dotnet test error MSB4181: The "Microsoft.TestPlatform.Build.Tasks.VSTestTask" task returned false but did not log an error

When running NUnit tests using dotnet test I sometimes get the following error at the end of the test run:

C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.401\Microsoft.TestPlatform.targets(32,5): error MSB4181: The "Microsoft.TestPlatform.Build.Tasks.VSTestTask" task returned false but did not log an error. [C:\W ork\Play\TestFailureTest\TestFailureTest.csproj]

This seems to always happen when at least one test failed. I have occasionally seen the same error when all tests pass on our TeamCity build servers, but cannot reproduce that. Output with a failing test, with the attached trivial test project:

C:\W ork\Play\TestFailureTest>dotnet test
Test run for C:\W ork\Play\TestFailureTest\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\TestFailureTest.dll(.NETCoreApp,Version=v3.1)
Microsoft (R) Test Execution Command Line Tool Version 16.7.0
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Starting test execution, please wait...

A total of 1 test files matched the specified pattern.
  X FailingTest [39ms]
  Error Message:
   This is a test failure message
  Stack Trace:
     at TestFailureTest.Tests.FailingTest() in C:\W ork\Play\TestFailureTest\Tests.cs:line 11


Test Run Failed.
Total tests: 1
     Failed: 1
 Total time: 0.9542 Seconds
C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.401\Microsoft.TestPlatform.targets(32,5): error MSB4181: The "Microsoft.TestPlatform.Build.Tasks.VSTestTask" task returned false but did not log an error. [C:\W ork\Play\TestFailureTest\TestFailureTest.csproj]

Happened both on Windows 7 and on a Linux (Mint 19) VM.

dotnet --info on Windows:

.NET Core SDK (reflecting any global.json):
 Version:   3.1.401
 Commit:    5b6f5e5005

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  6.1.7601
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win7-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.401\

Host (useful for support):
  Version: 3.1.7
  Commit:  fcfdef8d6b

.NET Core SDKs installed:
  3.0.100 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  3.1.107 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  3.1.400 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  3.1.401 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET Core runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.20 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.20 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.7 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.20 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.7 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.7 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

and on Linux:

.NET Core SDK (reflecting any global.json):
 Version:   3.1.401
 Commit:    39d17847db

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     linuxmint
 OS Version:  19
 OS Platform: Linux
 RID:         linuxmint.19-x64
 Base Path:   /usr/share/dotnet/sdk/3.1.401/

Host (useful for support):
  Version: 3.1.7
  Commit:  fcfdef8d6b

.NET Core SDKs installed:
  2.1.809 [/usr/share/dotnet/sdk]
  3.1.401 [/usr/share/dotnet/sdk]

.NET Core runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.21 [/usr/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.21 [/usr/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.7 [/usr/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.21 [/usr/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.7 [/usr/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]

TestFailureTest.zip

[AlbertoBN]

Everything is red in our CI thanks to this problem. And you cannot expect every company to take risks on RC versions of the next SDK. Any updates on this?

[danreg]

any updates on this? We have the same issue