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Nuget package not found after restore VS 2019 16.5.0

I've been fighting with nuget all morning, trying to get a solution that builds in the UI AND from the command line. Here's the latest problem, which I haven't made any headway on:
I'm running nuget restore on the solution file. This works, all referenced packages are restored - I can see the files in the /packages folder under the solution folder.
I'm building with devenv command line - I have to because this solution contains project types that msbuild doesn't support.
The first project that references a nuget package, fails to compile with ...cs(3,7,3,17): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'Newtonsoft' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)
The project builds (and rebuilds, and rebuilds with the package folder cleared out) just fine in the UI, but the command line build isn't seeing the restored packages.
The build that's failing is in a CLEAN folder on the same computer where I'm doing the UI build, so it's get from source control, nuget restore, devenv build.
Things I've tried
Looking for bad hint paths in the project file (saw this in another question/answer). These references don't appear in the project file at all - trying to add them produces an error saying that the reference can't be added because it's already added automatically by the build system.
Verifying that files do exist after restore.
Doing the same steps from a command line in the SAME folder where the UI is building. This works fine.
What am I missing? this shouldn't be so hard..
UPDATE: The solution consists of 14 projects: 9 C# class libraries, 2 c# applications, 1 reporting services project and 2 WiX installer projects. All C# projects target Net472, NOT Core. The key part of the solution structure appears to be:
Project A references
Newtonsoft.Json via nuget
Project B references
Project A
Newtonsoft.Json via nuget
Other packages via nuget
During build, project B fails to compile due to the lack of a reference to Newtonsoft.Json. Project A and all of the other nuget packages are supplied to the compier as references. Again, all nuget packages are in fact restored - Project A finds Newtonsoft.Json, project B does not.
In the detailed msbuild log output, this is the only mention of Newtonsoft.Json in the build of project 10 (Project B above):
10> Dependency "Newtonsoft.Json, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=30ad4fe6b2a6aeed".
10> Resolved file path is "...ProjectA\bin\Release\Newtonsoft.Json.dll".
10> Reference found at search path location "...ProjectA\bin\Release".
10> For SearchPath "...ProjectA\bin\Release".
10> Considered "...ProjectA\bin\Release\Newtonsoft.Json.winmd", but it didn't exist.
10> Required by "...ProjectA\bin\Release\ProjectA.dll".
10> Required by "C:\...ProjectA2\bin\Release\ProjectA2.dll".
10> Found related file "...ProjectA\bin\Release\Newtonsoft.Json.xml".
10> The ImageRuntimeVersion for this reference is "v4.0.30319".
(Folder and project names have been obscured)

A couple things going on here, finally got a solution that works. Why this built in the IDE is anyone's guess - it's adding some extra secret sauce to make things work (more than just the automatic nuget restore).
I tried changing all projects to use PackageRef instead of packages.config. That caused nuget restore to fail with an obscure msbuild error that I didn't try to diagnose.
I noticed that SOME of the nuget packages were referenced in the .csproj files with ordinary Reference elements, but some of them were not (specifically, Newtonsoft.Json in "Project B" - and some others that I hadn't noticed due to B failing).
To correct the situation:
Remove ALL use of PackageRef elements - change back to packages.config in ALL projects
Make sure the each of the nuget -provided DLLs is referenced in the .csproj files. You have to do this by editing the csproj file by hand - the IDE won't let you add the missing references.
I'm assuming that this is a temporary situation and that in the long run the solution will be to use PackageReference everywhere.

you already checked the files app.config and packages.config, and the dotnet framework version?

Nuget package not found after restore VS 2019 16.5.0
devenv /build command line does not have the job to restore nuget packages by default. However, there are such options in VS IDE so that it will restore packages first and then build. But these do not work in command line.See this similar issue.
But you still want to use devenv to build your project and since you use a framework project with packages.config, I suggest you could use nuget.exe.See this.You can try these:
1) download nuget.exe from this link and then configure its local address to PATH in the environment variable and make sure that you can call nuget from CMD.
2) open vs command prompt, cd the path of the solution and then type this first:
nuget restore
Then you can type your devenv command line and I am sure that this will execute without any errors.
devenv xxxx.sln /rebuild
Besides,you can add a custom target in any xxx.csproj file of your solution like this:
<Target Name="restoresolution" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<nugetpath>C:\tools</nugetpath> /////the local path of the nuget.exe
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<slns Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\**\*.sln" />
</ItemGroup>
<Exec command="$(nugetpath)\nuget restore %(slns.Identity)" />
</Target>
Then you can run devenv xxxx.sln /rebuild directly.

