Assembly uses version X which has a higher version than referenced assembly error

Robert Greiner -
Assembly 'YYY, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' uses 'Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage, Version=4.0.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' which has a higher version than referenced assembly 'Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage, Version=3.0.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' D:Source...

Note: the steps below will fix this error regardless of the library you are trying to use. You should still try the steps below, even if you don't have an issue with Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.

I ran into an interesting issue creating a new Microsoft Azure Cloud Services project with a single Worker Role off of an existing project. The legacy windows application used a NuGet reference to the WindowsAzure.Storage library (4.0.1.0), while the new Worker Role project installed an older version (3.0.3.0) by default.

As you can imagine, this caused some grief when it came time to build and deploy the application. Luckily, the fix is fairly simple. All you need to do is update the project (.csproj) that contains the older reference to the new version.

Steps for solving the Assembly uses version X which has a higher version than referenced assembly** error:

  • Right click project
  • Click "Unload"
  • Right click project
  • Click "Edit"
  • Search for WindowsAzure.Storage
  • Update version to 4.0.1.0
  • Save
  • Reload Project
  • Build