The OutputPath property is not set for project

Question

Building my Jenkins/MSBuild solution gives me this error

c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(483,9): error : 
The OutputPath property is not set for project '<projectname>.csproj'.  Please check to
make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform 
for this project.  Configuration='Latest'  Platform='AnyCPU'.  You may be seeing this 
message because you are trying to build a project without a solution file, and have
specified a non-default Configuration or Platform that doesn't exist for this project. 
[C:\<path>\<projectname>.csproj]

Any ideas?

EDIT

I have this in my .csproj file

  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Latest|AnyCPU'">
    <OutputPath>bin\Latest\</OutputPath>
  </PropertyGroup>

have you tried passing in properties for OutputPath from the command line? Somewhere in a proj that propertygroup is wrong or missing i think. — James Woolfenden, Feb 28 '13 at 13:26

score 134 · Answer 1 · edited May 03 '19 at 17:34

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I have figured out how it works (without changing sln/csproj properties in VS2013/2015).

if you want to build .sln file:
1. /p:ConfigurationPlatforms=Release /p:Platform="Any CPU"
if you want to build .csproj file:
1. /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=AnyCPU
  1. notice the "Any CPU" vs AnyCPU
check the code analysis, fxcop, test coverage(NCover) targets, as well as the MSBUILD should be located properly. In my case its:
1. C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319 but it can be different as you can see microsoft has given 6 cmd options to build code base::AMD (with cross plt, x86 & x64 options) and Windows(cross, x86, x64) and that also when code development happened with default JIT (it can be PreJIT ngen.exe, econoJIT)

I think more than this troubleshooting can be handle using power shell + msbuild. May be helpful for someone ...

edited May 03 '19 at 17:34

crthompson

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answered Jul 25 '17 at 14:04

Saurabh

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I wish this response would get more votes. I had the configuration properly set, the issue was that I was not passing the '/p:Platform=AnyCPU' argument when executing the build (on a build machine). Passing the argument solved the issue. Thanks @Saurabh – Johnny Nov 16 '17 at 15:46
Everything was setup correctly in my proj file. This answer was the missing piece to the puzzle. Thanks! – Richard Dec 01 '17 at 10:41
Worked for me too. The .csproj file was all set. Just needed to pass in that Platform parameter. Cheers – vexe Feb 27 '18 at 04:34
2

That space! In TFS 2017, I had to go to the variables tab of my build and change "Any CPU" to "AnyCPU" – Jim Apr 12 '19 at 16:37
Thanks! Fixed my CICD build in Azure DevOps – Nick Rubino May 08 '19 at 02:20
1

The space vs no-space issue was my problem. Why on earth would they make that distinction? Arg! – Craig W. Oct 11 '19 at 14:44
Thank you. You came as a saviour to me. I just can't thank you enough. – Garuda Mar 12 '20 at 10:51
Same here, "Any CPU" vs "AnyCPU" typo!! – Dmitri M Mar 26 '20 at 21:57
In my pipeline targeting console app PROJECT, it worked after using 'AnyCPU' and adding '/p:OutputPath=bin\Release\' in VSBuild task. Used COpyFiles task with '**\bin\Release\*' input to get output in '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)' to be published. – sanpat Oct 07 '20 at 18:07
thanks for this answer. and specifically for "Any CPU" vs AnyCPU – Prashant Babber Dec 04 '20 at 11:27

James Woolfenden · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-16T16:58:49.117

73

Open up your csproj in a text editor and see if you have a property group section, should look something like this:

<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Latest|AnyCPU' ">
    <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
    <DebugType>full</DebugType>
    <Optimize>false</Optimize>
    <OutputPath>bin\Latest\</OutputPath>
    <DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>
    <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
    <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
    <TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
  </PropertyGroup>

Do you have a 'Latest' build configuration? If not add the above section to the csproj.

edited Jun 16 '16 at 16:58

answered Feb 28 '13 at 11:51

James Woolfenden

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how is this an answer? this is a question deviating from the question asked. – Blue Clouds Mar 03 '16 at 23:13
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maybe you just dont understand that that is the answer. – James Woolfenden Mar 04 '16 at 09:34
I have no clue, but 16+ people and the person who asked thinks it is the answer! So let us leave it at this :) – Blue Clouds Mar 04 '16 at 13:47
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I had the same problem a couple of times; but I did have the configuration PropertyGroup in place, the problem? it was almost at the bottom of the file... anyhow I moved it to the top just after the default 'Debug|AnyCPU' config and that did the trick. – a4bike Mar 18 '16 at 15:44
I have more than one PropertyGroup in the csproj file. one with Condition ... Debug|AnyCPU" and one with "Condition .. Release|AnyCPU". If I change the Debug to Latest, then I get a bunch more errors. Not surprsing in retrospect. – Al Lelopath Apr 29 '16 at 16:36
Could you elaborate on this answer please? – user1354557 Jun 14 '16 at 18:03
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@AlLelopath You should just add a new property group section, not edit existing ones. – Halvard Oct 19 '16 at 09:16
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For me the csproj file was OK. The issue was not passing in the ' '/p:Platform=AnyCPU' ' Please see @saurabh answer [pass platform parameter](https://stackoverflow.com/a/45305693/255117) – Johnny Nov 16 '17 at 15:51
of course you can pass all the properties every time you build it but thats why you add the config so you don't have to. – James Woolfenden Nov 16 '17 at 21:33
1

