Entity framework navigation property is null

I have 2 simple classes:

public class Setting { [Key, DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)] public Guid SettingId { get; set; } [Required] public String Name { get; set; } public String Value { get; set; } [Required] public SettingCategory SettingCategory { get; set; } } public class SettingCategory { [Key, DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)] public Guid SettingCategoryId { get; set; } [Required] public String Value { get; set; } public ICollection<Setting> Settings { get; set; } } 

When I retrieve a SettingCategory from the database the collection Settings is always null.

When I make it a virtual then it will say: The ObjectContext instance has been disposed and can no longer be used for operations that require a connection.

How can I access my Settings list?

The other way around works, if I retrieve a Setting from the database the SettingCategory property is filled.

This is my initial code-migrations script:

CreateTable( "dbo.Settings", c => new { SettingId = c.Guid(nullable: false, identity: true), Name = c.String(nullable: false), Value = c.String(), SettingCategory_SettingCategoryId = c.Guid(nullable: false), }) .PrimaryKey(t => t.SettingId) .ForeignKey("dbo.SettingCategories", t => t.SettingCategory_SettingCategoryId, cascadeDelete: true) .Index(t => t.SettingCategory_SettingCategoryId); CreateTable( "dbo.SettingCategories", c => new { SettingCategoryId = c.Guid(nullable: false, identity: true), Value = c.String(nullable: false), }) .PrimaryKey(t => t.SettingCategoryId); 

And this is the part that gets it from the database:

public SettingCategory Get(Guid settingCategoryId) { using (var context = new BackofficeContext()) { return context .SettingCategories .FirstOrDefault(s => s.SettingCategoryId == settingCategoryId); } } 

Answer

I forgot the include in .SettingCategories, but I was trying it with a lambda:

public SettingCategory Get(Guid settingCategoryId) { using (var context = new BackofficeContext()) { return context .SettingCategories .Include(s => s.Settings) .FirstOrDefault(s => s.SettingCategoryId == settingCategoryId); } } 

That doesn't work, but this does:

public SettingCategory Get(Guid settingCategoryId) { using (var context = new BackofficeContext()) { return context .SettingCategories .Include("Settings") .FirstOrDefault(s => s.SettingCategoryId == settingCategoryId); } }