How to fix “containing working copy admin area is missing” in SVN?

Question

I deleted manually a directory I just added, offline, in my repository. I can\'t restore the directory.

Any attempt to do an update or a commit will fail with:

Answer 1

I had the same problem, when I was trying to switch "C:\superfolder"

Error messages:

Directory 'C:\superfolder\subfolder\.svn'
containing
working copy admin area is missing
Please execute the 'Cleanup' command.

After trying to do a "cleanup", I got the following error:

 Cleanup failed to process the following paths:
 C:\superfolder\
'C:\superfolder\subfolder\' is not a working copy directory

Solution:

1. Delete the folder "subfolder"
2. Clean up the folder "superfolder"
3. Try to switch again the folder "superfolder"

this worked for me. Please let me know if it also works for you.

Answer 2

I had this error recently, when the files were excluded by settings in my SVN globals. The error was especially nasty since I also deleted the files directly from the repository - and this meant that the above solutions were refusing wouldn't work. In this case, manually deleting the .svn directory from the directory that I removed from SVN allowed me to run an update which then allowed me to commit.

Answer 3

For me, the same issue happened when I both:

• deleted (--force) a .map file
• added *.map to svn:ignore via svn propedit svn:ignore .

My solution was to:

1. undo changes to the property
2. commit changes to the files
3. checkout a fresh copy of the repository (alas!)
4. change the property and commit

Answer 4

The error "Directory 'blah/.svn' containing working copy admin area is missing" occurred when I attempted to add the directory to the repository, but did not have enough filesystem privileges to do so. The directory was not already in the repository, but it was claiming to be under version control after the failed add.

Checking out a copy of the parent directory to another location, and replacing the .svn folder in the parent dir of the working copy allowed me to add and commit the new directory successfully (after fixing the file permissions, of course).

Answer 5

We use maven and svn. It was an mistaken checkin of target directory to SVN that cause this error. Removing that fixed everything, if this hint helps anyone.

Answer 6

I had this issue. Just move blabla to another location temporarily, tell svn to revert it, and then move it back. It is treated as a new addition. Simple!