Problem

My Visual Studio console application build was failing without showing any errors in the output console. Even "Clean Solution" would fail silently, despite setting MSBuild verbosity to "Detailed".

Root Cause

The application was creating directories and files with names that, combined with the already deep project path, exceeded Windows' MAX_PATH limit (260 characters).

Solution

1. Unload the project (right-click → "Unload Project")

2. Reload the project to identify problematic files

3. Shorten generated file/directory names in code

Technical Notes

• Windows has a default 260-character path limit

• MSBuild often fails silently when encountering this limit