An error occurred while accessing IsolatedStorage.

Posted by frenk

While developing a Silverlight Windows Phone 7 app I ran into this problem: when the application closes, an internal  IsolatedStorageException is raised:

An error occurred while accessing IsolatedStorage.
   at System.IO.IsolatedStorage.IsolatedStorageSecurityState.EnsureState()
   at System.IO.IsolatedStorage.IsolatedStorageFile.get_AvailableFreeSpace()
   at System.IO.IsolatedStorage.IsolatedStorageSettings.Save()
   at System.IO.IsolatedStorage.IsolatedStorageSettings.TrySave()
   at System.IO.IsolatedStorage.IsolatedStorageSettings.SaveAllSettings()
   at MS.Internal.FrameworkCallbacks.ShutdownAllPeers()

IsolatedStorageSettings seemed to be the cause of the problem. Very weird because I wasn’t even using it! Just adding this line in my App class would cause the problem:

private System.IO.IsolatedStorage.IsolatedStorageSettings appSettings = System.IO.IsolatedStorage.IsolatedStorageSettings.ApplicationSettings;

Now I created a new, empty, project (Windows Phone Application) and inserted that line. Weird: no problems.
I thought there was something wrong in my solution, so I made a backup copy and started removing stuff. At some point my solution was identical to the default one (except for the IsolatedStorageSettings line and the project’s GUID). Not “almost identical”, but completely, literally identical, i.e. WinMerge found no difference except the two mentioned. And of course the default solution worked while mine gave the IsolatedStorageException on shutdown.

I honestly haven’t understood the cause of the problem, but at least I’ve found a solution: change the project GUID:

  • close Visual Studio
  • open your solution’s .sln file with notepad
  • replace a couple of numbers in the Project(“{<your GUID here>}”)
  • open the .csproj with notepad
  • apply the same change to the GUID (in the first line after the comment and in all the Build Configurations)
  • Re-open your solution with Visual Studio and the problem is gone.

I suspect the problem has something to do with the emulator but I haven’t had a chance to try a real device yet. I hope I saved you an evening of head scratching.