The type or namespace name 'TwilioRestClient' could not be found

This is what I did:
went to
https://www.twilio.com/docs/authy/tutorials/account-verification-csharp-mvc
downloaded the code and built the code using VS2017 community edition.
I get the following error in IdentityConfig.cs
Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error CS0246 The type or namespace name 'TwilioRestClient' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) AccountVerification.Web C:\Users\admin\Downloads\account-verification-csharp-master\account-verification-csharp-master\AccountVerification.Web\App_Start\IdentityConfig.cs 21 Active
What is the problem?
I changed nothing. Just downloaded and built the code. Shouldn't you guys give a working copy of the code?

I've managed to get this working by following these steps:
Close the solution in Visual Studio if you have it opened.
Ensure you have a nuget CLI in your path. So you can run a restore from a command prompt. This is pretty straightforward. Instructions here.
Open a command prompt at the solution directory. (C:\Users\admin\Downloads\account-verification-csharp-master\account-verification-csharp-master for you.)
Run a nuget restore. nuget restore and wait for it to finish.
You should get all the packages downloaded at the packages directory under your solution folder.
UPDATE - Looking at the code it appears that there's a mix of features from the latest version 5.x and the now deprecated version 4.x, and that's causing compilation errors. Details here.
Follow the below steps to downgrade the version to 4.7.2:
Open the solution file now.
Right-click the web project and select Manage Nuget Packages.
Search for Twilio and downgrade the version from 5.x to 4.7.2.
a) Or from the Package Manager Console Install-Package Twilio -Version 4.7.2
Solution should build successfully now.
Please bear in mind that you must setup the parameters in Local.config file before the app can work. It'll run though, but you'll not be able to go through it until the parameters are properly set.
Note: The solution contains a file named Local.config.example. When you open the solution you'll notice that Local.config file is missing.
Renaming the existing Local.config.example file to Local.config solves that issue. I had to copy the Local.config file to the test project too. This doesn't prevent the solution from building, though.
Hope this helps!

MsBuild does not find restored NuGet-Packages on Visual Studio Online

I try to build a solution stored in an external GIT-Repository on Visual Studio Online.
It has the following steps:
1: Git Restore - Works
2: NuGet Restore - Works
3: Build - Does NOT work
My first guess when looking at the logs is that MsBuild is not looking for the Packages where NuGet had stored them.
Some Lines from NuGet Restore:
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0352862Z Completed installation of AngleSharp 0.9.9
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0353230Z Adding package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages'
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0353563Z Added package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages'
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0354972Z Added package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages' from source 'https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json' 'Microsoft.SharePointOnline.CSOM.16.1.7317.1200' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages'
Some lines from MsBuild:
018-03-14T21:10:21.2105399Z PrepareForBuild:
2018-03-14T21:10:21.2105793Z Creating directory "bin\Release\".
2018-03-14T21:10:21.2424947Z Creating directory "obj\Release\".
2018-03-14T21:10:30.3569560Z ResolveAssemblyReferences:
2018-03-14T21:10:30.3570425Z Primary reference "AngleSharp, Version=0.9.9.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e83494dcdc6d31ea, processorArchitecture=MSIL".
2018-03-14T21:10:30.3670272Z ##[warning]C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(2041,5): Warning MSB3245: Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "AngleSharp, Version=0.9.9.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e83494dcdc6d31ea, processorArchitecture=MSIL". Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors.
My solution/packages structure is:
....\mysolution\myproject\myproject.csproj
....\mysolution\myproject\packages.config
Current Config:
So how can I change the Nuget and/or msbuild-behavior to make this work?
(Update): To clear this up: I have this problem with every package. They all are in the packages.config, each one is downloaded from Nuget, but each one also isn't found from MsBuild
(Update2) The Commands generated are currently the following:
NUGET:
D:\a\_tool\NuGet\4.4.1\x64\nuget.exe restore D:\a\1\s\AweCsomeO365\packages.config -PackagesDirectory D:\a\1\a\packages -Verbosity Detailed -NonInteractive -ConfigFile D:\a\1\Nuget\tempNuGet_22.config
MSBUILD:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild.exe" "D:\a\1\s\AweCsomeO365\AweCsomeO365.csproj" /nologo /nr:false /dl:CentralLogger,"D:\a\_tasks\VSBuild_(GUID)\1.126.0\ps_modules\MSBuildHelpers\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.MSBuild.Logger.dll";"RootDetailId=(GUID)|SolutionDir=D:\a\1\s\AweCsomeO365"*ForwardingLogger,"D:\a\_tasks\VSBuild_(GUID)\1.126.0\ps_modules\MSBuildHelpers\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.MSBuild.Logger.dll" /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation=D:\a\1\a /p:ReferencePath=D:\a\1\a\packages /p:platform="anyCPU" /p:configuration="Release" /p:VisualStudioVersion="15.0" /p:_MSDeployUserAgent="VSTS_(GUID)_build_4_22
I replaced the GUIDs; tempNuGetConfig is something that seems to be generated by VSTS dynamically
Still. even if the log states that nuget stores the packages
Added package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\a\packages'
MsBuild does not seem to find them there:
For SearchPath "D:\a\1\a\packages".
2018-03-16T13:57:42.4625155Z Considered "D:\a\1\a\packages\AngleSharp.winmd", but it didn't exist.
2018-03-16T13:57:42.4625456Z Considered "D:\a\1\a\packages\AngleSharp.dll", but it didn't exist.
2018-03-16T13:57:42.4625730Z Considered "D:\a\1\a\packages\AngleSharp.exe", but it didn't exist.
VSTS-Configurationvalues:
MsBuild: /p:ReferencePath=$(Build.StagingDirectory)\packages
Nuget-DestiantionDirectory: $(Build.StagingDirectory)\packages
(update3): I have no solution file, but only a csproj-file in that repository

