Cannot read configuration file ' trying to read configuration data from file '\\?\<EMPTY>', line number '0'
IisWindows 10Iis Problem Overview
An app pool kept stopping every time it was started and gave this error in the application logs:
> The worker process for application pool 'APP_POOL_NAME' encountered an > error 'Cannot read configuration file ' trying to read configuration > data from file '\\?<EMPTY>', line number '0'. The data field contains > the error code.
Several users have noted this occurs after the Windows 10 Fall Update.
Iis Solutions
Solution 1 - Iis
If you recently installed the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, this problem and a solution for it may be covered in this Microsoft knowledge base article. The solution:
- Open an Administrator Command Prompt (not a Powershell prompt)
- Run:
net stop WAS /y - Run:
rmdir /s /q C:\inetpub\temp\appPools - Run:
net start W3SVC
Thanks to @weir for reporting this issue.
This wasn't a permission error in this instance, but it's would be well worth ensuring IIS_IUSRS has access to your site config just in case. See here
for steps on how to do this.
This issue appeared to be a virtual directory appeared in the IIS temp files, which was pointing to the wrong place. To fix:
- Go to the drive your IIS is installed on, eg.
C:\inetpub\temp\appPools\ - Delete the directory (or virtual directory) with the same name as your app pool.
- Recycle/Start your app pool again.
Solution 2 - Iis
I have deleted the DefaultAppPool, then I have created a new pool MyAppPool and added applications in there and it worked.
Solution 3 - Iis
Wanted to add that this can also manifest if the drive the config file is located on is full. We just found that out today and freeing up space and restarting the application pool fixed it.
Solution 4 - Iis
In my case, the file C:\inetpub\temp\appPools\DefaultAppPool\DefaultAppPool.config got corrupted, and I just could not delete it through all possible means. Then, I just created a new App Pool and moved the application to the new app pool to make it work. Thanks to all the great answers posted here!
Solution 5 - Iis
Hey in my case it was the naming of my website.
It was setup as ($webiste$...) with a couple of dots at the end.
After renaming it worked right
Solution 6 - Iis
Check for trailing spaces in the app pool name
In our case, it was because the name of the application pool had a trailing space.
I changed the application pool to a fresh one with no trailing space, and everything worked fine. Later, when our deployment tool pushed a new update to the site/app, it was back to using the application pool with the trailing space, and the error returned.
Once we fixed the deployment process to no longer have the trailing space in the name of the application pool, all worked as expected.