TFS Loses History when Merging

Question

Both Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2005 and 2008 lose history (check-ins + comments) on files when they branched and merged back. So e.g. if changes in a branch are made then merged back to the root branch, none of the changes made in the branch are visible in the root branch. The only thing visible in the history states that a merge occurred.

Does anyone know if there is an option which can be set to retain the history, or a different way to do the merge which keeps the history?

Answer 1

• You are correct that TFS does not track history by default when merging. There is a powertool, however, that allows you to do so (see History Command under TFS Power Tool Commands).

• See this comment for more details.