Visual Studio debugging painfully slow when loading symbols

Try any of the following …

1. Enable Just My Code
   Go to Tools > Options > Debugging > General
   Check “Enable Just my Code”
   

2. Cache Symbols Locally
   Go to Tools > Options > Debugging > Symbols
   Browse to local directory (make sure it’s not on a network share)
   Click “Load All Symbols” or run the project to hydrate the cache

   

3. Remove Remote Symbol Servers

   When you select a remote symbol server, Visual Studio gives you the following warning:

   The performance of remote symbols stores can vary due to latency, bandwidth, or availability of servers. Debugging performance can be improved by selecting the option to load only specified modules when enabling this server

   After loading your symbol cache, deselect remote symbols servers

   Go to Tools > Options > Debugging > Symbols
   Deselect “Microsoft Symbol Servers” to prevent Visual Studio from remotely querying the Microsoft servers.
   

Further Reading

Stack Overflow

• Visual Studio debugging/loading very slow
• Visual Studio Build Very Slow
• Slow startup with IIS Express
• Website takes a long time to start after solution build

MS Docs

• Visual Studio debugger documentation
• Debug only user code with Just My Code
• Specify symbol (.pdb) and source files in the Visual Studio debugger
• Debugger Settings and Preparation