"Could not load file or assembly" when trying to enter design mode

nope no 65

The full error is "could not load file or assembly dotnetbridgelib, version= 1.4.8424.31115, culture = neutral publickekey = null or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified."

I'm focusing on the last part. It notes it cannot find the file, but i can both build, and run the application (and the form in question displays) just fine. So it can clearly find the file, but some other configuration within visual studio 2022 is set incorrectly.

I have verified that the reference in the running application refers to this dll, who has the same version number. Suggestions? Thank you.

1 answer

Tianyu Sun-MSFT 30,821 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-09T08:03:23.9766667+00:00

Hello @nope no ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

Please first try to right-click your project > Unload Project > right-click it again > Reload Project and check if this error disappears.

I guess the dotnetbridgelib is your custom assembly?

Does removing the assembly, readding it and cleaning the solution then rebuilding the solution work?

Besides, is this assembly stored in your project folder? If not, could you try to move it to your project folder and add its reference then rebuild your solution and check again?

Please feel free to let us know if it works.

Sincerely,

Tianyu

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nope no 65 Reputation points

2023-03-09T14:59:33.73+00:00

reloading the project did not resolve anything.

i have already tried removing the assembly, re-adding it ,then clean/build. No dice.

The assembly is copy-on-build. It is stored both where it gets built as a project, and where the other things dependent on it use it.

Tianyu Sun-MSFT 30,821 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-10T10:08:56.94+00:00

Hi @nope no ,

Thanks for your reply.

Could you please try to move your project to another machine and enter the design mode(designer view) to test and confirm if the same error appears?

If the same error doesn’t appear on another machine, then please try to reset VS settings and repair VS. Try to remove VS cache(remove all folders named ComponentModelCache in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\17.0_XXXXXXXX) and project cache(the hidden .vs, bin and obj folders).

If the same error appears again, could you please double confirm that for all the other things which dependent on it, it was successfully copied to their related folders.

Besides, could you please tell us how you add the assembly into your project? And did you set some configurations for this assembly?

For further check, would you mind sharing us a minimal reproducible sample?

Sincerely,

Tianyu

nope no 65 Reputation points

2023-03-14T22:39:20.5833333+00:00

moving to another machine changed nothing.

reset and repair, removing the cache folders unfortunately also resulted in no change.

All dependencies are copy on build, and deleting the dependencies in question does result in them being copied back into their appropriate folders.

Adding assemblies in our case was done through the solution explorer, so, browse to the location of the output from the solution that builds the dependency in question, and adding it in. No configurations were specified for this assembly. They live in both debug and release in almost every case.

Let me see if I can work up a small sample. There are a lot of dependencies even for a single form. Will respond again when i've put that together.

nope no 65 Reputation points

2023-03-16T18:47:10.1333333+00:00

Where can i attach a set of files here? there's no way its going to fit in 3mb or anything close to that.

nope no 65 Reputation points

2023-03-16T19:51:12.0733333+00:00

No one bothered to point this out, and the error it gives back is utterly useless for determining this answer, thanks for nothing microsoft

https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/WinForms-NET-Framework-Projects-cant-d/1601210

Benjamin Selby 0 Reputation points

2023-06-19T02:49:15.7666667+00:00

I've been having this problem too with the AxAcroPdf library. Thanks for the explanation, I think this might be the problem.
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"Could not load file or assembly" when trying to enter design mode

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