msvsmon.exe crashed when debugging

Question

When I debugging in VS2013 update3, msvsmon.exe crashed when hit at a breakpoint.

It shows \"The debugger\'s worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging

Answer 1

I've just had the problem in VS 2015. I hadn't noticed that one of my breakpoints was bogus - I had inadvertently pressed F9 to set a breakpoint when the disassembly window was showing in the previous debugging session. The solution was simply to delete that one bogus breakpoint - I got to keep all my others.

Answer 2

Deleting all of the breakpoints solves the problem when I hit this error. Disabling the breakpoints was not enough - they had to be deleted.

I was able to attach to a process numerous times. Once I added a conditional breakpoint (with a few checks), I started getting this error when attempting to attach to that same process.

The error provided in the question is one problem. I also received an error stating that a debugger was already attached when I tried again. Either way, deleting breakpoints solved it.

Answer 3

This error just occurred for me with visual studio 2015 RTM. Deleting all the breakpoints resolved the "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted" condition.

So If you clear all your breakpoints, in your version, you will not need to avoid using MSVSMON.exe.

Answer 4

This (or something that manifests in exactly the same way) is still an issue in VS2017. In my case it was caused by a dependency being too large to debug. The dependency in question was a generated client for a large REST API. I was able to debug again after slimming down that dependency.

Answer 5

Try turning on Options > Debugging > General > "Use Managed Compatibility Mode"

I got this error/crash too while debugging and trying to inspect a variable with 50 MB of text data in it. This option worked in both VS2013 and in VS2015 to allow me to debug and inspect the variable with large data.

Answer 6

I hit this in Visual Studio 2019 (16.4.3) (C++) with a cause that I have not seen mentioned: I had accidentally added a Watch with incorrect syntax that was attempting to instantiate a singleton rather than returning the existing instance.

Repeatedly choosing right click > Clear All in the Watches view while debugging fixed the issue.