Razor View throwing "The name 'model' does not exist in the current context"

Question

After significant refactoring in my MVC 4 application, and Razor shows this error while debugging Views:

The name 'model' does not exist in the current context.

This is the offending line of code:

@model ICollection<DataSourceByActive>

I know that the usage of @model is correct.

Why is this happening? How can I fix it?

Weltanschauung

The key is "in the current context". Somewhere a bracket didn't get opened or closed... So your statement isn't in the context that you think it is. – Asymptomatic

Can you add your controller code along with some sample markup of what you are trying to do? – Accelerometer

Possible duplicate of The name 'model' does not exist in current context in MVC3 – Collarbone

This error can also appear in the Visual Studio IDE when editing the Razor view, with error code cs0103. – Bruns

When really the only thing that changes is the tools (Visual Studio updates - now VS 2022) I find it appalling that this keeps popping up. – Horseshoe

Here we are, years after this question was asked, with the same problem. Just happened to me. Tried all manner of fixes. No good. What finally did it? Opening and closing the source file with the error. How utterly, monumentally ridiculous. – Tullis

Answer 1

I think you have messed up the web.config file which lives in the Views folder.

Create a new project targeting the same .NET framework and copy its Views/web.config file on top of the one in your current project. This will fix your problem.

Also, as Dudeman3000 commented, if you have Areas in your MVC project they all have Views\web.config files too.

Etherege

remember that if you have Areas in your MVC project they all haves Views\web.config files too! – Wiliness

Oddly my web.config in the views directory was fine, but the project's web.config had a webpages version of 2.0.0. The false error detection went away when I made it 3.0.0. – Silence

@WilliamT.Mallard you saved my day. I have been struggling with that issue for months. – Jimerson

This will fix your problem. It did not. – Socha

what error you seen when you run your project @Socha – Etherege

@AnirudhaGupta The one in the question. – Socha

I agree with this answer except I would say "Microsoft has messed up the web.config file". I had the same problem when I upgraded to VS 2017 and I did nothing to my web.config file. If Microsoft made things backwards compatible this would not happen. Microsoft: If it ain't broke, break it. – Dooryard

Didn't work on first try. I upgraded System.Web.Mvc to last version then created a new MVC project and copied /Views/web.config. It worked. – Curr

Saved me a lot of time!. – Emmalynn

I had copied a valid web.config file into my Views folder but it wasn't included in the project. – Bedpan

@WildcatMatt Please check the property (f4) of that view file. It must be same as new one(create one with same framework and .net version) – Etherege

First try eaglei22's answer. Make sure you reference your model using "@Model" instead of "@model" before attempting other solutions such as restarting, etc. – Gibeonite

Thank you @Wiliness - copying Views\web.config in from the working version worked for me. – Peag

Answer 2

Make sure you have the following in both your site Web.config and views directory Web.config in the appSettings section

<add key="webpages:Version" value="2.0.0.0" />

---

For MVC5 use:

<add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0" />

(And it only exists in the main Web.config file.)

Bel

Thanks! For MVC5, the version number needs to be 3.0.0.0. (And it only exists in the main Web.config file.) – Minimize

This is the correct answer I would say as I tried everywhere to change the version no but at the end this was the only thing which was preventing the razor intellisence to work. – Kare

This worked for me. I had to restart Visual Studio after this change for everything to work. – Hebephrenia

I had this problem with MVC 5, the problem was that the key existed but was targeting version 2.0.0.0 instead of 3.0.0.0. Changing that fixed the problem. Thank you! – Calvano

I used this and it worked but I only added it to the views web.config. Intellisense came right up after a restart of VS. – Chaim

Fixed it for me! – Cytology

It was the version of System.Web.Mvc for us , someone updated the project reference , but the MVC Views Web.config wasn't updated . – Katzir

Since my project is MVC 5, I changed the key from "2.0.0.0" to "3.0.0.0" in the main Web.config file. The entry wasn't even there in the Views folder Web.config. I found that I didn't need to add it to that Web.config. This fix also got rid of other errors in my .cshtml files. Thanks! – Horus

Answer 3

Here is what I did:

1. Close Visual Studio
2. Delete the SUO file
3. Restart Visual Studio

The .suo file is a hidden file in the same folder as the .svn solution file and contains the Visual Studio User Options.

