"Error: cs0016 could not write to output file ... access is denied"

iis

Solution

I was struggling with this problem for a while. Found some solutions on the web that involved setting permissions on the "Temporary ASP.NET Files" directory in the error message. But even opening it up to "Everyone" didn't work.

Then eventually the following steps fixed it:

- Go to the IIS AppPool for this site

- Right-click the app pool and go to Advanced Settings

- Change Identity from "ApplicationPoolIdentity" to "NetworkService"

There may also be some other necessary steps, which I did while troubleshooting, but this is the key step. For some reason the App Pool Identity (such as IIS_APPPOOL\SiteName) isn't granted access when "Everyone" is. I'm sure someone else can shed some light on why this is the case... Hopefully this helps others resolve this frustrating issue.

Problem

Original source