Unable to copy a file from obj\Debug to bin\Debug

Question

I have a project in C# and I get this error every time I try to compile the project:

(Unable to copy file "obj\Debug\Project1.exe" to "bin\Debug\Project1.exe". The process cannot access the file 'bin\Debug\Project1.exe' because it is being used by another process.)

So I have to close the process from the task manager. My project is only one form and there is no multi-threading.

What is the solution (without restarting VS or killing the process)?

The Tao Framework wraps a bunch of different stuff, any of which might be causing this problem. Which part of the framework are you using? Also, if you could produce a small sample app which demonstrates this problem and post it, it would help debug it. — MusiGenesis, Apr 12 '10 at 20:59
possible duplicate of [Visual Studio build fails: unable to copy exe-file from obj\debug to bin\debug](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2895898/visual-studio-build-fails-unable-to-copy-exe-file-from-obj-debug-to-bin-debug) — Cole Tobin, Feb 18 '15 at 02:44
possible duplicate of [Visual Studio "Could not copy" .... during build](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18102859/visual-studio-could-not-copy-during-build) — Peter O., Jul 01 '15 at 02:39

score 44 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 08 '15 at 06:57

44

This should work.

Go to your project properties. Inside Build Events, under Pre-build event command line, add these two lines of code:

if exist "$(TargetPath).locked" del "$(TargetPath).locked"
if exist "$(TargetPath)" if not exist "$(TargetPath).locked" move "$(TargetPath)" "$(TargetPath).locked"

answered Jun 08 '15 at 06:57

chaosifier

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Thank you, this works perfect. I had troubles with VS2013 PRO and VS2015 ENT. This fix solved the problem. – Volodymyr Prysiazhniuk Oct 25 '16 at 13:49
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Awsome brother. Thanks a lot for helping to solve this headache error. – karan Jan 28 '19 at 12:06
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Great solution. Very clean,easy and it works – rippergr Dec 07 '20 at 20:06
when i add this, i get an "exited with code 1" error in my logs. The more detailed logs mention: "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." Why cant i include this?? – Nicholas Siegmundt Apr 19 '23 at 17:53

score 31 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

@Udpate: Since the time I was first posting this 'answer', I tend to another explanation to the problem. The issue since than happened more and more often outside of Visual Studio also - while trying to copy an .exe file from one folder to another. While in the first place Windows did not allow to copy(!) an .exe file (it was first asking me for administrative rights but refused to copy it afterwards anyway) it still showed up in the explorer. But after a while - without any further action taken, it disappeared magically. Just like the problem in the question always seems to solve itself after a while. So i assume, the problem is more related to a delayed deletion of the project output file and less a buggy VS. I apologize for any unjustified suspicion. :|

This gives the search for a solution a complete different direction, I guess. Did find that link and will update on any progress:

https://superuser.com/questions/234569/windows-7-delayed-file-delete

========================================================================

This is a known bug in VS. I discovered it very often - mostly in VS2010 (with/without SP1). Several "solutions" are recommended. Some of them, which kind of helped for me:

Delete the .suo file in your project dir. Eventually need to create your whole solution from scratch.
Close any Windows Form Designers may remain open.
Use a prebuild script, which deletes the target from the output dir.
Disable the VS hosting process.

None of these really fixes the bug. But it may brings the VS back to a usable state - until a true solution is provided by MS (if ever will).

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/vsdebug/thread/cea5e4b2-5b33-453c-bffb-8da9f1a1fa4a

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/vbide/thread/cd12f3c7-de96-4353-adce-23975e30933f

I've had a lot of issues with VS2010... The OP didn't specify which version was being used. Given that, the real solution may be unknown without context... although the user accepted my answer, so I assume that solved the problem. I could be wrong. Regardless, interesting reading at those links. +1 — Jon Seigel, Feb 09 '11 at 01:46
yet another interesting thread at SO regarding that topic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2895898/visual-studio-build-fails-unable-to-copy-exe-file-from-obj-debug-to-bin-debug — user492238, Feb 09 '11 at 11:22
Just closing the form designer I had open was enough for me. — John, Jun 26 '15 at 15:28

score 29 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 02 '13 at 16:46

29

I can confirm this bug exists in VS 2012 Update 2 also.

My work-around is to:

Clean Solution (and do nothing else)
Close all open documents/files in the solution
Exit VS 2012
Run VS 2012
Build Solution

I don't know if this is relevant or not, but my project uses "Linked" in class files from other projects - it's a Silverlight 5 project and the only way to share a class that is .NET and SL compatible is to link the files.

