and now the debug mode for Silverlight applications in C# in VS 2013 (express edition) works fine.

Answer 3

I had this problem and it was caused by IE not being the default browser. You can correct this by following this answer

Visual Studio opens the default browser instead of Internet Explorer

Answer 4

The answer was given by @ScottG in his edit, but here's a clearer explanation:

Open your Web Project Properties settings, click the Web tab, and under 'Debuggers,' unclick 'Silverlight.' Obviously, if you're needing to debug silverlight another solution will have to be found, until the VStudio team fixes this bug.