Ribbon development is probably one of the most frustrating things you can do when developing SharePoint 2010 solutions, for one simple reason.
How many times have you changed the element.xml file to change where your new button will appear only to find that no matter how many times you deploy, there it is, in exactly the same place.
You might try:
- Retracting the solution in Visual Studio 2010. Won’t work.
- Using PowerShell, Uninstall-SPUserSolution then Remove-SPUserSolution. Won’t work.
- Restart the sandbox service, NET STOP SPUserCodeV4, then start again. Won’t work.
- Check out C:ProgramDataMicrosoftSharePointUCCache and (against all advice), clean it out. Won’t work.
- Swearing at the laptop. Won’t work (I tried this one lots).
After countless Internet searches I’ve found two solutions, and fortunately, they’re really simple:
- Update the feature version each deployment.
- Test out the site using InPrivate mode, or equivalent, in the browser; close the window and restart again between deployments.
Original articles SharePoint 2010 Ribbon customizations not working as expected and SharePoint 2010: Modifying and Deploying Ribbon doesn’t update the ribbon.