Entity Framework Core: Issue with Lazy Loading Navigation Properties Returning Null
I'm updating my dependencies and I'm maintaining legacy code that I'm dealing with I'm relatively new to this, so bear with me... I'm working on a personal project and I'm experiencing an issue with Entity Framework Core 5.0 where my lazy loading navigation properties are returning null unexpectedly... I've set up my classes with virtual navigation properties and configured the context correctly to enable lazy loading. Here's a simplified version of my classes: ```csharp public class Author { public int AuthorId { get; set; } public string Name { get; set; } public virtual ICollection<Book> Books { get; set; } } public class Book { public int BookId { get; set; } public string Title { get; set; } public int AuthorId { get; set; } public virtual Author Author { get; set; } } ``` And in my `DbContext` class, I've included: ```csharp protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder) { modelBuilder.Entity<Author>() .HasMany(a => a.Books) .WithOne(b => b.Author) .HasForeignKey(b => b.AuthorId); } ``` I am initializing the database and seeding some data using: ```csharp using (var context = new MyDbContext()) { var author = new Author { Name = "John Doe" }; author.Books = new List<Book> { new Book { Title = "Book 1" }, new Book { Title = "Book 2" } }; context.Authors.Add(author); context.SaveChanges(); } ``` However, when I try to retrieve an author and access the `Books` collection like this: ```csharp using (var context = new MyDbContext()) { var author = context.Authors.FirstOrDefault(a => a.AuthorId == 1); var books = author.Books; // This returns null! } ``` I expected `books` to be populated with the list of books for the author, but it is null. I've checked the documentation and ensured that I have the necessary packages installed: - Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore - Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer - Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Proxies I've also confirmed that lazy loading is enabled in the context constructor: ```csharp public MyDbContext(DbContextOptions<MyDbContext> options) : base(options) { this.ChangeTracker.LazyLoadingEnabled = true; } ``` Could it be that lazy loading isn't working due to the way I'm fetching the data, or am I missing a crucial step? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! For context: I'm using C# on Ubuntu. I'm working on a CLI tool that needs to handle this. What's the best practice here? This issue appeared after updating to C# 3.11. Is this even possible? Thanks for your help in advance! This is happening in both development and production on Ubuntu 22.04.