in my case, the csproj contained the for 'Debug|x64' but it only contained a element and nothing else. i copy/pasted the elements from a similar project and was good to go. – 4mla1fn Jun 05 '20 at 21:16
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Mine was actually missing the tag! How that is possible and Visual studio can show a value in the interface is a wonder to me, but added it manually and now it is working! Yay! – aliceraunsbaek Nov 25 '20 at 08:38
@a4bike I'm adding configuration manually and that was the case for me. – Sarrus Dec 11 '20 at 12:36

score 29 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 20 '15 at 12:59

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As mentioned by perlyking, rather than editing the csproj XML The following worked for me. Here are the steps I used.

Open the Project Properties.
Select the Build Tab.
Under the Output section, Check that an output path is set. (if not set one, save the project and it should work).
If it is set, click on the "Browse..." button of the output path.
When the folder selection dialog opens, Navigate up one level in the file browser and then re-select the output folder and click the "Select Folder" button.
Save the project properties and it should work.

answered Apr 20 '15 at 12:59

Bevan

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thanks! this worked for me. I *think* this needed to be refreshed because I renamed the build configuration – ozz Jan 14 '16 at 11:31
I also had this, after renaming my build configurations. I didn't need to manually alter the .csproj file, but I did need to quit VS2015, then go back into VS2015. And then it worked (sigh..!) – Mike Gledhill Jul 14 '17 at 14:34
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Is incredible but this work,I selected the up level folder, then select the debug folder again ( the same that had selected ) and works. Thanks. – Mauri Mar 08 '19 at 15:14
this only worked for me if I made sure the output path was "bin\" with nothing after it – MikeDev Feb 10 '20 at 17:58

score 17 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 08 '14 at 17:53

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To add to what @James said, I found that if I looked at the project Compile properties in VS2013, the Build Output Path was specified. But when I examined the .csproj file directly, the OutputPath element was missing for the relevant build configuration. So in VS I simply made and reversed a minor edit to the output path, saved it, and that kicked the value into the project file, and I was then able to build.

answered Oct 08 '14 at 17:53

perlyking

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5 years later... VS2019 and this is still an issue - and this fix still works. Thanks. – GeoffM Dec 27 '19 at 03:46

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 19 '19 at 16:21

I was using MSBuild to build multiple .sln files, and had added a new step to build a .csproj file as well, when I encountered this error.

@Saurabh's answer highlighted the root of the problem. However, when fixing it, adding /p:Platform=AnyCPU to the MSBuild Arguments section didn't fix it. I actually needed to update the Platform value on the build step.

All other build steps were using the $(BuildPlatform) variable value (which happened to be "any cpu", with a space in it).

(Had I been building multiple .csproj files, I probably would have created a second variable for the AnyCPU platform.)

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 08 '22 at 16:58

I was running into this issue while updating an older project with additional project configurations for per-environment config transforms.

It turns out that when the project configurations were added to the csproj file, they were inserted after an Import element which caused the issue.

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'ProjectName.Dev|AnyCPU'">
...

Moving the Import element after all the PropertyGroup definitions fixed the problem for me.

Relevant similar case: https://stackoverflow.com/a/31072208/2452820

This was the solution for me in VS2017. Does anyone know whether this has been fixed in >= VS2019? — MiloDC, Aug 15 '22 at 06:23

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 11 '15 at 21:14

2

I got this error only when I was publishing my web project. I had mistakenly selected the wrong build configuration when setting up the publish profile.

answered Sep 11 '15 at 21:14

raterus

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 20 '21 at 20:15

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For me the answer was to fix all the projects in Build > Configuration Manager.

If you have some projects where the name or platform does not match the solution configuration, you should change it so they all match.

answered Sep 20 '21 at 20:15

Jess

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It's worth noting that it can look correct in here but if you have updated a project outside of the sln you might need to make a dummy change and get it to update – Saurbaum Oct 19 '21 at 14:59

JotaBe · Answer 9 · 2017-09-13T14:33:35.900

In my case this error happened because the output folder included a dot to make it relative to the current directory. The problem was solved by removing the dot.

