Error: "The file '/MasterPages/MainMaster.master' does not exist." (Yes, this file does exist!)

Question

I just got a new desktop computer with Windows 7 Pro as the operating system. I installed Visual Studio 2008 on to this new computer and tried to open a previously existing ASP.NET 3.5 solution that displayed perfectly fine on my previous computer (this previous computer used the Windows XP operating system, IIS6, and IE7 browser). However, in Windows7/IE8, I’m receiving the following error:

Server Error in '/' Application.

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Parser Error Description: An error occurred during the parsing of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific parse error details and modify your source file appropriately.

Parser Error Message: The file '/MasterPages/MainMaster.master' does not exist.

Source Error:

Line 1: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" MasterPageFile="~/MasterPages/MainMaster.master"%> Line 2:
Line 3: <%@ Register TagPrefix="SBLContent" TagName="SBLContentBlock" Src="usercontrols/content.ascx"%>

Source File: /SBLWebSite/default.aspx Line: 1

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Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.4952; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.4927

Please believe me when I tell you that the file ‘/MasterPages/MainMaster.master’ file does, in fact, exist.

In addition, this file’s location is properly referenced in the code (as indicated in Line 1 above), and as I said, was displayed properly by the browser in my previous computer. It might also be helpful to note that I’ve tried to navigate to other pages in this site, and this browser displays the same message for any and all master pages located in my MasterPages folder.

In summary, for some reason the browser cannot see any pages in the MasterPages folder. Can anybody tell me why I’m getting this error message when the folder and file is exactly where default.aspx says it is?

Thanks in advance!

Twitter

Answer 1

I appreciate your response.

However, this issue turned out to be an IIS7 issue. The error message I described arose out of the distinction made in IIS7 between a "virtual directory" and an "application" (I don't know if such a distinction existed in IIS6). To fix this error, I opened IIS7, right-clicked on the virtual directory folder for this site, and selected "Convert to Application." I then refreshed the browser, and the error went away.

Sigh.

Twitter

You should post this as a comment to Ben's answer instead :) Answers are generally.. well.. answers :) – Droit

please give more information about this solution, i have the same problem but didn't under your solution – Manutius

that was the trick!, thanks to "convert to Application" sets the default new root path to an additional segment URL so now localhost/myproject is the new root path to my new virtual directory an now works fine!, thanks again. – Magistral

I spent more than 6 hours searching for this information. This information helped me solve my problem. Thanks you. – Boman

Answer 2

Two things to check:

1. When using "~" in a file path, make sure that the current application deployment believes the root directory is the same as it was before. (I've run into this sometimes moving an app from the VS Development Server and IIS.)

2. Make sure that the user account that the server is running under has permissions to access that directory. Since you just moved the code over from another computer and probably some intermediate storage devices, the security permissions may not be right.

Israel

Answer 3

the error comes on the web form like this

<%@ Page Title="" Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" MasterPageFile="~/Site1.Master" CodeBehind="add_drivers.aspx.vb" Inherits="au_transport.WebForm1" %>

correction

<%@ Page Title="" Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" MasterPageFile="Site1.Master" CodeBehind="add_drivers.aspx.vb" Inherits="au_transport.WebForm1" %>

Faucal

Answer 4

Instead of the "~" I was able to simply change the directory to a relative ".." So, what I originally had that gave me the problem was something like: "~/MasterPage/TheMainMasterPage.master" and this caused me to get the same error message. Changing it to "../MasterPage/TheMainMasterPage.master" fixed everything for me.

Sigismondo

Answer 5

I recently had to move my websites from one server(32 bit) to another server(64 bit). On the new server I experienced the file not found error "Parser Error Message: The file '~/Master.master' does not exist"

NB: some of my applications were built for x86, you still need to convert your website to an application :-)

Solution: In IIS8, click Application Pool -> select an app pool eg DefaultAppPool -> click 'Advanced Settings' -> Under the 'General' section set 'Enable 32-Bit Applications' to 'True' -> Click OK

Refresh your website/webservice and that should do the trick

Francklin

Answer 6

previous code:-

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/admin.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="outgoingform.aspx.cs" Inherits="OCS.outgoingform" %>

after code changed:-

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="../ocs/admin.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="outgoingform.aspx.cs" Inherits="OCS.outgoingform" %>

change the code from everywhere from "~/admin.Master" to "~/ocs/admin.Master"

Benilda

Answer 7

previous code:-

after code changed:-

change the code from everywhere from "~/admin.Master" to "~/ocs/admin.Master"

Benilda

Answer 8

OK, so this is old and it is 2021 but, the path for your mater page has ~/site name/MasterPage.master or similar.

What I did to fix and because I uploaded to the server all in same directory, remove this ~/site name/ leave the name of the master page IE: MasterPage.master and all is well. make sure master page in same directory as other pages. Done.

What I had after edit...

<%@ Page Title="" Language="VB" MasterPageFile="MasterPage.master" 

do this for all pages

no site name or ~/ etc. What a pain but once you realize it is just a directory issue which in retrospect should have been obvious from the start.. all better now. Site up.

Dyarchy