SimpleMembership MVC3 Could not load file or assembly WebMatrix.Data

Question

I'm using the SimpleMembership.MVC3 package to manage membership. Everything works fine at development but when I deploy to my Azure web role, It throws the following exception:

Could not load file or assembly 'WebMatrix.Data, Version=1.0.0.0, 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)

stack trace: [FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'WebMatrix.Data, Version=1.0.0.0, 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)]
WebMatrix.WebData.PreApplicationStartCode.Start() +0

[InvalidOperationException: The pre-application start initialization method Start on type WebMatrix.WebData.PreApplicationStartCode threw an exception with the following error message: Could not load file or assembly 'WebMatrix.Data, Version=1.0.0.0, 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.InvokePreStartInitMethods(ICollection`1 methods) +11711966
System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CallPreStartInitMethods() +465
System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters, PolicyLevel policyLevel, Exception appDomainCreationException) +1167

[HttpException (0x80004005): The pre-application start initialization method Start on type WebMatrix.WebData.PreApplicationStartCode threw an exception with the following error message: Could not load file or assembly 'WebMatrix.Data, Version=1.0.0.0, 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) +11700896 System.Web.HttpRuntime.EnsureFirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +141 System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationPrivate(IIS7WorkerRequest wr, HttpContext context) +4869125

There's no WebMatrix.Data assembly downloaded when I install the Nuget Package. I've manually added the WeBMatrix.Data.DLL found at my Program Files/Microsoft ASP.NET directory, but the version of this assembly is 2.x, and the one missing is version 1.x

What is missing?

Answer 1

I had the same issue. I right-clicked on the Reference in the Project and went to Properties. Change the CopyToLocal setting from True to False and rebuilt the project. Resolved my issue.

Answer 2

Try adding the Reference from Nuget instead of the local reference. This solved my issue.

Here is the package: https://www.nuget.org/packages/WebMatrix.Data/