ASP.NET Core 2.1 Identity: Role-based authorization -> Access Denied

It's a known issue in the version of 2.1 and has been fixed in 2.2 preview-1 .

The reason is that the new method of AddDefaultIdentity<TUser>() , which is introduced in ASP.NET Core 2.1 , will not make Roles enabled by default .

To walk around it , instead of using the new AddDefaultIdentity<TUser>() to configure Identity , simply use the old-style api :

services.AddIdentity<AppUser, IdentityRole>()
        .AddRoleManager<RoleManager<IdentityRole>>()
        .AddDefaultUI()
        .AddDefaultTokenProviders()
        .AddEntityFrameworkStores<ApplicationDbContext>();

Also , if you have already signed someone in before , please do logout first and login again , it will work as expected now .

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[Edit] For ASP.NET Core 3.1, invoke .AddRoles<IdentityRole>():

services.AddDefaultIdentity<IdentityUser>(options => options.SignIn.RequireConfirmedAccount = true)
    .AddRoles<IdentityRole>()
    .AddEntityFrameworkStores<AppIdentityDbContext>();

And then logout and login again.