Autofac 3.4 is missing, while 3.5 is called - asp.net-mvc

Question

Attempting to run the MVC 5.2 project, which is built successfuly, got the following error:
An exception of type 'System.IO.FileLoadException' occurred in
ProjectNamespace.WebUI.dll but was not handled in user code
Additional information: Could not load file or assembly 'Autofac,
Version=3.4.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=17863af14b0044da' or
one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition
does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT:
0x80131040)
Assembly manager loaded from:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\clr.dll Running under
executable C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express\iisexpress.exe
--- A detailed error log follows.
=== Pre-bind state information === LOG: DisplayName = Autofac, Version=3.4.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=17863af14b0044da
(Fully-specified) LOG: Appbase = file:///C:/ProjectPath/WebUI/ LOG:
Initial PrivatePath = C:\ProjectPath\WebUI\bin Calling assembly :
Autofac.Integration.Mvc, Version=3.3.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=17863af14b0044da.
=== LOG: This bind starts in default load context. LOG: No application configuration file found. LOG: Using host configuration file:
C:\Users\me\Documents\IISExpress\config\aspnet.config LOG: Using
machine configuration file from
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\config\machine.config.
LOG: Post-policy reference: Autofac, Version=3.4.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=17863af14b0044da LOG: Attempting download of new URL
file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v4.0.30319/Temporary
ASP.NET Files/root/5c8bedab/6a36492/Autofac.DLL. LOG: Attempting
download of new URL
file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v4.0.30319/Temporary
ASP.NET Files/root/5c8bedab/6a36492/Autofac/Autofac.DLL. LOG:
Attempting download of new URL
file:///C:/ProjectPath/WebUI/bin/Autofac.DLL. WRN: Comparing the
assembly name resulted in the mismatch: Minor Version ERR: Failed to
complete setup of assembly (hr = 0x80131040). Probing terminated.
My web.config has the following settings:
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="Autofac" publicKeyToken="17863af14b0044da" culture="neutral" />
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-3.5.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0" />
</dependentAssembly>
Spent hours trying to resolve it, but failed. Please help.

Answer 1

This problem has become quite common. It seems to come up when you have the Autofac, Autofac.Mvc5 and Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc>5.1.0 packages, even though Autofac.Mvc5 is stated to work with Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc(≥ 5.1.0 && < 6.0.0).
I suggest the classic solution of checking and adding the appropriate assembly binding redirects for autofac, not only in the project which references it but in projects referencing that project as well.
Another potential problem is having two entries for the
<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
in your config, if you have your bindings in the second one move them to the first one. That fixed it for me in a situation where I was also encrypting some configuration settings and for some reason the binding redirects were not copied into the resulting config file.
I highly recommend the Assembly Binding Log Viewer, it helped me a lot in figuring out the issue, even though my final solution was a cowardly one, going to Autofac3.4.0.0 and Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc 5.1.0. I spent way too much time on fixing the problem.
Also, for those who are interested you can use the nuget manager to detect and fill in your assembly binding redirects: Get-Project -All | Add-BindingRedirect (from here). It might need some additions afterwards depending on your porjects and references but at least it's going to give you a clean slate to begin with.
Update
Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc 5.2.3 was released so I decided to try again. I updated every package involved in the "conflict" to the latest version (Autofac 3.5.2, Autofac.Mvc5 3.3.4, Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc 5.2.3). I updated the redirect bindings and it worked.