Something to consider ... look for linked files across projects in a single solution.

edited Jul 02 '13 at 16:46

LarsTech

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answered May 10 '13 at 22:26

Rob Ainscough

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I had the problem with the FilePicker sample for Windows and Windows Phone. This solution solved the problem. – Lukasz P. Apr 12 '15 at 15:27
You really saved my time.Thank you. – Mohsen Zahedi Jan 25 '21 at 05:15
i had problem on "unable to copy file". i closed all my open documents and visual studio and ran with clean solution. it works fine. – iBala Jun 21 '21 at 07:42

score 13 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 02 '12 at 06:56

This is happening because [yourProjectName].exe process is not closing after finishing debugging.

There are two solutions to this problem.

Every time you make change to application, Go to Task Manager -> Processes -> [yourProjectName].exe, end this process. You have to end this process every time you make changes to system.
Add a exit button in your application to exit window and add these line to click event
```
System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().Kill();
Application.Exit();
```

score 11 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

11

If you look in the obj directory, and you don't see your .exe, it's possible that Avast! or other antivirus is deleting it. I would actually see the .exe show up and then disappear. As soon as I turned off Avast!, problem solved.

VS2010 throwing "Could not copy the file "obj\x86\Debug\[file].exe" because it was not found."

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Jan 21 '14 at 19:28

Bryan

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Thanks that was it for me. Jeez... restarting the pc and killing threads etc wasted alot of time with no results. – Dessus Jan 13 '16 at 01:06
I had to disable Avast in order for my project to build. Strangely, Avast was only deleting one particular project output file and only when built in release mode - debug mode was fine. Very odd, very annoying. Hope this saves someone some time that I lost. – Yuck Feb 12 '16 at 20:22
VS2015... no issues... no issues... no issues... bam! this error. Disabled Avast? Build > Run > Success... I guess fixing my program is a virus – WernerCD Feb 18 '16 at 04:00
I will add, that you can create exception for the obj\Debug directory for convinient use, instead of disabling the AV or one of it's protective tools. – A. Kali Feb 15 '17 at 11:10
thanks , i disabled avast and its working – King_Fisher Mar 21 '22 at 17:43

score 9 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 12 '10 at 20:35

9

The real problem isn't the error you're getting; it's that the application isn't cleaning up after itself.

It's either holding on to references, not freeing resources, or something else that's causing the process to not end when it's being told to close. Fix up that issue and this problem will resolve itself. We can't really help you with that unless you post your code (and at this point, if you need help with that, you should start a new question).

answered Apr 12 '10 at 20:35

Jon Seigel

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I am working in Tao Framework with C# and I get this problem even with simple templets. there is nothing wrong with the code. – Mohamad Alhamoud Apr 12 '10 at 20:42
9

this is a known (and nasty) bug in VS. As soon as the application domain unloads, everything should be forced to unload. So this is not caused by the app, but by VS. – user492238 Feb 08 '11 at 06:14

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 21 '15 at 18:34

6

I had to go into windows explorer and delete the bin/debug folder as well as the obj/debug folders. Then I cleaned & rebuilt the project.

answered Oct 21 '15 at 18:34

coggicc

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Deleting the bin folder should be enough from Solution Explorer – usefulBee Dec 08 '16 at 17:00

score 6 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 11 '16 at 17:11

6

Close your project
Delete bin folder

i find it work, :)

answered Jun 11 '16 at 17:11

Novpiar Effendi

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score 4 · Answer 9 · answered May 14 '18 at 14:03

4

Rename the assembly to a different name to solve this issue.

answered May 14 '18 at 14:03

Sofia Khwaja

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score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 14 '13 at 19:16

After seeing a similar error in visual studios 2012 out of no where. I have found that that going to the root folder of the project and right clicking on it I unchecked read only and this error went away. Apparently TFS sometimes will made a folder read only. Hopefully this will help anyone with a similar issue. Thanks

Khaneddy2013 · Answer 11 · 2015-02-13T06:23:53.570

This happened to me at VS 2010 and Win 7.. Case :

I can not Rebuild with Debug Configuration manager, but I can rebuild with Release Configuration manager

debug

What I have tried:

Check my account type at control panel - user account --> My Account is Administrator

cpanel

Set the bin folder not read only

not read only

Add security at bin folder to Everyone

everyone

stop the iis server

iis stop

Stop antivirus, check ridiculous running program using task manager and ProcessExplorer
run VS as administrator

If All that way is still not working.

