Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Build.Framework'(VS 2017)

Question

When I try running the command "update-database", I get this exception:

Specify the '-Verbose' flag to view the SQL statements being applied to the target database. System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Build.Framework, Version=15.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. File name: 'Microsoft.Build.Framework, Version=15.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'

WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF. To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1. Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging. To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Build.Framework, Version=15.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.`

Answer 1

I believe I had the same issue as you did. I didn't save the whole error message, but my error message was

'Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Build.Framework, Version=15.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.'

I am using Visual Studio 2017 and was trying to do Update-Database after Add-Migration.

To resolve the issue I closed Visual Studio and re-opened it, then re-ran Update-Database again.

This may or may not resolve your issue, but I thought I'd post just in case it would help.

Answer 2

Our local build script was using an older version of nuget.exe (4.7.1.5393) to restore NuGet packages. We started getting this error after updating to Visual Studio 2019 version 16.5.0. Updating to the latest version of nuget.exe (5.4.0.6315) fixed the issue for us.

nuget.exe can be downloaded here: https://www.nuget.org/downloads.

Answer 3

The root cause of this problem comes from relative paths in the devenv.exe.config file to Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll (see xml tags).

Some Visual Studio Extensions are changing the current directory and makes relative paths invalid.

To fix it, open this file in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\ directory. and replace all ..\..\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\ by C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\.

Answer 4

I've found a workaround that seems to resolve the issue for good, at least on my environment running VS 2017 Professional 15.5.2 and Entity Framework 6.1.1.

Basically, install the DLL (with a few related ones) into the GAC (Global Assembly Cache) and the issue will go away.

Follow these steps:

1. Close all running instances of Visual Studio 2017

2. Launch the Visual Studio 2017 Developer Command Prompt

3. Type the following commands (replace Professional with your edition, either Enterprise or Community, or adjust the path accordingly):

gacutil /i "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll"

gacutil /i "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Build.dll"

gacutil /i "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Build.Engine.dll"

gacutil /i "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Build.Conversion.Core.dll"

gacutil /i "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Build.Tasks.Core.dll"

gacutil /i "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Build.Utilities.Core.dll"

4. Restart Visual Studio 2017

In essence, the GAC will (in most cases) be given priority when .NET is trying to load a DLL and the FileNotFoundException will go away as your DLL will now be resolved through the GAC.

Again, it works for me and it's simply a workaround, it won't solve the core issue itself but at least I don't have to restart VS all the time when trying to work with EF migrations, and that's good enough for me.

Answer 5

This worked for me - appears to be a non-support issue beginning in 2020.

In the Azure Build Pipeline > NuGet tool installer step, change Version of NuGet.exe to install to a newer version, like 5.4.0. Check versions at https://dist.nuget.org/tools.json.

Issue disappeared and now builds successfully.

Answer 6

My missing file or assembly version is different with the question.

I have this error when I tried to publish my ASP.net project

Microsoft.Build.Framework, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

I solved the problem by installing Microsoft Build Tools 2015

I think my problem caused by I publish project that was built with VS 2015 in VS 2017. Hope can help others that have same problem.

Answer 7

Just in case restarting Visual Studio does not work Go to Task Manager/ Process Explorer and skill VBCSCompiler.exe

Suggest using Process Explorer

Answer 8

In my case, something (maybe a NuGet-Update) did add an AssemblyBinding into the web.config-File:

<dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Build.Framework" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-15.1.0.0" newVersion="15.1.0.0" />
</dependentAssembly>

After removing that dependentAssemby-Entry, I could Publish the Project again.

Answer 9

This worked for me: The error occurs when I execute the nuget restore command. Nuget version 4.6.2. I have two ways to solve this problem.

Use Nuget 4.8.2 and higher. gacutil /i "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Current\Bin\Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll

Answer 10

We had this issue, and here is what we needed to do in our case:

Problem was that we had a database command interceptor (IDbCommandInterceptor) configured that called HttpRuntime.Cache["somekey"], and for some reason migration commands failed to run because of this. After removing this depencency, all commands ran perfect. Maybe HttpRuntime weren't able to find the Build Framework dll?

So check the entire callstack when migration commands fails to see if you have a similar problem.

Answer 11

Closing and re-opening Visual Studio works like a charm!

Answer 12

I've faced with same issue when updated XCode/Mono components on macOS.

Solution is to update Visual Studio for Mac to latest version.

I think that issue cause in using new MSBuild tools from .NET Core 3.0 package which installed with new XCode/Mono version.

Answer 13

Thanks to those who already posted. My situation was solved by a combination of the above. I have had several version of Visual Studio: 2015, 2017, 2019. At some point the version of MSBUILD went from 15.1 to 15.9, and I solved this issue by updating the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe.config file to point to the 15.9 library. Here is an example of one of the entries:

<dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Build.Utilities.Core" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral"/>
      <bindingRedirect oldVersion="2.0.0.0-99.0.0.0" newVersion="15.9.0.0"/>
      <codeBase version="15.9.0.0" href="..\..\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Build.Utilities.Core.dll" />
</dependentAssembly>

Answer 14

Using Visual Studio 2019 Community edition. I tried the other solutions without much luck, but after clearing me NuGet cache the issue seemed to be resolved.

Answer 15

After trying all of the above methods and more - running WCF app still failed for me. Error: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Build.Framework, Version=15.1.0.0..

note: tried Restarting VS, PC, killing processes, cleaning up the VS caches, nuget caches, obj, bin, .vs, packages folders

What worked for me is removing the projects' *.csproj.user file.. Apparently it had some obsolete configuration in it. Lost 4 hours trying to figure it out..

Answer 16

I did a restart, following which I found that the local web service I have been running was blocked by another process which had taken that port. I checked the process running and and killed the process using TCPView and all seemed to start working again.

Answer 17

I had this part in my web.config and simply removed it and then it start working :)

<compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5.2">
    <assemblies>
        <add assembly="Microsoft.Build.Framework, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B03F5F7F11D50A3A"/>
    </assemblies>
</compilation>