TypeScript "Compile on save" feature not working in Visual Studio 2015

Nathan Friend picture Nathan Friend · Jul 31, 2015 · Viewed 59.1k times · Source

The "Compile on save" feature isn't working for me after upgrading to Visual Studio 2015. When I make a change to a .ts file in my project and save, the status bar at the bottom of the IDE says Output(s) generated successfully, but the generated .js file doesn't change.

Here's what I've tried:

  • adding the following to the root <Project> element in my .csproj:

    <PropertyGroup>
        <TypeScriptCompileOnSaveEnabled>True</TypeScriptCompileOnSaveEnabled>
    </PropertyGroup>
    
  • checking and unchecking the "Automatically compile TypeScript files which are not part of a project" option in Tools -> Options -> TypeScript -> Project:

    enter image description here

  • double checking to make sure "Compile on save" is checked in my project's TypeScript Build properties:

    enter image description here

What am I missing?

As a side note, the TypeScript compilation step does work as expected when triggered by a regular build.

Answer

Miłosz Wierzbicki picture Miłosz Wierzbicki · Mar 15, 2016

For me it was this option in tsconfig.json:

"compileOnSave": true,
"compilerOptions": { ... },

Restart Visual Studio for this change to take effect.