Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Razor'?

Question

I have an MVC5 Application that I am trying to publish to Microsoft Azure Webhosting. When I execute the application on my localhost, everything works as intended. However, when I publish to Azure and attempt to load the host domain, I receive the following error message:

Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, 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).

When I look into my Web.Config files, I have the following:

<sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"> <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" /> <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" /> </sectionGroup>

If what I'm gathering from the error message is correct, either my application or some component is instead seeking Version 2.0.0.0 instead of 3.0.0.0, but I have no idea as to what/which may be causing the issue.

Has anyone else encountered this when publishing to Azure?

EDIT:

As suggested by trailmax I performed Add-BindingRedirect in Package Manager Console, which resulted in the following:

PM> Add-BindingRedirect
Name                 OldVersion        NewVersion
--------------       ------------      -------------
System.Web.Mvc       0.0.0.0-5.1.0.0   5.1.0.0
System.Web.WebPages  0.0.0.0-3.0.0.0   3.0.0.0

I then checked localhost to verifying everything was still in working order (check) and tried publishing once more to Azure. Still the same issue :/

Here's the full breakdown:

Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, 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) 
  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.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, 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)

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.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' 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.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, 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)]
   Microsoft.Web.WebPages.OAuth.PreApplicationStartCode.Start() +0

[InvalidOperationException: The pre-application start initialization method Start on type Microsoft.Web.WebPages.OAuth.PreApplicationStartCode threw an exception with the following error message: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, 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.Compilation.BuildManager.InvokePreStartInitMethodsCore(ICollection`1 methods, Func`1 setHostingEnvironmentCultures) +547
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.InvokePreStartInitMethods(ICollection`1 methods) +132
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CallPreStartInitMethods(String preStartInitListPath, Boolean& isRefAssemblyLoaded) +102
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.ExecutePreAppStart() +153
   System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters, PolicyLevel policyLevel, Exception appDomainCreationException) +521

[HttpException (0x80004005): The pre-application start initialization method Start on type Microsoft.Web.WebPages.OAuth.PreApplicationStartCode threw an exception with the following error message: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, 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) +9930568
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.EnsureFirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +101
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationPrivate(IIS7WorkerRequest wr, HttpContext context) +254

EDIT2:

Correction, the main root Web.config file was modified from Add-BindingRedirect. Still receiving the same issue on publish.

<runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Helpers" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-5.1.0.0" newVersion="5.1.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Optimization" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="1.1.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.WebPages" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="WebGrease" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-1.5.2.14234" newVersion="1.5.2.14234" />
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>

Answer 1

One of your components depends on v2, hence the issue. You'll need to add binding redirect in web.config for the assembly to point to v3.

You can do it within nuget console with command

PM> Add-BindingRedirect

In case the tool does not pick up the version mismatch, you can add it manually to web.config:

<configuration>
  <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.WebPages.Razor" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
</configuration>

One of the ways to find out what component depends on older version, you can use a dependency tracker tool. The one I've used in the past is called CheckAsm. The free version is good enough for one or two-times use.