Issue with Lazy Loading Entity Framework Core Navigation Properties in C#
I'm having trouble with I'm refactoring my project and I'm getting frustrated with I'm facing an issue with lazy loading in Entity Framework Core while using .NET 6..... I've correctly configured my DbContext to support lazy loading by installing the `Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Proxies` package, and I've enabled lazy loading by adding `UseLazyLoadingProxies()` in the `OnConfiguring` method. However, the navigation properties are not being loaded as expected when I access them, leading to unexpected null references. Here is a simplified version of my DbContext configuration: ```csharp public class MyDbContext : DbContext { public MyDbContext(DbContextOptions<MyDbContext> options) : base(options) { } public DbSet<Product> Products { get; set; } public DbSet<Category> Categories { get; set; } protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder) { optionsBuilder.UseLazyLoadingProxies(); // Other configurations } } ``` My entities are defined like this: ```csharp public class Product { public int Id { get; set; } public string Name { get; set; } public virtual Category Category { get; set; } // Navigation property } public class Category { public int Id { get; set; } public string Name { get; set; } public virtual ICollection<Product> Products { get; set; } // Navigation property } ``` When I try to access the `Category` property of a `Product` after querying the `Products` set like this: ```csharp var products = await dbContext.Products.ToListAsync(); var categoryName = products[0].Category.Name; // This line throws a NullReferenceException ``` I get a `NullReferenceException` because `Category` is null, despite expecting it to be lazily loaded. I've also ensured that the database actually contains related data. I even tried adding `.Include(p => p.Category)` in the query, but then I get the related data eagerly loaded, which is not what I want. I've checked the configurations multiple times and even tried restarting the application. Am I missing something in the lazy loading setup, or is there another reason the navigation properties aren't loading as expected? Any help would be appreciated! For context: I'm using C# on Windows 11. What's the best practice here? I'm coming from a different tech stack and learning C#. Thanks for your help in advance! I'm working with C# in a Docker container on Windows 10. Could someone point me to the right documentation? This is for a CLI tool running on Linux. I'd be grateful for any help.