Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.Mvc' or one of its dependencies

Question

I have this new MVC application which I have installed on Windows 2008 Server. And get the following message when I run the localhost.

I have checked in the Bin folder, and can confirm that the Systems.Web.MVC is there. And the version of the file is, 2.0.50217.0

And in the web.config I have defined this assembly,

Can any one help? See the error message below:

----ERROR MESSAGE------------------------------

Server Error in '/' Application.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.Mvc' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040) 
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. 

Exception Details: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.Mvc' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)

Source Error: 

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.  

Assembly Load Trace: The following information can be helpful to determine why the assembly 'System.Web.Mvc' could not be loaded.


WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.
Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.
To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].



Stack Trace: 


[FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.Mvc' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)]

[FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)]
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks) +0
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks) +39
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoadAssemblyName(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks) +132
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection) +144
   System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(String assemblyString) +28
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective) +46

[ConfigurationErrorsException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)]
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective) +618
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAllAssembliesFromAppDomainBinDirectory() +209
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssembly(AssemblyInfo ai) +130
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetReferencedAssemblies(CompilationSection compConfig) +178
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetPreStartInitMethodsFromReferencedAssemblies() +94
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CallPreStartInitMethods() +332
   System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters, PolicyLevel policyLevel, Exception appDomainCreationException) +591

[HttpException (0x80004005): Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)]
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.FirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +8950644
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.EnsureFirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +97
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationPrivate(IIS7WorkerRequest wr, HttpContext context) +256




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:4.0.30319; ASP.NET Version:4.0.30319.1 

Answer 1

I had this problem when deploying to a server which ran MVC2, the files which will need to be included in the build are:

Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.dll
System.Web.Helpers.dll
System.Web.Mvc.dll
System.Web.Razor.dll
System.Web.WebPages.Deployment.dll
System.Web.WebPages.dll
System.Web.WebPages.Razor.dll

Phil Haack has done a good post here (for how to solve if you run into this problem when deploying)

http://haacked.com/archive/2011/05/25/bin-deploying-asp-net-mvc-3.aspx

Answer 2

Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0,..."

Your application is using MVC3, but according to your own comment, the server has MVC2 (2.0.50217.0).

Answer 3

Right Click to Project -> Manage Nuget Packages for solution than update

Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc and Microsoft.Net.Compilers