The upgrade wizard fails with an XML error when trying to upgrade a project

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Last Updated: 21 Jan 2026 09:51 by Hakon

Hakon

Created on: 21 Jan 2026 09:51

Category: Installer and VS Extensions

Type: Bug Report

The upgrade wizard fails with an XML error when trying to upgrade a project

We have a WebForms application with Telerik AJAX components which we have successfully upgraded using the wizard for years. Starting with product version 2025.4.1210 and persisting in the latest version, 2025.4.1321, the upgrade wizard fails with the following error message.

The Telerik extension to VS is up to date, and it doesn't seem to help to run this in VS 2022.

An error occurred while running the wizard.

Error executing custom action Telerik.Web.UI.VSX.Actions.MultiProjectUpdateReferencesAction: System.InvalidOperationException: There is an error in XML document (3, 2). ---> System.Xml.XmlException: Name cannot begin with the '<' character, hexadecimal value 0x3C. Line 3, position 2.
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseQName(Boolean isQName, Int32 startOffset, Int32& colonPos)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElement()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlReader.ReadStartElement()
   at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReaderSolutionDistributionDefinition.Read2_SolutionDistributionDefinition(Boolean isNullable, Boolean checkType)
   at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReaderSolutionDistributionDefinition.Read3_Distribution()
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle, XmlDeserializationEvents events)
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(TextReader textReader)
   at Telerik.VSX.Helpers.Serializer`1.Deserialize(String filePath)
   at Telerik.VSX.SolutionManagement.SolutionDistributionOperator.<>c__DisplayClass11_0.<DeserializeSolutionDistributionDefinition>b__0()
   at Telerik.VSX.SolutionManagement.SolutionDistributionOperator.HandleUnauthorizedAccessException(Action action)
   at Telerik.VSX.SolutionManagement.SolutionDistributionOperator.DeserializeSolutionDistributionDefinition(String distributionFilePath)
   at Telerik.VSX.SolutionManagement.SolutionDistributionOperator.<>c__DisplayClass10_0.<CreateSolutionDistribution>b__0()
   at Telerik.VSX.SolutionManagement.SolutionDistributionOperator.HandleUnauthorizedAccessException(Action action)
   at Telerik.VSX.SolutionManagement.SolutionDistributionOperator.CreateSolutionDistribution(String distributionFilePath, DistributionInfo distributionInfo)
   at Telerik.VSX.SolutionManagement.SolutionDistributionsContext.LoadSolutionDistributionDefinitions(DistributionInfo distributionInfo)
   at Telerik.VSX.Actions.MultiProjectUpdateReferencesActionBase`1.CreateSolutionDistributionsContext(WizardContext context)
   at Telerik.VSX.Actions.MultiProjectUpdateReferencesActionBase`1.Execute(WizardContext wizardContext, IPropertyDataDictionary arguments)
   at Telerik.VSX.WizardEngine.ActionManager.ExecActions()

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