Unable to find assembly references that are compatible with the target framework ‘Silverlight,Version=v4.0, Profile=WindowsPhone71′

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Yes, that title is a mouthful. But this title is as cryptic as the error that can get generated when trying to install a NuGet package:

    Install-Package : Unable to find assembly references that are compatible with the target
    framework 'Silverlight,Version=v4.0,Profile=WindowsPhone71'.

    At line:1 char:16
    + Install-Package <<<<  Phone.Storage
        + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Install-Package], InvalidOperationException
        + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NuGetCmdletUnhandledException,
          NuGet.PowerShell.Commands.InstallPackageCommand

Here’s what you’ll see in Visual Studio:

NuGetErrorMessage

This is the error I get when trying to install one of our NuGet packages on a freshly built machine. Long story short, the reason is that I don’t have the latest NuGet Package Manager.

Take a look at Extension Manager and observe the version number associated with the NuGet Package Manager:

OldNuGet

See that the version is 1.2? We need to update it to version 1.5. Head to http://nuget.org and from there click to install NuGet. Once you’ve completed the installation you should confirm that you now have version 1.5:

NewNuGet

So now, when you try to install a NuGet package such as Phone.Storage you won’t have any problems.

NuGetWorking

I hope this helps!

  • http://geekswithblogs.net/ranganh Harish Ranganathan

    yes, this definitely helps. thanks :)

  • http://twitter.com/dancolasanti Dan Colasanti

    Wade – When I do “Install-Package Phone.Storage” on a Silverlight for Windows Phone project, it works fine, but I get a similar error to this one when I try this with an XNA Game Studio Windows Phone Game.  Are there separate NuGet Azure support packages for XNA games on Windows Phone or should this just work?