ASP.NET Error: Cannot create/shadow copy when that file already exists.

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Occasionally when using a debugger in ASP.NET (or shortly after using the debugger), your solution may return the following error when viewing in a browser:

Cannot create/shadow copy when that file already exists.

This is a problem rooted in how solutions build for ASP.NET - they are often built into binaries that are placed in a "shadow" location so that the user may continue editing and saving the code without any consequence to the current built solution. Sometimes this process will not work correctly. A quick solution is to Clean your solution. This can be done in Visual Studio by navigating to Build -> Clean Solution.

However if this problem is occurring enough, it might be worth placing the following code into your web.config:

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

This will prevent the solution from making shadow binaries, but you will have to be more careful about editing your solution while testing it.

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 July 2010 08:03

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