New file in folder gets automatically added to TFS (TFVC) pending changes?

Question

Team Foundation Server 2018 / Visual Studio Professional 2017 - Version 15.9.5

When i manually create a new file in Windows Explorer in a certain directory that is part of the TFVC source controlled tree, that file gets automatically added to TFVC pending changes (as "add"). Note that the file is not part of any project. (The solution was opened in Visual Studio at the time the file was created).

This does not happen in other directories. I can add files to windows directories and they will NOT automatically be added to TFS and need to be manually added to TFS within VS Source Explorer. This is the expected behavior for me.

So it seems it is some configuration of a specific folder?, but i can't find it. Didn't even know this was possible. Can you tell me where to look?

FYI, this is a local workspace.

Edit: I have the TFS Explorer extension installed.

Edit: The new file is only added to pending changes when VS is open when creating the file in the folder. I did a test with VS closed, then create new file. Then reopen VS with solution and the file does NOT appear as a pending add.

Answer 1

When your workspace is configured as a Local workspace, files and folders are automatically detected and added (unless excluded by a .tfignore file).

Generally Local Workspaces are way more convenient, and are the default for workspaces with fewer than 100000 files (and with a fast system can exceed that number). It can be beneficial to configure a good tfIgnore file to control what is added automatically and what is ignored.

When there are no explicitly Included changes in your Team Explorer and you're in a local workspace, Visual Studio(2017+ from the to of my head) assumes you want to add all new changes and will auto-include them.

When your workspace is configured as a Server workspace, files and folders need to be manually added/removed, unless the changer are made through an IDE that is aware of the repository (Visual Studio will auto-add changes made in the solution explorer).

You can check the type of your workspace from the commandline:

tf workspaces /format:detailed /collection:https://dev.azure.com/jessehouwing

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise>tf workspaces /format:detailed /collection:https://dev.azure.com/jessehouwing
=======================================================================================================================
Workspace  : JACKIE
Owner      : Jesse Houwing
Computer   : JACKIE
Comment    :
Collection : https://dev.azure.com/jessehouwing
Permissions: Private
Location   : Local
File Time  : Current

Working folders:

Or from Visual Studio: