[c#] Unable to copy a file from obj\Debug to bin\Debug

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)?

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

There are two solutions to this problem.

1. 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.

2. Add a exit button in your application to exit window and add these line to click event

   System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().Kill();
   Application.Exit();
   

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Run Visual Studio as Administrator

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."

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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).

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"

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.

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

My work-around is to:

1. Clean Solution (and do nothing else)
2. Close all open documents/files in the solution
3. Exit VS 2012
4. Run VS 2012
5. 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.

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

Mine got solved by:

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

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

What I have tried:

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

• Set the bin folder not read only

• Add security at bin folder to Everyone

• stop the iis server

• 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

Solution1:

1. Close the project.
2. Delete the bin folder.
3. Open the project.
4. 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.

1. Close your project
2. Delete bin folder

i find it work, :)

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

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

1. End the msbuild.exe task
2. End the explorer.exe task
3. Run the explorer.exe task again

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 ! :)