No OWIN authentication manager is associated with the request

Question

After trying to enable owin & AspNet Identity to my Web Api project (in VS 2013 + .Net 4.5.1) I get the following error in each valid or unvalid(request to none exist controller) requests :

<Error>
<Message>An error has occurred.</Message>
<ExceptionMessage>
No OWIN authentication manager is associated with the request.
</ExceptionMessage>
<ExceptionType>System.InvalidOperationException</ExceptionType>
<StackTrace>
at System.Web.Http.Owin.PassiveAuthenticationMessageHandler.SuppressDefaultAuthenticationChallenges(HttpRequestMessage request) at System.Web.Http.Owin.PassiveAuthenticationMessageHandler.<SendAsync>d__0.MoveNext() --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown --- at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter`1.GetResult() at System.Web.Http.HttpServer.<SendAsync>d__0.MoveNext()
</StackTrace>
</Error>

As I checked in debug mode, no exception is handled too! Also I realized that Configuration in Startup class is never called (indeed never caught by the debugger). here is the code for startup :

[assembly: OwinStartup(typeof(bloob.bloob.Startup))]

namespace bloob.bloob
{
    public partial class Startup
    {
        public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
        {
            ConfigureAuth(app);
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

I originally created the project with authentication, but then decided to disable it. I had to remove this in the WebApiConfig.cs file. Make sure you have this if you intend to enable authentication.

        // Web API configuration and services
        // Configure Web API to use only bearer token authentication.
        config.SuppressDefaultHostAuthentication();
        config.Filters.Add(new HostAuthenticationFilter(OAuthDefaults.AuthenticationType));

Answer 2

I found the problem finally! After comparing line by line with a newly created project and finding no difference , I checked references on both projects and yes!... All the problem was from missing package :

Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb

I don't know why this packaged is missed in package installation phase but the strange point is that why didn't any build exception thrown? or no any dll reference error?

Answer 3

My case, it failed since this settings in web.config. Hope this helps someone to avoid it.

<appSettings>
    <add key="owin:AutomaticAppStartup" value="false" />
</appSettings>

Answer 4

if you don't actually need OWIN you can simply uninstall it.

one way to do it is in Nuget Manager uninstall every OWIN library, the order will be dictated by their dependencies.

after this is done you don't need any OWIN related code or config. this worked out best for me since I am using windows auth.

Answer 5

I had the same problem. The package was not appearing in the NuGet Package manager. I added reference in packages.config:

 <package id="Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb" version="2.1.0" targetFramework="net45" />

And reference in the project file (xxx.csproj):

 <Reference Include="Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb">
  <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb.2.1.0\lib\net45\Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

Answer 6

Changing the owin:AutomaticAppStartup key to true in Web.config fixed this for me, i.e. change it from:

<appSettings>
    <add key="owin:AutomaticAppStartup" value="false" />
</appSettings>

to this:

<appSettings>
    <add key="owin:AutomaticAppStartup" value="true" />
</appSettings>