“Are you missing an assembly reference?” compile error - Visual Studio

Question

I am currently working on a server control for other applications in our company to interface with a WCF service. Every time I make a change code change and recompile the c

Answer 1

I encountered this error with an Azure DevOps Services (MS-hosted) build pipeline on a TFVC repo.

In my case, I was working within a branch and had accidentally added the reference from the package folder in trunk instead of from the branch. Once I added the reference from within the branch, it started compiling successfully.

I.e., while working on \branch-beta\sierra.csproj, I accidentally referenced \trunk\packages\delta.dll. Obviously, I needed to reference \branch-beta\packages\delta.dll instead. The mixup occurred because the path is not prominently displayed in the Add Reference window and I didn’t check carefully enough.