Hi,
I have downloaded the latest Unity and Visual Studio versions, and I’m trying to debug a script but I can’t see the “Attach to Unity” button in Visual Studio, I have seen some videos and the button should be here:
I tried to search but I couldn’t find anything related to the missing button, any ideas?
Thanks!
What version of visual studio do you use? The one that comes packaged with unity seems to work fine out of the box for me…
I have Visual Studio Community 2015 with the Unity plugin installed
I also tried to download it from here: Game Development and Debugging | Visual Studio
Did you try the one packaged with the unity install? Or downloaded separately?
I tried both of them, first with the one packaged with Unity and then the other one
Hmm. So you say you also used the “vs tools for unity” (I think thats what the installer says) when installing right? If that all went correctly I’m not sure why thats happening, because I see the button:
The ‘button’ is a menu item under ‘Debug’. There’s no button on the main interface. The ‘Attach…’ button that MD_Reptile is showing is for attaching to standard applications (not Unity ones).
Opps my bad.
I question the correctness of the highlighted (red) portion of the above statement. The below is a screenshot shows that the Start button is replaced with Attach to Unity.
[Image lost to time, Sorry]
Currently I have it attached correctly, yet my co-worker next to me can’t get it to attach. We’ve both selected VS 2017 in the unity preferences as that came installed by default (5.6) Both have VS2017 tools for unity installed and enabled.
EDIT: This fixed it for my co workers (YMMV):
Close VS
In Unity Select File > Build Settings
Select the Development Build Checkbox
Save Project
In Edit > Preferences > External Tools
Re-select your VS IDE (VS 2017)
Double Click a script and let Unity initialize VS
The highlighted text is correct. The standard “Attach…” button that is shown when you have no solution open is for attaching to non-Unity applications. It is equivalent to selecting “Debug->Attach to Process…”, when what you want for Unity apps is “Debug->Attach Unity Debugger”.
If you have a button on the main interface that says “Attach to Unity”, then that’s a different button to what I (and MD_Reptile) was talking about. If you have this button (I don’t, “Attach…” becomes “Start” for me when I have a solution open) it’s probably safe to use it.
This worked for me as well. Thanks!
Thanks !
This was crucial for me.
Also I didn’t installed the unity extension at all so you might need to install the extension using “Visual Studio Installer”.
(Source: https://discussions.unity.com/t/647763 )
I am having this same issue. I have tried all of the suggestions posted here, and it still has not fixed my issue. My debugger button just says “Start”. I do seem to have Unity specific intelliSense. However, if I right click as I have seen some do there is supposed to be an option to implement some Unity specific methods, and I am not seeing that option either.
I have uninstalled Unity and Visual Studio and reinstalled them several times without any real result. Also when installing Visual Studio Community 2017, I only select the to install Game Development with Unity option, everything else is default.
I have set Visual Studio 2017 Community as my default external editor in Unity preferences. I also have “Create Visual Studio Solution” and “Development Build” selected in the build settings.
I have no idea what else to do… I am able to attach the debugger through the debug menu. However, doing this over and over becomes cumbersome and inconvenient when you have to do it so many times.
Current Unity Build Version: 2018.3.0f2
Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2017
Version 15.9.5
VisualStudio.15.Release/15.9.5+28307.280
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 4.7.03190
Installed Version: Community
C# Tools 2.10.0-beta2-63501-03+b9fb1610c87cccc8ceb74a770dba261a58e39c4a
C# components used in the IDE. Depending on your project type and settings, a different version of the compiler may be used.
NuGet Package Manager 4.6.0
NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio. For more information about NuGet, visit http://docs.nuget.org/.
ProjectServicesPackage Extension 1.0
ProjectServicesPackage Visual Studio Extension Detailed Info
Visual Basic Tools 2.10.0-beta2-63501-03+b9fb1610c87cccc8ceb74a770dba261a58e39c4a
Visual Basic components used in the IDE. Depending on your project type and settings, a different version of the compiler may be used.
Visual Studio Code Debug Adapter Host Package 1.0
Interop layer for hosting Visual Studio Code debug adapters in Visual Studio
Visual Studio Tools for Unity 3.9.0.3
Visual Studio Tools for Unity
Any help will be much appreciated!
Same problem here. Odd thing is, when at first I am starting up VS, as it is loading I can see the Attach to Unity button. However when it finishes loading, the button is replaced by the Start button. Not sure what’s going on…
may be some updates make this error. Same thing happens to me today. I am using vs 2019 for unity. Tools for unity is installed. But I can not see attach to unity button.
I have vs 2019 and vs 2017 both could this be a reason for this ?
I have deleted vs 2017 and problem still exists
I have tried deleting vs tools for unity for 2019 and reinstall it. Still not solved.
please take a look at this post
This answer works for me at least
Thanks for posting what solved it for you! 
removing the (hidden) .vs folder from my unity-project-folder finally resolved this problem for me