Then, the last way to try:

close solution
close visual studio
start - shutdown
press power button to turn on the computer
login to your account which has administrator previlege at user type
reopen solution
rebuild
that way working. All people call this way as Reset Computer

score 3 · Answer 12 · answered May 11 '18 at 06:10

3

Mine got solved by:

Clean solution
Close all processes depending on VS (Current instances).
Rebuild

answered May 11 '18 at 06:10

Esther Lalremruati

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score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Mar 21 '14 at 08:49

2

I had same problem, after read your answers , went to Task Manager and searched for app.exe because i believe maybe it doesn't close .
And found it , select it and do END TASK .my problem solved.

answered Mar 21 '14 at 08:49

Hamid Talebi

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score 2 · Answer 14 · edited Jul 15 '20 at 17:18

No matter what the cause of this problem is, the only working solution for me is the following:

Go to Your-Project-Properties -> Application tab(first tab) -> Change the Assembly name.

This way your app creates a new assembly file each time you change the assembly name.

Finally, after you finish to develop, you can delete all those extra assembly files and just keep the last one (main one). Non of the other solutions worked for me, except this one.

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Nov 04 '13 at 15:19

1

Before rebuild the solution, clear the project, stop the IIS and open the "bin" folder property. Uncheck the Read-only Attribute in general tab then rebuild.

answered Nov 04 '13 at 15:19

Kadir Ercetin

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Worked for me. I also removed read-only from the debug folder before that. – Patrick Borkowicz Sep 28 '16 at 13:26

score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 10 '14 at 16:22

1

I found that ending all msbuild.exe tasks (in Task Manager) fixed the issue with VS2012.

answered Jul 10 '14 at 16:22

mizzle

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score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Sep 06 '17 at 10:45

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I struggeled with this since years. I finally downloaded LockHunter to find out who locked the file. In my case it was MBAM. Once I added my project's directory to MBAMs exclusion list, I didn't have this problem anymore.

answered Sep 06 '17 at 10:45

tmighty

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score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Oct 22 '19 at 05:05

1

I too had the same issue. I resolved it

Closed my VS, then in Task Manager, End tasks like Microsoft VisualStudio WCF Tools, MSBuild.exe

Then open VS and clean and rebuild.

answered Oct 22 '19 at 05:05

Ajoe

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Alexander Trofimov · Answer 19 · 2013-04-20T14:49:42.410

0

Run Visual Studio as Administrator

edited Apr 20 '13 at 14:49

answered Apr 18 '13 at 09:12

Alexander Trofimov

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score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Jun 05 '13 at 12:46

0

We recently experienced this on a WinPhone 8 project, in VS 2012 Update 2.

Inexplicably, the cause was using the Tuple type. Removing the code that used a Tuple the problem went away. Add the code back the problem returned.

answered Jun 05 '13 at 12:46

Seamus

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score 0 · Answer 21 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

This will Sound crazy, when ever i build the project the error will be displayed and the avast antivirus will show it as malicious attempt and the project does not run.i just simply disable my antivirus and build my solution again the missing .EXE file has been Created and the project has been successfully executed.

Or you can try this

Visual Studio build fails: unable to copy exe-file from obj\debug to bin\debug

score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Aug 15 '13 at 16:59

0

I solved this by killing XDesProc which had a handle on the DLL it couldn't delete.

answered Aug 15 '13 at 16:59

Charlie

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score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Feb 03 '14 at 15:14

0

Well i have the same problem, my way to fix it was to stop and disable the "application experience" service in Windows.

answered Feb 03 '14 at 15:14

Kataku

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score 0 · Answer 24 · answered Apr 16 '14 at 14:29

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Not a direct answer to your question..

One scenario when this can come is listed below -

If your application is under Debugging process - say by "Attach to Process" debugging, this error may come

answered Apr 16 '14 at 14:29

LCJ

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score 0 · Answer 25 · answered Jun 16 '15 at 05:53

0

If this error was encountered, you can proceed as the following

End the msbuild.exe task
End the explorer.exe task
Run the explorer.exe task again

answered Jun 16 '15 at 05:53

zawhtut

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score 0 · Answer 26 · answered Jul 01 '15 at 01:33

0

for me it was the antivirus. Just add visual studio project or entire parent folder to Antivirus exclusion list or you can also add file extension as exclusion and this method worked for me in visual studio 2010/2012

answered Jul 01 '15 at 01:33

Alex

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score 0 · Answer 27 · answered May 12 '17 at 13:50

Solution1:

Close the project.
Delete the bin folder.
Open the project.
Build the project.

