[c#] How can I change IIS Express port for a site

I want to change the port number on which my website runs while debugging from Visual Studio. I am using Visual Studio 2012, and I am using ASP.NET MVC 4 for my projects I want to change the port. Random port or fixed anyone will work just want to change the port.

I'd the same issue on a WCF project on VS2017. When I debug, it gives errors like not able to get meta data, but it turns out the port was used by other process. I got some idea from here, and finally figure out where the port was kept. There are 2 places: 1. C:...to your solution folder....vs\config\applicationhost.config. Inside, you can find the site that you debug. Under , remove the that has port issue. 2. C:...to your project folder...\, you will see a file with ProjectName.csproj.user. Remove this file.

So, close the solution, remove the and the user file mentioned above, then reopen the solution, VS will find another suitable port for the site.

You can first start IIS express from command line and give it a port with /port:port-number see other options.

For old Website projects you will need to modify port in solution file, find section similar to below and change "VWDPort" property

Project("{E24C65DC-7377-472B-9ABA-BC803B73C61A}") = "My Website", "My Website\", "{871AF49A-F0D6-4B10-A80D-652E2411EEF3}"
    ProjectSection(WebsiteProperties) = preProject
        SccProjectName = "<Project Location In Database>"
        SccAuxPath = "<Source Control Database>"
        SccLocalPath = "<Local Binding Root of Project>"
        SccProvider = "Mercurial Source Control Package"
        TargetFrameworkMoniker = ".NETFramework,Version%3Dv4.7.2"
        ProjectReferences = "{41176de9-0c21-4da1-8532-4453c9cbe289}|My.CommonLibrary.dll;{f1fda4e5-0233-458e-97b8-381bdb38a777}|My.Ajax.dll;{e756176c-9cd1-4dac-9b2d-9162b7554c70}|My.WEB.API.Domain.dll;{7A94A6C8-595B-43CF-9516-48FF4D8B8292}|My.WEB.API.Common.dll;{790654F2-7339-472C-9A79-9E36837571A0}|My.Api.dll;{25aa245b-89d9-4d0c-808d-e1817eded876}|My.WEB.API.DAL.dll;{cc43d973-6848-4842-aa13-7751e655966d}|My.WEB.API.BLL.dll;{41591398-b5a7-4207-9972-5bcd693a9552}|My.FacialRecognition.dll;"
        Debug.AspNetCompiler.VirtualPath = "/My Website"
        Debug.AspNetCompiler.PhysicalPath = "My Website\"
        Debug.AspNetCompiler.TargetPath = "PrecompiledWeb\My Website\"
        Debug.AspNetCompiler.Updateable = "true"
        Debug.AspNetCompiler.ForceOverwrite = "true"
        Debug.AspNetCompiler.FixedNames = "false"
        Debug.AspNetCompiler.Debug = "True"
        Release.AspNetCompiler.VirtualPath = "/My Website"
        Release.AspNetCompiler.PhysicalPath = "My Website\"
        Release.AspNetCompiler.TargetPath = "PrecompiledWeb\My Website\"
        Release.AspNetCompiler.Updateable = "true"
        Release.AspNetCompiler.ForceOverwrite = "true"
        Release.AspNetCompiler.FixedNames = "false"
        Release.AspNetCompiler.Debug = "False"
        VWDPort = "3883"
        SlnRelativePath = "My Website\"
    EndProjectSection
    ProjectSection(ProjectDependencies) = postProject
        {C3A75E14-1354-47CA-8FD6-0CADB80F1652} = {C3A75E14-1354-47CA-8FD6-0CADB80F1652}
    EndProjectSection
EndProject

Another fix for those who have IIS Installed:

Create a path on the IIS Server, and allocate your website/app there.

Go to propieties of the solution of the explorer, then in front of using the iisexpress from visual studio, make that vs uses your personal own IIS.

If we are talking about a WebSite, not web app, my issue was that the actual .sln folder was somewhere else than the website, and I had not noticed. Look for the .sln path and then for the .vs (hidden) folder there.

