Runtime error in VS 2013 Windows Azure regarding an assembly Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Emulator.Controller

Question

I am receiving an error while trying to run my azure project on my machine, which states :

Windows Azure Tools: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Emulator.Controller, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

When I try to build/rebuild the solution, no errors are received. This appears only when I try to run the project.

Some specifications for your reference :

• Using Visual Studio 2013
• Using Windows Azure SDK 2.3 for VS 2013
• Using SQL Server 2012

Things that I tried :

1. Tried setting the "Start Windows Azure Storage Emulator" property to false .
2. Tried changing the server from IIS express to IIS Web Server.
3. Tried replacing the assembly Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage from an old working backup.
4. Tried uninstalling Microsoft ASP.NET Web Tools and while reinstalling, it gave me the error "A later version of Microsoft ASP.NET and Web Tools 2013.1 - Visual Studio is already installed. Setup will now exit".

So far none have worked.

For further information, I once installed VS 2015 and its relevant Azure SDK a while back and then uninstalled it and installed VS 2012 and its corresponding Azure SDK. Note here that the project was running when I was using VS 2012. And now, I have installed VS 2013 and Azure SDK 2.3 and that error is showing up. Could this be an inception of the issue here ?

Any sort of help or guidance would be beneficial. Thanks.

Answer 1

This sounds like the Azure SDK does not install in your Visual Studio correctly. I would suggest you delete all version of Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio before reinstall. Then download a new one at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/ .