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Any time I paste code into my .cs file, I get the dreaded "You have mixed tabs and spaces. Fix this?" message. It has three options:

Tabify
Untabify
Don't show again

I first tried "Tabify" a few times, until I was finally fed up and selected "Don't show again"; but that was a psyche - I still get it. I even tried "Untabify" but to no avail. Is there some setting I can tweak to prevent this re[o]curring problem?

VisualStudio2013 tabify untabify

B. Clay Shannon
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  • Did you edit your file between the time you selected "Don't show again" and the time the message occurred again? Is it possible that you created a new "mixed tabs and spaces" situation due to your edits? – David K Jun 02 '14 at 19:21
  • It's possible, but I'm not doing anything different than I always have, and I only get that msg with this project/environment (VS 2013). – B. Clay Shannon Jun 02 '14 at 20:24
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    I suspect this really is just a VS2013 thing, because I've frequently encountered files with mixed tabs and spaces and the versions of Visual Studio I have used (several of them, all prior to 2013) have never complained about it. – David K Jun 02 '14 at 21:21
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    Encountered exact same issue in VS2012 – taz Apr 23 '15 at 16:43

4 Answers4

263

Sounds like you have the Visual Studio Productivity Power Tools 2013 installed. Go into its settings and turn off "Fix Mixed Tabs"...

Tools -> Options -> Productivity Power Tools -> Turn Extensions On/Off

If you have the default VS settings, tabs in the editor are converted to spaces. So (in theory) if you clicked Untabify when the message comes up, it should convert all tabs to spaces and the errors should not appear next time. Are you working with other developers who have different tab settings in their IDE?

UPDATE: In Visual Studio 2017 and onward, this is a stand-alone extension named "Fix Mixed Tabs" that can be disabled or uninstalled from "Extensions and Updates" window (Tools > Extensions and Updates).

enter image description here

HappyTown
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Anthony Chu
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  • No, I'm the only one working on this project; it is not in source-control (I just use an add-in that allows me to "Backup Project" whenever I want, and it saves it to a .zip file) – B. Clay Shannon Jun 02 '14 at 22:32
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    LOL... For what it's worth, I just enabled the setting, put a bunch of tabs into my file using Notepad, and then got the prompt. Clicking untabify turned all the tabs into spaces, and I don't get the message again for that file. – Anthony Chu Jun 02 '14 at 22:37
  • After this "productivity tool" cost me a couple hours of debugging, it's getting switched off. It "fixed" a space between classes, changing it to a tab, which because of the way things laid out looked just like a space. Of course, *selecting* that class? Impossible, as it was "classA[tab]classB". – David T. Macknet Feb 09 '16 at 16:57
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    This needs to be updated for VS2017 now. As it turns out, this is its own extension that can be disabled now – Joe Phillips Mar 07 '17 at 16:53
  • @JoePhillips did you find out anything about this for VS2017? I even _deinstalled_ the extension, but _still_ got that annoying message. (btw: the settings for the extension still keep showing up in the vs settings window _after_ deinstallation and restarting). – René Vogt May 08 '17 at 15:09
  • @RenéVogt Disabling or uninstalling should work fine BUT it will still ask for updates if you don't uninstall it. Then you have to disable it again, I think... You might need to close all VS2017 sessions for it to work properly. The VSIX installers are kind of weird – Joe Phillips May 08 '17 at 15:14
80

Update for Visual Studio 2017. If you want to disable the "You have mixed tabs and spaces. Fix this?" message, you should go to

Tools → Extensions and Updates…

In windows which popped up, locate Fix Mixed Tabs (image below) and either click on Disable or Uninstall based on what you want.

Disabling Mixed tabs

Uwe Keim
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Milan Leškanič
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Related: If you do want Productivity Power Tools to notify you of tabs/spaces, but you keep getting the message right after you clicked Fix this then look in Tools > Options > Text Editor > [language] > Tabs.

Set this to Keep tabs

If you have it set to Insert spaces and you click Keep tabs on the Power Tools notification then VS will re-insert spaces after save, causing the notification to immediately pop up again...aaand now you're stuck in a loop.

Koert van Kleef
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3

Edit file with vim run :retab and save the file and it is done !.

vim file 
:retab
:wq

with :retab you can convert all tabs in spaces , if you set expandtab (:set expandtab ) it means that expand all tabs in spaces or vice-versa (:set noexpandtab) and all tabs made with space will be converted to tabs.

Sérgio
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