[ACCEPTED]-How to fix "Configuration system failed to initialize/Root element is missing" error when loading config file?-config

In addition to the answer by Akram Shahda: I 6 had the same kind of problem (configuration 5 system failed to initialize / root element 4 is missing). The .config file in the AppData 3 folder was empty. The problem was solved 2 by deleting the .config file in the AppData 1 folder.

The cause of the XmlException entitled Root element 7 is missing means the XML document (The 6 config file here) you're trying to load 5 is not formatted properly, more exactly 4 it's missing the root node.

Each XML file 3 must have a root element / node which encloses 2 all the other elements.

Your file must look 1 like the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="userSettings" 
            type="System.Configuration.UserSettingsGroup, System,
            Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >
        </sectionGroup>
    </configSections>
    <userSettings>
        <WindowsFormsApplication.Properties.Settings>
        </WindowsFormsApplication.Properties.Settings>
    </userSettings>
</configuration>

Just in case if any one reads This :

For 5 me i solved the issue by just going to the 4 user.config location, for this question 3 it is :

(C:\Users\company\AppData\Local\Clickbase_Corp_Sverige_AB\TouchStation.vshost.exe_Url_no1nets4fg3oy2p2q2pnwgulbvczlv33\1.1.0.12\user.config)"

I 2 deleted the config file and restarted visual 1 studio and it worked.

Hope this helps!

Thanks

In console app you should allocate < startup/> section 1 after < configSections/>

In general, the "Configuration system failed 5 to initialize" issue is likely caused by 4 invalid XML structure in the app.config. I've 3 stumbled on this from time to time when 2 attempting to port code from a "test bed" config 1 file to a service app.config file.

In my case, the connectionStrings node was 1 declared twice.

One of our customers got this error "Configuration 12 system failed to initialize" while attempting 11 to FTP from a C# project. The user was 10 NOT an admin.

Our techie customer investigated 9 and found, using ProcMon under a non-admin 8 account, that the resource used by this 7 process was the .NET machine.config file. (c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0.30319\config\machine.config)

Our 6 customer granted local users modify rights 5 to just this config file, and it immediately 4 resolved the issue. (They do not allow 3 users to be admins, so this was necessary.)

So 2 if the above answer doesn't work for you, maybe 1 this will help.

    var config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
    con = new OleDbConnection(config.ConnectionStrings.ConnectionStrings["connectionStr"].ConnectionString.ToString());           

0

In my case, after check all, the problem 4 was in the last part of the App.config, where 3 a Log4Net configuration statement produce 2 the error.

Delete all the extra in App.config 1 and start to debug.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
      <sectionGroup name="applicationSettings" type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089">
        <section name="[Application Name].Settings.Client" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />
      </sectionGroup>    
    </configSections>
<startup>
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.6.1" />
</startup>
  <applicationSettings>
  <[Application Name].Settings.Client>
    <setting name="IDClient" serializeAs="String">
    <value>6</value>
    </setting>
  </[Application Name].Settings.Client>
</applicationSettings>
</configuration>

for .Net Core with Graphviz:

<configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="userSettings" 
        type="System.Configuration.UserSettingsGroup, System,
        Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >
    </sectionGroup>
</configSections>
<appSettings>
    <add key="graphVizLocation" value="C:\Program Files (x86)\Graphviz2.38\bin" />
</appSettings> </configuration>

0

I ran into this same issue today. I was 9 trying to compile a visual studio solution 8 and could not.

The issue was that the configuration 7 file had xml name space configured. Visual 6 studio / msbuild had been happily compiling 5 with this namespace included in the application 4 configuration for many years, which makes 3 this error a bit strange.

<configuration xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/.NetConfiguration/v2.0">

But once removing 2 the namespace and visual studio / msbuild 1 were happy once again.

<configuration>

I took a copy of the user.config file, put 5 it under the resource and took a backup 4 in the application with the default values. If 3 the user.config file is not where it should 2 be, I solved this problem by creating this 1 file and typing it in.

if (!File.Exists(ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration (ConfigurationUserLevel.PerUserRoamingAndLocal).FilePath)) //user.config path
{

using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration (ConfigurationUserLevel.PerUserRoamingAndLocal).FilePath))  //configuration root is added
   {
     writer.WriteStartElement("configuration");                    
     writer.WriteEndElement();
     writer.Flush();
   }
File.WriteAllText(ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration (ConfigurationUserLevel.PerUserRoamingAndLocal).FilePath, Properties.Resources.user);

Application.Restart(); //restart application
Environment.Exit(0);

}