[Solved] c# “Unable to copy… because being used by another process” when building

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Introduction

When building a C# application, you may encounter an error message stating “Unable to copy… because being used by another process”. This error can be caused by a variety of issues, such as a file being locked by another process, a file being in use by another application, or a file being corrupted. Fortunately, there are a few solutions that can help you resolve this issue. In this article, we will discuss the causes of this error and provide some tips on how to fix it. We will also provide some best practices to help you avoid this issue in the future.

Solution

The most common cause of this issue is that the file is locked by another process. To resolve this, you can try the following:

1. Close any applications that may be using the file.

2. Use the Windows Task Manager to check for any processes that may be using the file. If any are found, terminate them.

3. Use the Unlocker tool to unlock the file.

4. Restart the build process.


There is a simple way around: Don’t run your 50 instances from your build output directory. Copy your binaries from your build output to another directory and start your instances from there.

If you do so, you won’t have problems deploying a new modified version. Of course you cannot exchange the running binaries with that new version, but you may copy your new version to another directory and start it from there.

UPDATE: Another way around would be to temporarily change the output directory of your deploy process. But I’d prefer to move productive binaries away from the build output location.

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solved c# “Unable to copy… because being used by another process” when building


When building a C# application, you may encounter the error message “Unable to copy because it is being used by another process”. This error can be caused by a variety of issues, but the most common cause is that the file is locked by another process. In this article, we’ll discuss how to troubleshoot and resolve this issue.

What Causes the Error?

The “Unable to copy because it is being used by another process” error is caused when a file is locked by another process. This can happen when the file is being used by another application, or if the file is open in an editor such as Notepad.

How to Resolve the Error

The first step in resolving the error is to identify the process that is locking the file. To do this, you can use the Windows Task Manager. Open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc, then select the “Processes” tab. Look for any processes that are using the file in question.

Once you have identified the process that is locking the file, you can take steps to resolve the issue. If the process is an application, you can try closing the application and then rebuilding your C# application. If the process is a text editor, you can try closing the editor and then rebuilding your C# application.

Conclusion

The “Unable to copy because it is being used by another process” error can be a frustrating issue to troubleshoot. However, by using the Windows Task Manager to identify the process that is locking the file, you can take steps to resolve the issue and get your C# application building again.