Horseshoe

Yeah, there is no web.config file for ASP.NET Core app, so this worked for me (also added some extensions for improved intellisense). – Boynton

I didn't even have to delete the SUO file. I just closed and opened Visual Studio. – Despondency

Visual Studio 2019: No suo file, deleting the .vs folder helped. – Widera

Thanks.. this did it for me. .net Core 2.0 mvc app – Crush

Visual Studio 2019 here, close and reopen fixed it for me. Thanks. – Togoland

First try eaglei22's answer first. Make sure you reference your model using "@Model" instead of "@model" before attempting other solutions such as restarting, etc. – Gibeonite

7 years later and I still run into this challenge in Visual Studio 2022 (in a very large solution with hundreds of projects) and frankly find it somewhat of a gaff on finding and fixing this challenge and feels like the tools (Visual Studio) are buggy with respect to all this. WHY should I have to manually update multiple Web.config files and/or repeat manual effort just to match up the versions etc. – Horseshoe

Answer 4

I had the same issue, I created a new project and copied the web.config files as recommended in the answer by Gupta, but that didn't fix things for me. I checked answer by Alex and Liam, I thought this line must have been copied from the new web.config, but it looks like the new project itself didn't have this line (MVC5):

<add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0" />

Adding the line to the views/web.config file solved the issue for me.

Ninetta

This one happens if you upgraded from asp.net version 4.0.0 to 4.5.1. In my case, my main web.config was showing webpages:Version = 2.0.0.0 but it should be 3.0.0.0. Updating this value fixed the problem. – Housebreaking

Answer 5

I was using an MVC4 project with Visual Studio 2019 - and it turned out VS 2019 does not support MVC 4 out-of-the-box. You have to install this.

Steps:

• Open Visual studio installer (Search for Visual Studio Installer in windows)
• Click individual components
• Write "mvc" in the search box
• Check the mvc4-box
• Click "Modify" at the bottom right

NOTE: Required for visual studio to be closed

Newsletter

That's what we get for still being in MVC 4 – Farrah

This solved my problem in VS2022. Thank you. – Doughty

This solved my problem in VS2022 too. Thank you. – Uriel

I've been trying all sorts of solutions all day and finally you've solved my problem. Thank You – Mayor

I didn't understand why but it worked for me in MVC5 – Rosalinarosalind

after trying many solutions for hours, finally this solution worked for me. Thank you – Jackson

Answer 6

Changing following line in web.config of view folder solved the same error.

From

 <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />

To

<host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />

Alasteir

This worked for me also. I had upgraded razor to support C#6 and MVC must have updated also. Check your System.Web.Mvc assembly reference to confirm the major version you need. – Klan

I had the same problem. fixing all the MVC, Razor etc. assemblies in web.config to x.0.0.0 got things working for me again – Spectrometer

@JamesWilkins Nice, worked for me ty. Just one thing, delete your project .suo file after that and restart VS. – Mullen

good catch! I was facing this issue after I upgraded from .net framework 4.0 to 4.6 and obviously pointing to wrong assembly version. – Jude

Answer 7

Changing to @Model from @model did the job for me.

@model represents the View Model object type. @Model represents the View Model object.

Flacon

I wish I would stop forgetting this! Thanks for reminding me! – Demerit

The amount of times I have to look up this issue is frustrating.. But I am glad it is a simple fix! – Gibeonite

Depends upon location of the use; some places it is @model and some it is @Model and both can be valid or manifest the issue with that dependency on location of use; good hint here to try though! – Horseshoe

Hey @MarkSchultheiss Thanks for the tip, however can you give me an example of when @model doesn't represent the view model object type in the view, and which version on MVC you're referring to? Thanks! – Flacon

Models can be used in various ways - for example I often have a "data access" to return data from a database; Sometimes a model for a "request" - which may for example be returned from a View; sometimes a model to map JSON data for example from an Ajax call. A pure "View Model" would for example also have properties such as a Display; a Validate decorator, min or max length, things like that. None of this is specific to any version. – Horseshoe

@MarkSchultheiss, I agree, those are all valid uses of a domain Model, and View Model. I'm just a little confused on within a view, it seemed like you were implying there may be instances of using the keyword @model (with a lower case m) other than to declare the type of model being passed in to the view. I am probably just misunderstanding your initial comment though. – Flacon

Answer 8

In my case, I recently updated from MVC 4 to MVC 5, which screws up the web.config pretty badly. This article helped tremendously.

http://www.asp.net/mvc/overview/releases/how-to-upgrade-an-aspnet-mvc-4-and-web-api-project-to-aspnet-mvc-5-and-web-api-2

The bottom line is that you need to check all your version number references in your web.config and Views/web.config to make sure that they are referencing the correct upgraded versions associated with MVC 5.

