Can't create Web Deploy Package in VS2013.3

Question

I have a simple web project which compile and run normally but for some reason, I can't publish a Web Deployment Package anymore in VS2013.3. This is a task I did every week for several months without any problem but this week I can't create the package anymore.

Here' the error message:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets(3009,5): Error : Web deployment task failed. (Unknown ProviderOption:DefiningProjectFullPath. Known ProviderOptions are:skipInvalid.)
Package failed.

We did update some code but no one has changed the solution or the deployment settings. Maybe VS got updated automatically by a Windows update but I didn't do it manually.

Here's some information that might be useful to solve my bug:

• The problem still occur when I start VS as Admin
• A similar problem was reported with in VS2013.1 but it was fixed in VS2013.2 (I'm using 2013.3)
• The error message is referring to v10.0. I'm not sure if it's suppose to be that way.
• The target path where the package is suppose to be published does exist.
• After the bug appeared, I did apply all the available updates for VS2013, including Azure SDK 2.4 .
• I did try to delete and create a new Deployment profile.

Answer 1

The reference to the v10.0 was a bit odd so I investigated that file. I realized the same file was also existing the the C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\Web folder.

I then opened the the .csproj file to find out there was a reference to that v10.0 folder.

I've been able to fix the problem by changing the value

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />

to

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />

I still don't know how those values got mixed up but after wasting an afternoon on this bug, I'm just happy to be able to work again.