Sources directory is already netbeans project error when opening a project from existing sources

Question

I ve installed NetBeans 6 9 1 and installed few updates for it   Then I ve created a new project from existing sources  After a few changes I ve closed it  And now I am having an error  when trying to open a new project from existing sources  the same files       Sources directory is already netbeans project  maybe only in memory     After Googling it  I noticed it happened not only with me  But I didn t find the correct solution  I ve tried to restart the IDE  I ve tried to restart the PC  I ve tried to reinstall NetBeans  Nothing helped

User · Answer

This happened to me when I tried to import an Eclipse project in a brand new NetBeans 7.2.1 install on Ubuntu 12.04LTS.

I mistakenly selected the import projects from workspace (the first option in the import wizard's opening pane) on the first attempt, and it opened the project in the original Eclipse workspace path (which was on a usb stick).

From this, I then realized that I actually need the second option - import project ignoring project dependencies, which lets you specifically choose source and destination folders. After closing the project, I tried to import again with the proper option, but it didn't work. From then on nothing I did helped - restart the IDE, move the source folder, nothing. There was no nbproject folder in the project or /var/cache in the user folder to delete (in-fact there was no nbproject folder in the whole file-system).

Since restart didn't work, I'm guessing that there is a garbage project entry somewhere which Nb reads (See Martin Frické answer above).

After googling along the lines of 'netbeans clear memory project cache' with no success, I opted to reinstall NetBeans -

sudo /usr/local/netbeans-7.2.1/uninstall
sudo ./netbeans-7.2.1-ml-javase-linux.sh

which solved it.

User · Answer

If it helps anyone else  I had the same problem and the solution was to reinstall NetBeans   I had tried all sorts of fixes  Deleting the NetBeansProjects folders  checking unchecking  Put Netbeans metadata in a separate directory   killing restarting NetBeans  restarting the system  etc   Nothing cleared the message   except the reinstall

User · Answer

When you create a NetBeans project from existing sources  NetBeans uses the same directory to add its own files  a netbeans folder with  proj files   Solution  delete the netbeans folder and restart the IDE  Opening a new project should now work

User · Answer

Thank you   I was having the same problem  Sources  directory  is  already  NetBeans  project   maybe  only  in  memory    Netbeans creates a folder in your project named  nbproject    Once you delete that  restart the IDE and you re good to go

User · Answer

Go to the folder containing your project Delete the folder named nbproject Restart Netbeans Try creating your project again from the original folder

User · Answer

In my case my project root directory consists   project   This contain the XML reference of the project name   By removing this  i am able to create a project

User · Answer

I faced the same issue      Sources directory is already NetBeans project  maybe only in memory     The solution is      Netbeans creates a folder in your project named  nbproject   Once you   delete that  restart the IDE and you re good to go

User · Answer

On Windows at least none of these answers work  for me anyway    I have found the only way is to copy an existing netbeans project folder in to your new project and manually edit the xml project name   I also opened the private private xml and removed the open files  xml just incase these caused problems   Once I d done this the project works as normal

User · Answer

This means the project folder is already a netbeans project  So instead of adding it as a new project open it as

User · Answer

This is what I did to solve this error    1  I copied a folder named  folder1   and I called the new folder  folder2     folder1  was a Netbeans project so it had a folder called  nbproject  inside it    2  When I tried to create a project out of the  folder2   Netbeans threw an error  Sources directory is already netbeans project  maybe only in memory     3  Inside Netbeans delete the project of  folder1   Then  delete the two folders named  nbproject   one is inside  folder1  and the other is inside  folder2      4  Inside Netbeans  create two new projects  one for  folder1  and another for  folder2   The error should not appear anymore

User · Answer

If this is your own source code and you already have a Netbeans project folder with your source files you should just start with    File   Open Project       not   File   New Project        because the project is not new

User · Answer

copy an existing netbeans project folder in to your new project and manually edit the xml project name  reinstall netbeans copy move all files folders  except nbproject  folder  to a new folder for your project  with a new name

User · Answer

Click File    Recent Projects    and you should be able to use edit it again  Hope it helps

User · Answer

The advice here about removing the nbproject directory is not quite the whole story   What Netbeans seems to do  and we are guessing at reverse engineering here  is to look for an xml file which has opening and closing project tags in it  This it concludes is evidence of an already existing project  Now if your files have an nbproject directory there  that will contain a project xml file which contains the said tags  So removing that will do what you want   But  my files don t have a nbproject directory but still NetBeans tells me there is an existing project maybe in memory  The reason is  my files include a file called pom xml and that contains the said project tags in the xml  it was created by an entirely different system   Once that xml file is removed  then NetBeans will create an html project for me importing my code   In sum  look through any xml files in you existing code  and be wary of project tags

User · Answer

If you are on a Mac  press command shift G and in the box type  users and then go  next click on your user name and navigate to netbeansprojects and open it  Then delete the ones in there that are causing problems   You can then create your project     Note   I had moved my wordpress folder to my desktop trying to figure this out  so I dropped it back into the origional location and it works fine   So if you did this  just replace the wordpress folder after deleting the problem projects from the netbeansprojects folder and its contents back to the original installation folder   Hope this helps

User · Answer

This happens i believe  because netbeans tries to version control the files created or edited  Under the project folder netbeans create a netbeans directory just delete it   This has been tested in Ubuntu  Then you can import your project if php then php using existing sources

User · Answer

Usually this happened when we copy source code of a already created project and copied in different folder and try to create a project from it  as netBeans create its folder nbproject in our project folder this folder also get copied with our source code and it give error  Sources directory is already NetBeans project  maybe only in memory   remove this folder from you newly copied folder and voila you can create a new project

User · Answer

I checked the  Put NetBeans metadata in separate directory  tick and it works fine   This is in 2  Name and Location after you choose PHP from existing source

User · Answer

Try to create a new empty project  then you can copy the public html to the new project folder and it will appear

[netbeans] "Sources directory is already netbeans project" error when opening a project from existing sources

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