Solution2:

Add the following code in pre-build event:

attrib -r $(OutDir)*..\* /s

This command line code will remove the ready-only attribute of "bin" folder. Now visual studio can easily delete and copy new dlls.

score 0 · Answer 28 · answered Dec 28 '17 at 19:09

0

A very simple solution is to open the Task Manager (CTRL + ALT + DELETE), go to Processes tab and search by name the processes with your project name that are still running. Kill all the processes and go on ! :)

answered Dec 28 '17 at 19:09

Dina Bogdan

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score 0 · Answer 29 · answered Jan 31 '18 at 07:32

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after day with search and build and rebuild i found that you just need to turn off turn on the visual studio its look like it catch the service in different thread

answered Jan 31 '18 at 07:32

moath naji

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score 0 · Answer 30 · answered May 24 '19 at 19:01

0

My Visual studio 2019 suddenly stops and restarts and then when i run project this error comes.

I resolve this issue by going into my project folder and delete bin and obj folder Then clean and rebuild my project. This resolve my issue.

answered May 24 '19 at 19:01

mehmoodnisar125

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score 0 · Answer 31 · edited Jul 15 '20 at 13:40

0

This solution worked for me:

Go to Build -> Configuration Manager -> Active solution platform -> Select x64 (you may have to create new) and finally set the Platform to x64 and close.

edited Jul 15 '20 at 13:40

xKobalt

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answered Jul 18 '19 at 05:59

Adi

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score 0 · Answer 32 · edited Jul 15 '20 at 13:13

0

Disable any Anti Ransomware (like MalwareBytes) running, then the problem should be solved.

edited Jul 15 '20 at 13:13

xKobalt

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answered Jul 15 '20 at 10:53

Robert Virgo

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score 0 · Answer 33 · answered Aug 25 '20 at 21:44

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in my case problem was in web config. I just removed

<system.web>
    <hostingEnvironment shadowCopyBinAssemblies="false" />
  </system.web>

answered Aug 25 '20 at 21:44

Shahram Banazadeh

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score 0 · Answer 34 · answered Jun 21 '21 at 07:45

0

what error says is- unable to copy file or unable to copy file. it means while the visual studio file open, couldn't able to do any copy file transaction. so close all open files and documents.

answered Jun 21 '21 at 07:45

iBala

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score 0 · Answer 35 · answered Jun 10 '22 at 23:12

0

Just delete the content of the debug folder and Rebuild the solution. That worked on couple of occasions for me.

answered Jun 10 '22 at 23:12

Yoky

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score 0 · Answer 36 · answered Sep 12 '22 at 08:32

In my case, the problem was with the path length.

The solution is to reduce/change the problem file path. If the problem is with a file inside your project, you should reduce/change the repository path from e.g.

C:\Users\userTest\folder1\folder2\folder3\...\folderX\myProject\...\file.exe

to e.g.

 C:\Users\userTest\folder1\myProject\...\file.exe

In others words by default the path length can't be upper than 260 characters.

score 0 · Answer 37 · answered May 23 '23 at 13:48

0

i solved this problem by move the project folder to another desk as " D:\" and open the .sln and rebuild it ,it work finely then re back the project folder to the orignal path c:\....\source....

answered May 23 '23 at 13:48

adnan Alyaari

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score -1 · Answer 38 · edited Jul 15 '20 at 14:50

-1

I had the same problem, so I solved in this way.

Step 1: Close Vb.

Step 2: Just go to your project directory and delete Bin folder.

Step 3: Open Vb.

edited Jul 15 '20 at 14:50

xKobalt

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answered Feb 23 '20 at 17:46

Sajjad Ali

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This one can't be a valid answer, because the asker wrote exactly: *What is the solution (without restarting VS or killing the process)?* – xKobalt Jul 15 '20 at 13:21

score -1 · Answer 39 · answered Jan 12 '22 at 07:19

-1

Just end process of MSBuild.exe in Windows Task Manager every time you run project.

answered Jan 12 '22 at 07:19

abdurrab

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score -1 · Answer 40 · answered Feb 10 '22 at 07:31

I am having this problem on VS2019 running on Win 7. This felt very similar to a problem I have commonly on Win 7. Specifically, I am occasionally unable to move/delete a file proviosly used by another program, even though I've closed that program. I believe that Windows has lost track of this file for purposes of managing file sharing. I've read many places this can be fixed by modifying the file's security/ownership settings, but this hasn't worked for me. But rebooting my PC (restarting Windows) does fix the problem. Same here - I was able to get past this VS2019 copy problem by rebooting my PC.

It's also worth noting that I was able to figure out what caused this bug - cleaning projects. It doesn't happen all the time, it actually seems quite rare. But when it happens, it seems my only solution is rebooting my PC.

Unable to copy a file from obj\Debug to bin\Debug

40 Answers40

This should work.

Linked