Metadata file … could not be found error when building projects

Question

Every time I start Visual Studio 2008, the first time I try to run the project I get the error CS0006 The metadata file ... could not be found. If I do a rebuild of the comp

Answer 1

This is usually caused by a project that is referenced in a different solution than the one that is throwing the error. If you clean the other solution, or branch the code, you will more than likely see this error. The solution is to scroll down your list of "metadata not found" errors, and look at the references to the projects. 9/10 times, you will see a broken reference to a project that is not in this solution. Add the projects to fix the reference errors, and rebuild. That should fix it.

(I just ran into this today, and have in the past, and this has ALWAYS worked)