I had this issue and ended up in doing a new nuget project, merged/moved in all code by hand into new solution. Also took the time to clean up the code with better namespace etc.

I found no way to migrate a manual project to a nuget. But I didn't have to big project, I guess I would tried harder if the project is really big.

Here's how I would tackle this:

1. Figure out what version your Umbraco install is on right now, let's say 7.5.3
2. Create a new solution that's exactly to your liking and NuGet install that version into it (Install-Package UmbracoCms -Version 7.5.3 )
3. Start and configure the install, just to get everything in a "known good" state - so run the installer, pick SQL CE but don't install the starter kit (in the next step we'll overwrite web.config, so the SQL CE database won't be used, unless you are already using it in your existing install)
4. Copy in your files from your existing install.. just overwrite everything except for the .sln and .csproj file - the .csproj file actually contains the references to the NuGet packages folder which you need to be able to do NuGet upgrades.
5. In Visual Studio click the "don't lie to me" button (also known as "show all files" and start including what needs to be included, like it was in your previous solution

If you name the solution the same as your old solution, you can eventually do a compare and make sure everything is (relatively) the same except for the .csproj file and maybe the .sln file which will be a little bit different.

Finally if you're happy, switch out the folders and commit the new NuGet powered solution to git (or your version control system of choice).

Thanks for your answer Sebastiaan.

I am currently running Umbraco 7.4.1, so you will recommend to do these steps with NuGet install of Umbraco v7.4.1 and do an upgrade to v7.5.3 afterwards?

/Bjarne

Aah, that's where the upgrade question came from. Yes, then definitely that would be what I'd do!

I installed Umbraco v7.4.1 via NuGet in a clean website project, but after selecting SQL CE and no starterkit to install, it seemed to fail going further in install process.

VS showed a message like this in output window:

Error: allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level

and when closing the browser window and starting the site again from VS (CTRL+F5) it showed this message:

I searched a bit and found this: http://stackoverflow.com/a/14644594

I compared this /bin folder in the new project (left side) with the existing /bin project (right side):

So I removed the website project, created a new one, installed Umbraco v7.4.1 and before running the site I also copied the folder "amd64" and "x86".

With these folders includes I ran the website project and installed Umbraco without any errors.

/Bjarne

I have removed the folders in /App_Data/NuGetBackup/ where it complained about the siteMap section i web.config .. so now I don't get the issue Error: allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level

However I have another issue, where FullId doesn't seem to be available.

/Bjarne

Hi Sebastiaan

Yes, you are right. It seems this file GenericProperty.ascx isn't used anymore and not shipped with Umbraco, when compared against a zip download of v7.4.1

Furthermore it also has a ContentTypeControlNew.ascx, which I guess also is some old stuff.

The site have been upgraded several times and I have not been working on the project from the beginning. So I might have missed some of these files as I mainly look at the changes from version x to version y and it previously has been a manual upgrade.

It also seems to contains other files that should be removed:

The existing project was a web application project, but I would like the separate it into three projects:

• *.App - application project for less, javascript, gulp etc.
• *.Library - class library project for models, controlles, helpers, etc.
• *.Web - website project for final website to deploy - then it is also prepared for UaaS, since the client might want to make the switch later.

Furthermore the build wasn't disabled for the website project.

But I wonder why these files are included in the zip file, but not installed via NuGet in the website project.

Also /App_Browsers/ and /Config/Splashes/ are missing.

When I install Umbraco via the following command Install-Package UmbracoCms it does add the folders "amd64" and "x86".

But when target for a specific version it seems these files are missing Install-Package UmbracoCms -Version 7.4.1

In a previously project installed via Install-Package UmbracoCms (v7.4.3) is has includes these folders, but when I now install Install-Package UmbracoCms -Version 7.4.3 it doesn't add folders/files.

/Bjarne