The type or namespace name could not be found

PrjForm was set to ".Net Framework 4 Client Profile" I changed it to ".Net Framework 4", and now I have a successful build.

This worked for me too. Thanks a lot. I was trying an RDF example for dotNet where in I downloaded kit from dotnetrdf.

NET4 Client Profile: Always target NET4 Client Profile for all your client desktop applications (including Windows Forms and WPF apps).

NET4 Full framework: Target NET4 Full only if the features or assemblies that your app need are not included in the Client Profile. This includes: If you are building Server apps, Such as:

  • ASP.Net apps
  • Server-side ASMX based web services

If you use legacy client scenarios, Such as: o Use System.Data.OracleClient.dll which is deprecated in NET4 and not included in the Client Profile.

  • Use legacy Windows Workflow Foundation 3.0 or 3.5 (WF3.0 , WF3.5)

If you targeting developer scenarios and need tool such as MSBuild or need access to design assemblies such as System.Design.dll


In my case I had:

Referenced DLL : .NET 4.5

Project : .NET 4.0

Because of the above mismatch, the 4.0 project couldn't see inside the namespace of the 4.5 .DLL. I recompiled the .DLL to target .NET 4.0 and I was fine.


See this question.

Turns out this was a client profiling issue.

PrjForm was set to ".Net Framework 4 Client Profile" I changed it to ".Net Framework 4", and now I have a successful build.

Thanks everyone! I guess it figures that after all that time spent searching online, I find the solution minutes after posting, I guess the trick is knowing the right question to ask..


Another thing that can cause this error is having NuGet packages that have been built with a newer version of .NET.

The original error:

frmTestPlanSelector.cs(11,7): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'DatabaseManager' 
could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) 

Further up in the log I found this:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1605,5): warning MSB3275: The primary reference "[redacted]\DatabaseManager\bin\Release\DatabaseManager.dll" could not be resolved because it has an indirect dependency on the assembly "System.Data.SQLite, Version=1.0.94.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=db937bc2d44ff139" which was built against the ".NETFramework,Version=v4.5" framework. This is a higher version than the currently targeted framework ".NETFramework,Version=v4.0".

The solution was to re-install the NuGet packages:

http://docs.nuget.org/docs/workflows/reinstalling-packages