© 2026 Hedgehog Software, LLC

TwitterGitHubDiscord
More
CommunitiesDocsAboutTermsPrivacy
Search
Star
Setup for Free
C#C
C#•2y ago•
197 replies
Will Pittenger

CS0006 Can't find metadata dll, but paths are correct

I have a project,
BestChat.Prefs.GUI.Ctrls.csproj
BestChat.Prefs.GUI.Ctrls.csproj
which references the DLL project
BestChat.Prefs.Data
BestChat.Prefs.Data
. I'm getting the error shown below:

Error (active)    CS0006    Metadata file 'B:\Contents\Best Chat\Code\BestChat.Prefs.Data\bin\Debug\net8.0-windows\BestChat.Prefs.Data.dll' could not be found    BestChat.Prefs.GUI.Ctrls    B:\Contents\Best Chat\Code\BestChat.Prefs.GUI.Ctrls\CSC    1        
Error (active)    CS0006    Metadata file 'B:\Contents\Best Chat\Code\BestChat.Prefs.Data\bin\Debug\net8.0-windows\BestChat.Prefs.Data.dll' could not be found    BestChat.Prefs.GUI.Ctrls    B:\Contents\Best Chat\Code\BestChat.Prefs.GUI.Ctrls\CSC    1        


I don't understand why. The line from
BestChat.Prefs.GUI.Ctrls.csproj
BestChat.Prefs.GUI.Ctrls.csproj
is
<ProjectReference Include="..\BestChat.Prefs.Data\BestChat.Prefs.Data.csproj" />
<ProjectReference Include="..\BestChat.Prefs.Data\BestChat.Prefs.Data.csproj" />
.
BestChat.Prefs.Data
BestChat.Prefs.Data
is one directory up. So the relative path should be correct.

What's going on and how do I fix it?
C# banner
C#Join
We are a programming server aimed at coders discussing everything related to C# (CSharp) and .NET.
61,871Members
Resources

Similar Threads

Was this page helpful?
Recent Announcements
Next page

Similar Threads

❔ Can't find dll reference assemblies
C#CC# / help
3y ago
Single-file executable can't find dependency DLL in its folder
C#CC# / help
5mo ago
❔ Cannot find .dll in referenced project
C#CC# / help
3y ago
❔ Program can't find folder
C#CC# / help
3y ago