External VS2013 build error error MSB4019 The imported project path was not found

Question

I am building a project through the command line and not inside Visual Studio 2013  Note  I had upgraded my project from Visual Studio 2012 to 2013  The project builds fine inside the IDE  Also  I completely uninstalled VS2012 first  rebooted  and installed VS2013  The only version of Visual Studio that I have is 2013 Ultimate   ValidateProjects      39 gt path to project csproj 245 3   error MSB4019  The imported project  C  Program Files  x86  MSBuild Microsoft VisualStudio v11 0 WebApplications Microsoft WebApplication targets  was not found  Confirm that the path in the  lt Import gt  declaration is correct  and that the file exists on disk      39 gt Done Building Project  path to project csproj   Clean target s   -- FAILED    Here are the two lines in question    lt Import Project    VSToolsPath  WebApplications Microsoft WebApplication targets  Condition     VSToolsPath            gt   lt Import Project    MSBuildExtensionsPath32  Microsoft VisualStudio v12 0 WebApplications Microsoft WebApplication targets  Condition  false    gt    The original second line was v10 0  but I manually changed that to v12 0     VSToolsPath  elongates from what I see to the v11 0  VS2012  folder  which obviously is not there anymore  The path should have been to v12 0   C  Program Files  x86  MSBuild Microsoft VisualStudio v12 0 WebApplications    I tried specifying VSToolsPath in my system environment variables table  but the external build utility still uses v11 0  I tried searching through the registry and that came up with nothing   Sadly  I do not see any easy way to get the exact command line used  I use a build tool   Thoughts

User · Answer

In my case I was using the wrong version of MSBuild.exe.

The version you need to use depends on what version of Visual Studio you used to create your project. In my case I needed 14.0 (having used Visual Studio 2015).

This was found at:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\msbuild.exe

You can look under:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild

To find other versions.

User · Answer

Me - nothing was helping in changing the v11 0 value of VisualStudioVersion variable to v10 0  Changing variable in  csproj file didn t  Setting it through command promt didn t  Etc     Ended up copying my local folder of that specific version  v11 0  to my build server

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In my case  dev environment is VS2013 and I am using TFS 2010  Build was targeted for  NET 4 5 1  I was setting up auto build for CI  whenever I tried workarounds mentioned above - like removing properties group completely or replacing some lines etc my build used to happen in TFS but my publish to azure used to fail with  MSDeploy  or at times some different error   I was not able to achieve both simultaneously   So finally I had to pass MSBuild argument to resolve the issue   Goto Edit build definition   Process   3  Advanced   MSBuild Arguments  set to   p VisualStudioVersion 12 0   It worked for me

User · Answer

I had this problem for our FSharp targets  FSharpTargetsPath was empty    Many of the paths are built with reference to the VS version   For various reasons  our build runs with system privileges  and the environment variable  VisualStudioVersion  was only set  by the VS 2013 installer  at the  user  level - which is fair enough    Ensure that the  VisualStudioVersion  environment variable is set to  12 0  at the level  System or User  that you are running at

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I was using an external build utility  Think of something like Ants  if I understand the product correctly  just a commercial version  I had to contact the manufacturer for the answer   As it turns out  there is a global macro in the project  DEVSTUDIO NET DIR  I had to change the path to  Net there  They list various visual studio versions as  Actions   which through me off  but all roads lead back to that one global variable behind the scenes  I would list that as a defect against the product  if I had my way  unless I am missing something in my understanding  Correcting the path there fixed the build problem

User · Answer

Only one thing needs to be done to solve the problem  upgrade TeamCity to version 8 1 x or higher because support for Visual Studio 2012 2013 and MSBuild Tools 2013 was only introduced in TeamCity 8 1  Once you ve upgraded your TeamCity modify MSBuild Tools Version setting in your build step accordingly ans the problem will disappear  For more info read here  http   blog turlov com 2014 07 upgrade-teamcity-to-enable-support-for html

