Error MSB3030 Could not copy the file "C:\Users\...\WebApi3\obj\Debug\netcoreapp3.0\webapi3.exe" because it was not found

user_7570751 0
Viewed 6407

Hi Stackoverflow Community,

I am trying to build my Web and WebAPI, console applications with Target Framework - .NET Core 3.0, as per project 'Application' properties, using:

Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2019 Version 16.5.4 on Windows 10 PRO

I am seeing the following errors:

Error MSB3030 Could not copy the file "C:\Users...\WebApi3\obj\Debug\netcoreapp3.0\webapi3.exe" because it was not found

and

Error MSB3030 Could not copy the file "C:\Users...\Web\obj\Debug\netcoreapp3.0\webportal.exe" because it was not found

Hence these projects are not getting built.

Appreciate your time for reading this.

Please advise.

Here is the part of the code where the error points to:

    ============================================================
                                        _CopyOutOfDateSourceItemsToOutputDirectory

    Copy files that have the CopyToOutputDirectory attribute set to 'PreserveNewest'.
    ============================================================
    -->
  <Target
      Name="_CopyOutOfDateSourceItemsToOutputDirectory"
      Condition=" '@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory)' != '' "
      Inputs="@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory)"
      Outputs="@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory->'$(OutDir)%(TargetPath)')">

    <!--
        Not using SkipUnchangedFiles="true" because the application may want to change
        one of these files and not have an incremental build replace it.
        -->
    <Copy
        SourceFiles = "@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory)"
        DestinationFiles = "@(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory->'$(OutDir)%(TargetPath)')"
        OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="$(OverwriteReadOnlyFiles)"
        Retries="$(CopyRetryCount)"
        RetryDelayMilliseconds="$(CopyRetryDelayMilliseconds)"
        UseHardlinksIfPossible="$(CreateHardLinksForAdditionalFilesIfPossible)"
        UseSymboliclinksIfPossible="$(CreateSymbolicLinksForAdditionalFilesIfPossible)"
            >

      <Output TaskParameter="DestinationFiles" ItemName="FileWrites"/>

    </Copy>

  </Target>
.net-core visual-studio msbuild asp.net windows
4 Answers

I faced the same issue in VS2022(17.0.1) as well. I performed below steps based on a github issue [https://github.com/dotnet/sdk/issues/3122] discussion and my issue got resolved. I believe this works for VS2019 as well.

Step1: Clean Local Nuget Cache ..\projectDir> dotnet nuget locals all --clear

Step2: remove bin and Obj folders ..\projectDir> rd \s \q bin obj

Step3: Clean the solution using Visual studio build menu

Step4: Rebuild Project

user_141058690

Updating Visual Studio to 16.5.5. seems to have solved the issue so far.

user_75707510

I had a similar issue but whilst attempting to publish. The affected .DLL was a nuget package and I noticed I had an update for it.

Updating the affected package, cleaning the solution, rebuilding then re-publishing resolved my issue.

user_79642830

For CoreXT repos by default only outputs under obj for retail builds or objd for debug builds are collected. You seem to be using the retail bridge and using obj(Debug|Release) and bin (the MSBuild non-CoreXT defaults), so those outputs are not being collected.

To remedy this, you can set the -UsePredictedOutputPath QuickBuild flag which will avoid collecting those hard-coded paths and instead ask each project what its $(IntermediateOutputPath) and $(OutputPath) are and use those.

Note that in either case, outputs under output roots (eg /target) are always collected. This flag only affects the project-relative outputs.

user_23682850
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