The issue was that inside the project there was a hintpath for the packages directing to a location that was not within the GIT-Repository (and shouldn't):
<Reference Include="AngleSharp, Version=0.9.9.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e83494dcdc6d31ea, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
<HintPath>..\..\AweCsome365Test\packages\AngleSharp.0.9.9\lib\net45\AngleSharp.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
My original approach was to define a target directory to NuGet and a Source Directory for MSBuild to use another location to the packages that both understand.
The issue though (as far as I understand) is, that NuGet always creates a subfolder-structure "./packages/{PackagesName}/lib/net45/{file}" and MSBuild does not look recursivly when setting "./packages" as source path.
The above is just an explanation for the future guy running into the same problem
So my solution was to mimic the local behavior for nuget and changing the output directory to match the HintPath (even if there is no "AweCsome365Test")-directory in the repository:
(I will leave this question open as this solution smells fishy. If anyone has a better solution that allows to chain nuget and msbuild without using the HintPath I am happily willing to spend my bounty on it)

I believe that your MSBuild "ReferencePath" parameter is not correct. you are telling MS Build that all your references (nuget packages and their dlls included) are going to be located at "D:\a\1\a\packages" but that is not where nuget will download and store the packages and dlls. Nuget will download and extract files into D:\a\1\a\packages\{packageName}\{version}\lib\{environment}\package.dll. I think you need to remove that last parameter (ReferencePath) from your MSBuild arguments.
I also noticed that your PackageLocation parameter is not the same as the destination for the NuGet restore task, do you need to add the "\packages" to that parameter like the destination in the restore task?

Change the nuget restore destination directory to $(Build.SourcesDirectory)\packages and remove the msbuild ReferencePath parameter.

The answers here are largely right. However it's worth noting another cause that can result in this behaviour. My toolchain was using Azure DevOps which is basically the same as Visual Studio Online, just a few years later.
Cause:
Reference your project from a different solution (cross-repo), for instance for debugging purposes
Update NuGet references in the problematic project from the external place you referenced it from
What this does is make use of the solution location for packages when the package gets installed.
For .Net core/standard projects, using Update-Package -reinstall appears to fix things. However, for .Net Framework projects, even though packages.json may get rebuilt, the <HintPath /> node in the .csproj gets left as is - with a reference to a packages folder that Azure will never create.
Simple fix:
Right click on the offending solutions locally, and choose Unload
Right click on the unloaded project, choose edit .csproj
Find any hintpaths that look like ../../OtherRepo/packages (the slash in use may vary), and change them to ../packages
Confirm the solution does build locally still
Push the changes to Azure, and cross your fingers
This approach will fix the issue caused by consolidating / updating packages from the wrong place rather than requiring a change to the build pipeline to spoof that location (which in may case, wasn't working very well either).

Why can't Visual Studio find this nuget package's .props file?