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In my case i just comment below line by opening  csproj file and did the trick     lt  --  lt Import Project     PRPJECTNAME targets    gt  -- gt   My problem may be different but i am dragged here  but this may help someone   I picked a single web project from my solution and try to open it as a stand alone project which was making issue  after above heck am able to solve issue

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I just received a response from Kinook  who gave me a link   Basically  I need to call the following prior to bulding  I guess Visual Studio 2013 does not automatically register the environment first  but 2012 did  or I did and forgot   call  C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 12 0 VC vcvarsall bat  x86   Hopefully  this post helps someone else

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I got this error when I install some VS components  Unfortunately none of these answers didn t help me  I use TFS for command development and I have no permissions to edit build definition  I solved this problem by deleting environment variables which called VS110COMNTOOLS and VS120COMNTOOLS  I think it was installed with my VS components

User · Answer

I found I was missing the WebApplications folder on my local PC  did not install with Visual Studio 2017 like it had when I was using 2012

User · Answer

you will find   C  Program Files   x86  MSBuild Microsoft VisualStudio v11 0 WebApplications Microsoft WebApplication targets    in  csproj file for which this error is appearing       Just remove this from csproj and then build

User · Answer

Use the correct version of MSBuild  Set Environment Variable to    C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise MSBuild 15 0 Bin   This will also work for VS 2019 projects  Previously we were setting it to C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319

User · Answer

This is closely related but may or may not fix OPs specific issue   In my case I was trying to automate the deployment of an Azure site using VS2013   Building and deploying via VS works  however  using MSBuild showed a similar error around the  targets    Turns out MSBuild is different under VS2013  and is now part of VS and not the  Net Framework  see http   timrayburn net blog visual-studio-2013-and-msbuild     Basically  use the correct version of MSBuild   OLD  VS2012  C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 MSBuild exe   NEW  VS2013  C  Program Files  x86  MSBuild 12 0 bin msbuild exe   Newer  VS2015  C  Program Files  x86  MSBuild 14 0 Bin msbuild exe   Newer still  VS2017  not fully testing but discovered - they ve moved things around a bit   C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Professional MSBuild 15 0 Bin msbuild exe

User · Answer

I had similar issue  All proposed solutions are just work around for this issue but are not solving source of error   giammin solution should not be applied if you are using tfs build server as it is just crashed publish functionality   cat5dev solution - solves issue but do not solve source of it   I m almost sure that you are using build process template for VS2012 like  ReleaseDefaultTemplate 11 1 xaml or DefaultTemplate 11 1 xaml  these build templates have been made for VS2012 and   VisualStudioVersion  set to 11 0  You should use build process template for VS2013  ReleaseTfvcTemplate 12 xaml or TfvcTemplate 12 xaml which has   VisualStudioVersion  set to 12 0  This works without any changes in project file

User · Answer

I had this too and you can fix it by setting the tools version in your build definition   This is very easy to do  Open your build definition and go to the  Process  page  Then under the  3  Advanced  group you have a property called  MSBuild Arguments   Place the parameter there with the following syntax    p VisualStudioVersion 12 0    If you have more parameters  separate them with a space and not a comma

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I had the same issue and find an easier solution  It is due to Vs2012 adding the following to the csproj file    lt PropertyGroup gt     lt VisualStudioVersion Condition     VisualStudioVersion          gt 10 0 lt  VisualStudioVersion gt     lt VSToolsPath Condition     VSToolsPath          gt   MSBuildExtensionsPath32  Microsoft VisualStudio v  VisualStudioVersion  lt  VSToolsPath gt   lt  PropertyGroup gt    You can safely remove that part and your solution will build      As Sielu pointed out you have to ensure that the  proj file begin   with  lt Project ToolsVersion  12  otherwise the next time you open the   project with visual studio 2010  it will add the removed node again    Otherwise  if you need to use webdeploy or you use a build server  the above solution will not work but you can specify the VisualStudioVersion property in your build script   msbuild myproject csproj  p VisualStudioVersion 12 0   or edit your build definition

