Cannot access Team Project Source Control Settings

Hello Tom,

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Please check below and let me know if it works.

The reason you are seeing the "Access Denied" error is likely tied to project-level security configurations or a corrupted local cache, rather than repository-level settings.

According to the official Microsoft documentation on enabling and disabling TFVC check-in policies, the specific prerequisite to manage these settings is having the Edit project-level information permission set to Allow.

Even as a Project Administrator, an explicit "Deny" placed on your individual user account or another custom group you belong to will override the administrative "Allow." Additionally, Visual Studio might be holding onto stale authentication tokens.

Here is how you can resolve the access issue to migrate your obsolete policies as required by the Sprint 254 update:

1. Verify Project-Level Permissions TFVC check-in policies are governed at the root Project level, not within the individual repository security settings.
   1. Navigate to your Azure DevOps project web portal.
   2. Go to Project Settings (the gear icon at the bottom left).
   3. Under the General section, select Permissions.
   4. Search for your specific user account.
   5. In the permissions list, as Project Admin ensure that any permission is not set to "Deny" or "Not set". It must resolve to Allow. (Explicit Deny assignments on user accounts always take precedence over group Allow assignments).
2. Clear the Visual Studio Local Cache Visual Studio aggressively caches permission tokens. If your project-level permissions are correct but the UI still blocks you, the local cache must be cleared.
   1. Close all instances of Visual Studio.
   2. Open Windows File Explorer and navigate to your local cache folder: %localappdata%\Microsoft\Team Foundation\8.0\Cache (Note: The version folder, such as 8.0, may vary based on your Visual Studio version).
   3. Delete all the contents inside this Cache directory.
   4. Restart Visual Studio, reconnect to your Azure DevOps Team Project, and attempt to open the Source Control settings again.
3. Client Version Compatibility
   As noted in the Azure DevOps Sprint 254 update, the underlying storage mechanism for TFVC check-in policies was changed. If your Visual Studio client is older than the required minimum versions (e.g., VS 2022 versions 17.13.6, 17.12.7, or 17.14 Preview 3), the client may fail to parse the server's policy format, resulting in authorization or access errors when opening the Source Control window. Ensure your Visual Studio client is fully updated before accessing these settings.

Note: The response is generated with the help of AI systems.