Due to some git project changes, when I try to build, I get an error:
This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. Use NuGet Package Restore to download them. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=322105. The missing file is ..\packages\MSTest.TestAdapter.1.1.11\build\net45\MSTest.TestAdapter.props.
The references to the project contain four missing references, two of which Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.TestFramework, and Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.TestFramework.Extensions which seem to be related.
The other two, in case it proves to be relevant are System, and System.Core, but they aren't causing any problems... which is weird, cause I'm definately using them.
That missing file, the one from the error message, is absolutely there.
I've tried to uninstall and reinstall both packages, but nothing seems to help.

Open the projects .csproj file with your favourite text editor and delete any references to
MSTest.TestAdapter.props.
Edit: This is safe to do so, all that happened is that you have removed the DLL but for one reason or another your project file still references it as a dependency.

I would modify #JoshuaDuxbury's answer to say: you need to clean out obsolete references to MSTest.TestAdapter.props.
In my case, I had just updated the MSTest.TestAdapter NuGet fronm 1.3.2 to 2.0.0, but apparently when I did that, Visual Studio didn't clean up my .csproj file perfectly.
So, I had to delete the superflous MSTest.TestAdapter.props highlighted in two places:
Near the top of the project file:
...and again at the bottom of the file:
Once I did that, my CI pipeline was able to build everything correctly again.
Some of you with sharp eyes may notice something funny w/the 1.3.2 of MSTest.TestAdapter shown above: it seems the path to the packages folder is off! But that would be a topic for a different thread (or maybe an alternate explanation to why your build pipeline is unhappy.. maybe just fix your path to packages).

My issue didn't occur on my development box but on the Azure Build Pipeline. I removed the offending props files as per the other answers but to no avail. Ultimately I had to add the Nuget restore step to my the Azure build pipeline and move it to the proper slot before the building:

I have no idea how I've done it but I've had the same error and I thought the files were here but they actually weren't... so anyone who has this issue double check the paths.
In my case the Packages folder was at the same level as the project file however it was looking for files in the parent directory. Nuget restore and Update-Package -reinstall
were not fixing anything.

The referenced component 'EntityFramework' could not be found.

So im downloading a project at home from work over team foundation server. I download the project and it won't compile because of the error. Warning 2 The referenced component 'EntityFramework' could not be found. Could anyone offer guidance in how I can get entity framework to work. I installed nuget package.
Thankyou

I suggest you to check:
1) "Allow NuGet to download missing packages during build" ticked
Tool --> Options... --> Package Manager --> General
2) "Project selected" ticked
Solution Explorer --> right-click on the solution/project --> Manage NuPackages
3) Rebuild Solution
EDIT
For completeness I would like to add that if you are working with a CI system (e.g. Jenkins) or you are using MSBuild on the command line, you need to select Enable NuGet Package Restore to make it work:
Enable NuGet Package Restore http://docs.nuget.org/docs/Workflows/images/enable-package-restore.png

I had the same problem. I solved it like this:
Choose References > Right-click > Add Reference ...
Choose Browse tab
Find your Project Folder > packages > EntityFramework.4.1.10331.0 > lib
Choose EntityFramework.dll
Click OK

This happened to me, after I moved projects to a subfolder.
Then, the relative paths to the packages folder were not correct anymore.
Got errors like that:
This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. Use NuGet Package Restore to download them. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=322105. The missing file is ..\packages\NETStandard.Library.2.0.1\build\netstandard2.0\NETStandard.Library.targets. PROJECTNAME D:\VSTS\TEAMPROJECT\src\PROJECTFOLDER\PROJECTNAME.csproj
Fixed it by editing the *.csproj file and corrected the relative paths, in my case from ..\packages to ..\..\packages
Also make sure to check the paths under
<Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">

There are good ways suggested by the developers, you may also try this solution to solve your problem.
In your case your project has a reference to the EntityFramework library, but library it self is not available to you project. You may try either the following:
If you have NuGet package manager:
Click on Project-> Manage NuGet Packages. It will open following window.
Find the EntityFramework and click Install.
- Alternatively, Download the EntityFramework library to your computer, then
Right-Click the Prject-> Add References...-> Browse-> Locate your
EntityFramework library-> Click OK
- Optionally you may use package manager to install library reference, check this link package-manager-console (Note: This might require NuGet Package manager)

I solved this issue by adding Entity Framework reference (Add ref) under C:\ Prog Files\Entity...\Binaries\Entity Framework.dll into my project. Hope this helps!

An old thread, but for anyone that this may help..
What worked for me was to go to the 'Packages' folder in the root of my solution and delete the EntityFramework.6.4.4 folder.
Then, go to Manage Nuget Packages menu option, and this banner pops up:
After pressing Restore the missing reference was restored.