User · Answer

I also had the same error    I did this to fix it   lt Import Project    MSBuildExtensionsPath32  Microsoft VisualStudio v11 0 WebApplications Microsoft WebApplication targets    gt    change to    lt Import Project    MSBuildExtensionsPath32  Microsoft VisualStudio v12 0 WebApplications Microsoft WebApplication targets  Condition  false    gt    and it s done

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If you migrate Visual Studio 2012 to 2013  then open   csprorj project file with edior   and check  Project  tag s ToolsVersion element   That s value 4 0  You make it to 12 0   From    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt Project ToolsVersion  4 0    To    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt Project ToolsVersion  12 0      Or If you build with msbuild then just specify VisualStudioVersion property     msbuild  p VisualStudioVersion 12 0

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I had tried all of the above solutions and still no luck   I had heard people installing visual studio on their build servers to fix it  but I only had 5gb of free spaces so I just copied C  Program Files  x86  MSBuild Microsoft VisualStudio to my build server and called it a day   Started working after that  using team city 9 x and visual studio 2013

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Based on TFS 2015 Build Server  If you counter this error     Error MSB4019  The imported project  C  Program Files  x86  MSBuild Microsoft VisualStudio v14 0 WebApplications Microsoft WebApplication targets  was not found  Confirm that the path in the  lt Import gt  declaration is correct  and that the file exists on disk   Open the  csproj file of the project named in the error message and comment out the section below   lt  --  lt PropertyGroup gt  -- gt       lt  --  lt VisualStudioVersion Condition     VisualStudioVersion          gt 10 0 lt  VisualStudioVersion gt  -- gt       lt  --  lt VSToolsPath Condition     VSToolsPath          gt   MSBuildExtensionsPath32  Microsoft VisualStudio v  VisualStudioVersion  lt  VSToolsPath gt  -- gt     lt  --  lt  PropertyGroup gt  -- gt

User · Answer

giammin s solution is partially incorrect   You SHOULD NOT remove that entire PropertyGroup from your solution   If you do  MSBuild s  DeployTarget Package  feature will stop working   This feature relies on the  VSToolsPath  being set    lt PropertyGroup gt     lt  -- VisualStudioVersion is incompatible with later versions of Visual Studio   Removing  -- gt     lt  --  lt VisualStudioVersion Condition     VisualStudioVersion          gt 10 0 lt  VisualStudioVersion gt  -- gt     lt  -- VSToolsPath is required by MSBuild for features like  DeployTarget Package  -- gt     lt VSToolsPath Condition     VSToolsPath          gt   MSBuildExtensionsPath32  Microsoft VisualStudio v  VisualStudioVersion  lt  VSToolsPath gt   lt  PropertyGroup gt       lt Import Project    VSToolsPath  WebApplications Microsoft WebApplication targets  Condition     VSToolsPath            gt

User · Answer

Running this in the commandline will fix the problem also  SETX VisualStudioVersion  12 0

User · Answer

You should copy folder WebApplications  from C  Program Files  x86  MSBuild Microsoft VisualStudio v12 0  to   C  Program Files  x86  MSBuild Microsoft VisualStudio v11 0

User · Answer

I have Visual Studio 2013 installed  This worked for me    lt PropertyGroup gt       lt VisualStudioVersion Condition     VisualStudioVersion          gt 12 0 lt  VisualStudioVersion gt        lt VSToolsPath Condition     VSToolsPath          gt   MSBuildExtensionsPath32  Microsoft VisualStudio v  VisualStudioVersion  lt  VSToolsPath gt   lt  PropertyGroup gt    So I ve changed the condition from    to    and the value from 10 0 to 12 0

[c#] External VS2013 build error "error MSB4019: The imported project <path> was not found"

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