The offending Build output path was:

.\bin\Output

The problem was solved by changing it to

bin\Output

The build output path can be found in the Build tab of the project properties, and there is a different path for each combination of Configuration and Platform.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 11 '17 at 07:39

I had same issue. I have updated my windows platform by using command line. Currently i got updated to windows@5.0.0 version. Then you need to search for file name "SQLite3.UWP.vcxproj". Try to change "v141" to "v140". Currently I am using Visual Studio 2015 professional. If it's Visual Studio 2017, then there is no need to change version in SQLite3.UWP.vcxproj file.

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Dec 20 '17 at 17:26

Just had the issue for some service fabric stuff in MSBuild.

First step was right clicking each affected project and pulling up their Properties, selecting the Build tab, then setting the platform target to x64.

Second step was to go into the configuration manager and set each project to also use x64 for Debug and Release.

This was for a VS2017 project.

score 1 · Answer 12 · edited Apr 29 '22 at 14:46

This error is misleading and can be caused by a different issue. Check the entire message:

The OutputPath property is not set for project 'myproject'. Please check to make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for this project. Configuration='myconfig' Platform='AnyCPU'. This error may also appear if some other project is trying to follow a project-to-project reference to this project, this project has been unloaded or is not included in the solution, and the referencing project does not build using the same or an equivalent Configuration or Platform.

My build configuration was missing this node in the csproj:

<PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>

Despite saying AnyCPU was the selected Platform in the dropdown, the actual xml was not there. Adding it fixed the mismatch between the project and the other project it was referencing.

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 25 '19 at 18:01

I had the same problem on a few projects. After adding a new configuration to the projects, the PropertyGroup was added at the very end of the Project file.

Moving the PropertyGroup to right after all the other configurations PropertyGroup fixed the issue.

I hope this helps.

score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Jan 24 '20 at 17:31

I had this witha slightly unusual SLN/CSPROJ file arrangement:

I had project files:

A.csproj, with configurations "Dev" and "Production"
B.csproj, with configurations "Dev" and "Production"
C.csproj, a "common" library used by both A and B with configurations "Dev" and "Production"

And I had SLN files:

AC.sln, with configuration "Production" - this is used by jenkins to build project A and the common library
BC.sln, with configuration "Production" - this is used by jenkins to build project B and the common library
ABC.sln, with configuration "Dev" - this is used by developers in VS to write new code without having to keep opening different solutions (this answer is a simplified view of a 55-project solution)

I'd made an edit to the common library and introduced a dependency on project A. AC.sln would still build in jenkins but BC.sln gave an error saying:

The OutputPath property is not set for project 'A.csproj'. Please check to make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for this project. Configuration='Debug' Platform='AnyCPU'.

It was initially puzzling because we don't even have a Debug config anywhere in any project; find in files for Debug| turned up 0 hits

ABC.sln that the human developers use in VS would also build fine. Building BC.sln gave an error that A.dll wasn't found

When the circular irresolvable problem of C depending on A was removed, everything started working again

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jan 25 '18 at 23:28

The OutputPath property is not set for project error message will appear if a Platform environment variable exists (as seems to happen on HP laptops) and the target of MSBuild contains a reference to another Visual Studio project.

After renaming the Platform environment variable my build now works.

It seems the parameter /p:Platform="Any CPU" gets applied to the target solution but doesn't 'carryover' to referenced projects. In my instance, the error message indicated referenced projects were using the environment variable Platform=MCD.

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Oct 15 '18 at 14:28

I had two project configs, Debug and Release. When the Release build was used, it was throwing this error. The issue I found was that in the csproj file, the Debug config was near the top and the Release config was all the way at the bottom.

Manually moving the Release build just below the Debug build fixed it.

I'm assuming I did something incorrectly when setting up my build configurations because this doesn't feel like something I should have had to manually adjust.

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Feb 04 '20 at 21:36

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Edit the properties of the project: Make sure "Configuration Properties->General->Output Directory" is not blank. Note, it's not called OutputPath here. You can probably copy the value from Intermediate Directory.

answered Feb 04 '20 at 21:36

GLJeff

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Apr 18 '22 at 02:53

I encountered the same problems when build TheXTech (https://github.com/Wohlstand/TheXTech/wiki/Building-on-Windows#building-in-visual-studio-201520172019-and-cmake) recently. And finally I found it is a cmake -A issue. The correct arch for 64 bit on windows is x64, not Win64.

For some more reference, see https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.16/generator/Visual%20Studio%2016%202019.html#platform-selection, https://cmake.org/pipermail/cmake/2019-April/069379.html.

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Oct 17 '22 at 17:56

Go to Solution properties and change the configuration to Any CPU or X64 or X86, and if build is checked uncheck that for what you are getting error for. By default, project build that for build configuration in solution and throw error as mentioned when building the project.

The OutputPath property is not set for project

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