Maggi

If you upgraded from MVC 4 to MVC 5, this is the answer to check. It exactly pinpoints the versions issues, solved my issue and there is little risk to break anything. – Grayce

Answer 9

I've found a solution. If you want to update razor version or mvc 4 to 5, change some lines.

Old code in Views/web.config

<sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
  <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
  <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
</sectionGroup>

Replaced with

<sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
    <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
    <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
</sectionGroup>

sectionGroup must be change, too.

Drinkable

Yes this worked. Thanks. Just changed version 2.0.0.0 to 3.0.0.0 in 3 lines. – Amoroso

Answer 10

In my case, the following code founds to be useful. Place below code in Web.config file under Views folder.

<configSections>

  <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
   <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
   <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
  </sectionGroup>

</configSections>

Once the code is updated, make sure to clean and rebuild the solution. I hope this will help you out!

Colon

Answer 11

None of the existing answers worked for me, but I found what did work for me by comparing the .csproj files of different projects. The following manual edit to the .csproj XML-file solved the Razor-intellisense problem for me, maybe this can help someone else who has tried all the other answers to no avail. Key is to remove any instances of <Private>False</Private> in the <Reference>'s:

<ItemGroup>
  <Reference Include="Foo">
    <HintPath>path\to\Foo</HintPath>
    <!-- <Private>False</Private> -->
  </Reference>
  <Reference Include="Bar">
    <HintPath>path\to\Bar</HintPath>
    <!-- <Private>True</Private> -->
  </Reference>
</ItemGroup>

I don't know how those got there or exactly what they do, maybe someone smarter than me can add that information. I was just happy to finally solve this problem.

Jenna

Thanks for the suggestion, this also worked for me, for whatever reason – Snobbery

Worked for me too. – Bel

That was the only option that worked in my case. I switched an vs2010 project to 2019 and worked like a charm. After saving the csproj i tried to uncomment the tags like the original file, and it's still working... – Bauhaus

Answer 12

For some reason my web.config had 0.0.0.0 in the oldVersion attribute:

<runtime>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-5.2.3.0" newVersion="5.2.3.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
</runtime>

changing to 1.0.0.0 was the solution:

  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/>
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-5.2.3.0" newVersion="5.2.3.0"/>
  </dependentAssembly>

Kansas

Answer 13

I had the same problem when deploying to an Azure App Service

In my case it was because ~/Views/Web.config wasn't included in the project.

It worked in IIS Express but when I deployed to azure, I got the same error. By not being included in the .csproj file, it wasn't deployed.

The solution was to ensure ~/Views/Web.config is included in the project.

If you go to solution explorer and click the "Show all files" icon, then open up Views you might see an unincluded Web.config file under there.

Add it in, re-publish, and bob's your uncle.

Yardarm

i am def missing my webconfig in my published Views Folder .. not sure how to retain it – Distilled

@RicardoSaracino The .csproj file has a list of files to be included in a build. – Yardarm

Answer 14

In my case, the issue was that after upgrading the project from MVC 4 to MVC 5 I somehow missed a version change in the Views/web.config:

    <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">            

It still had the old 2.0.0.0 version. After changing the version to 3.0.0.0 everything started working just right.

Also, because of this problem, Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition would start bashing the CPU (30-40% usage at idle) every time I would open a .cshtml file.

Stickle

Answer 15

For me, the issue was a conflicting .NET version in one of the libraries that I recently imported. The library I imported was compiled for 4.5.2 and the ASP.NET MVC site I imported it into targeted 4.5. After recompiling said lib for 4.5 the website would comppile.

Also, there were no compilation errors, but the issue was being reported as a "warning". So be sure to read all warnings if there are any.

Cohl

Answer 16

In order to solve this I made sure that I upgraded to the newest MVC version using NuGet and Package Manager Console.

Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc -Version 5.2.4

Then upgraded to the latest Razor version

Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.Razor -Version 3.2.4

Then I changed all the web.config files to reflect the change. As you will see below:

In the main web.config file, make sure that the value for the webpages:Version key is correct. This is where it can be found (ignore the other keys):

<configuration>
 <appSettings>
   <add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0"/>
   <add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true"/>
   <add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="true"/>
 </appSettings>
</configuration>

Then look for the other versions listed in the assemblies, check the Version of the assembly against the version of the library listed in your project references! You may not need all of these.

