There is a known limitation when trying to do a hover or watch or quick watch on a variable that is defined as part of a data file record where that file is itself defined as being external.
This limitation exists only for managed code and should not be a problem in native.
There is a current enhancement request open for this functionaility.
To get around this you could move the record from the files record area to a different area in working-storage that is defined as external and this should work ok.
Example:
program-id. Program1 as "externaldebug.Program1".
select test-file assign to "testfile.dat"
organization is indexed
access is dynamic
record key is key1
file status is file-status.
data division.
fd test-file external.
01 test-record.
05 key1 pic x(3).
05 rest pic x(5).
working-storage section.
01 file-status pic x(2) external.
01 test-record2 external.
05 key2 pic x(3).
05 rest2 pic x(5).
procedure division.
open output test-file
display file-status
move all "1" to test-record
move test-record to test-record2
*> if you hover over test-record or one of its fields it will fail but it will work if you hover over test-record2 or one of its fields.
Is this perhaps what you have run into?
Thanks.