Error MSB4018: the “generatedepsfile” task failed unexpectedly

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I recently ran into a compilation error that is preventing me from building and running my WebAPI. It was working perfectly just the night before, so I'm very confused as to why it's happening now with no changes. My target framework is "netcoreapp3.1". Additionally, when I do build and run the API, I receive

HTTP Error 500.31 - ANCM Failed to Find Native Dependencies
Common solutions to this issue:
The specified version of Microsoft.NetCore.App or Microsoft.AspNetCore.App was not found.
Specific error detected by ANCM:
A JSON parsing exception occurred in [C:\Users\username\source\repos\MainLibraries\WebAPI\WebAPI\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\WebAPI.deps.json]: * Line 1, Column 2 Syntax error: Malformed token Error initializing the dependency resolver: An error occurred while parsing: C:\Users\username\source\repos\MainLibraries\WebAPI\WebAPI\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\WebAPI.deps.json

This is the full error log:

1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018: The "GenerateDepsFile" task failed unexpectedly.
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018: System.ArgumentException: An item with the same key has already been added.
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentException(ExceptionResource resource)
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at System.Linq.Enumerable.ToDictionary[TSource,TKey,TElement](IEnumerable`1 source, Func`2 keySelector, Func`2 elementSelector, IEqualityComparer`1 comparer)
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel.DependencyContextWriter.WritePortableTarget(IReadOnlyList`1 runtimeLibraries, IReadOnlyList`1 compilationLibraries)
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel.DependencyContextWriter.WriteTargets(DependencyContext context)
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel.DependencyContextWriter.Write(DependencyContext context)
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel.DependencyContextWriter.Write(DependencyContext context, Stream stream)
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at Microsoft.NET.Build.Tasks.GenerateDepsFile.WriteDepsFile(String depsFilePath)
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at Microsoft.NET.Build.Tasks.GenerateDepsFile.ExecuteCore()
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at Microsoft.NET.Build.Tasks.TaskBase.Execute()
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskExecutionHost.Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.ITaskExecutionHost.Execute()
1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.1.402\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.targets(194,5): error MSB4018:    at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskBuilder.<ExecuteInstantiatedTask>d__26.MoveNext()

What I have tried:

Things I've tried:

Repairing VS
Reinstalling VS
Deleting bin and obj
Deleting .vs from my solutions folder

Posted 9-Oct-20 5:40am

stevenlam505

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Comments

Richard MacCutchan 9-Oct-20 12:27pm

Look in the JSON file referred to in the message to see what is wrong.

stevenlam505 9-Oct-20 13:25pm

They're both empty for some reason.

Richard MacCutchan 9-Oct-20 14:07pm

well that is why the error is happening. But I am afraid I don't know what they are supposed to contain.

stevenlam505 9-Oct-20 15:45pm

I had a colleague send over his version of the referenced JSON file, and when I upload it to the debug folder and build, that file seems to be overwritten by the new one.

Richard MacCutchan 10-Oct-20 3:54am

I suggest you post this on the Microsoft forum.

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