<system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.6">
        <assemblies>
            <add assembly="System.Web.Abstractions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
            <add assembly="System.Web.Helpers, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
            <add assembly="System.Web.Routing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
            <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
            <add assembly="System.Web.WebPages, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
        </assemblies>
    </compilation>
</system.web>

runtime assemblyBinding should show the "newversion" as well, see where it reads newVersion 5.2.4.0? But also check all the other versions.

<runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
       <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Razor" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Helpers" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.WebPages" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-3.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-5.2.4.0" newVersion="5.2.4.0"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>

THEN in the Views Web.Config section, make sure that System.Web.WebPages.Razor is the correct version:

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
      <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
      <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>
<configuration>

And lastly there is the Pages section of the Views Web.Config

    <pages
    validateRequest="false"
    pageParserFilterType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewTypeParserFilter, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
    pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
    userControlBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl, System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
      <controls>
        <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" namespace="System.Web.Mvc" tagPrefix="mvc" />
      </controls>
    </pages>

Anecdotist

Answer 17

if you take this problem without any change on your project as like as me, you need change your web.config that placed in View Folder. just write new line by Enter or Remove an empty line . then save your web.config and rebuild. my problem solved with this solution

Caliph

Answer 18

I was trying to add a view which were outside of my "Views" folder (just to organize my code differently, I guess), when I had this issue. Creating the view inside Views (as by convention) solved it.

Preestablish

Answer 19

In my case, I removed web.config file from Views folder by accident. I added it back , and it was OK.

Burlesque

Answer 20

There appear to be 3 version-number settings which need to be correct in relation to each other here:

1. ... System.Web.Mvc, Version=x.x.x.x ... (in various places ~\Views\web.config)
2. ... System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=x.x.x.x ... (in various places ~\Views\web.config)
3. <add key="webpages:Version" value="x.x.x.x" /> (in ~\web.config) NB: root web.config

Combinations that have worked for me:

Combination 1:

System.Web.Mvc, Version=4.0.0.0

System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0

<add key="webpages:Version" value="2.0.0.0" />

Combination 2:

System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.2.7.0

System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0

<add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0" />

A final observation is that the webpages:Version setting appears to be optional. Removing it appears to have no negative consequences, at least in the context of the issue at hand.

Bruns

Answer 21

I had this problem in nopCommerce where I was copying a view part of a plugin to the output folder under nopcommerce\Plugins, but the view needed to be an embedded resource. So the wrong Build Action for the .csthml file was "Content" and where it should be "Embedded Resource", no copying needed.

Alexipharmic

Answer 22

It has been 7 years. However, my situations are little bit different.

All the views are working fine. Therefore, changing web.config and nuget to get new libraries would not work and possibly that would have introduced the problem.

My scenario was I have been working on Project B. Project B is cloning of Project A. Long Story short, a lot time, to save the time, I have to copy codes from project B to project A.

This time, I just copied the file, abc.cshtml, into Project A from project B. Project B was developed using 2015. For some reason, this caused problem. I don't know. Anyway, I removed the abc.cshtml and create the blank abc.cshtml from scratch. Then I select every everything on abc.cshtml in Project B, and copy all the texts to project A newly created abc.cshtml.

I solved my problem

Cathar

Answer 23

Using an invalid expression can trigger such a compiler error. In the following scenario, the intended lambda expression should be =>, not ==>

Arlyne

Answer 24

This answer might be less common but might still help a few people. I was using Razor Pages and I had this "clever comment" in my *.cshtml file:

  <!-- {th} -->
  <!--     {a asp-page="./Index" asp-route-sortOrder="@Model.PriceSort"} -->
  <!--         @Html.DisplayNameFor(model =} model.ProjectsList[0].Price) -->
  <!--     {/a} -->
  <!-- {/th} -->

Even though this is a perfectly valid HTML comment, for some reason the comments trashed Visual Studio's parsing ability and it failed to recognize @Model and ViewData["Title"] even though everything was set up right including _ViewImports.cshtml and _ViewStart.cshtml files. It took me 2 hours to figure out that all I needed to do was delete the HTML comments and everything instantly stated working fine.

Oram

Answer 25

In my case I was missing @ at the beginning of the foreach

    @foreach (var item in Model)
    {
        <tr class="clickable-row">
            <td class="clickable-field">
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Label)
            </td>
            <td class="clickable-field hidden-xs">
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Value)
            </td>
        </tr>
    }

Komsomol

This is important; Don't know why you were downvoted. – Cupidity

Because it has nothing to do with the original question. – Biz

Answer 26

I solved the problem by using @Model instead of just model when printing the variables.

Mixer

Answer 27

You are likely to use in the code a variable named model.

Dasheen