Deploy your application in the IIS with the default port. Try to debug it using visual studio. It's a good practice. If you use visual studio, it will keep changing the port number most of the time. So better deploy the application in the IIS first and Open the same in visual studio and Debug it.

Edit .sln file using an editor like notepad.

Replace All Ports With New Port.

Right click on your MVC Project. Go to Properties. Go to the Web tab.
Change the port number in the Project Url. Example. localhost:50645
Changing the bold number, 50645, to anything else will change the port the site runs under.
Press the Create Virtual Directory button to complete the process.

See also: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178109.ASPX

Image shows the web tab of an MVC Project

Here's a more manual method that works both for Website projects and Web Application projects. (you can't change the project URL from within Visual Studio for Website projects.)

Web Application projects

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and click Unload Project.

2. Navigate to the IIS Express ApplicationHost.config file. By default, this file is located in:

   %userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config

   In recent Visual Studio versions and Web Application projects, this file is in the solution folder under [Solution Dir]\.vs\config\applicationhost.config (note the .vs folder is a hidden item)

3. Open the ApplicationHost.config file in a text editor. In the <sites> section, search for your site's name. In the <bindings> section of your site, you will see an element like this:

   <binding protocol="http" bindingInformation="*:56422:localhost" />

   Change the port number (56422 in the above example) to anything you want. e.g.:

   <binding protocol="http" bindingInformation="*:44444:localhost" />

   Bonus: You can even bind to a different host name and do cool things like:

   <binding protocol="http" bindingInformation="*:80:mysite.dev" />

   and then map mysite.dev to 127.0.0.1 in your hosts file, and then open your website from "http://mysite.dev"

4. In Solution Explorer, right-click the the project and click Reload Project.

5. In Solution Explorer, right-click the the project and select Properties.

   • Select the Web tab.

   • In the Servers section, under Use Local IIS Web server, in the Project URL box enter a URL to match the hostname and port you entered in the ApplicationHost.config file from before.

   • To the right of the Project URL box, click Create Virtual Directory. If you see a success message, then you've done the steps correctly.

   • In the File menu, click Save Selected Items.

Website projects

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project name and then click Remove or Delete; don't worry, this removes the project from your solution, but does not delete the corresponding files on disk.

2. Follow step 2 from above for Web Application projects.

3. In Solution Explorer, right-click the solution, select Add, and then select Existing Web Site.... In the Add Existing Web Site dialog box, make sure that the Local IIS tab is selected. Under IIS Express Sites, select the site for which you have changed the port number, then click OK.

Now you can access your website from your new hostname/port.

.Net Core

For those who got here looking for this configuration in .Net core this resides in the lauchSettings.json. Just edit the port in the property "applicationUrl".

The file should look something like this:

{
  "iisSettings": {
    "windowsAuthentication": false,
    "anonymousAuthentication": true,
    "iisExpress": {
      "applicationUrl": "http://localhost:53950/", //Here
      "sslPort": 0
    }
  },
  "profiles": {
    "IIS Express": {
      "commandName": "IISExpress",
      "launchBrowser": true,
      "launchUrl": "index.html",
      "environmentVariables": {
        "Hosting:Environment": "Development"
      },
    }
  }
}

Or you can use the GUI by double clicking in the "Properties" of your project.

Note: I had to reopen VS to make it work.

I'm using VS 2019.

if your solution has more than one project / class libraries etc, then you may not see the Web tab when clicking on Solution explorer properties.

Clicking on the MVC project and then checking properties will reveal the web tab where you can change the port.

If you just want to change the port because it is already in use. Follow the following steps.

In Visual studio

1. Right-click on Project Node and Unload Project
2. Right-click on Project Node and Edit .csproj file.
3. Search for the following tags and remove them

<DevelopmentServerPort>62140</DevelopmentServerPort>
<DevelopmentServerVPath></DevelopmentServerVPath>
<IISUrl>http://localhost:62116/</IISUrl>

4. press Ctrl + S to save the document
5. Right-click on Project Node and load Project

It will work by selecting another port randomly.

For further information. please click