Request.Files.Count always 0 while uploading image

Question

I have a Post controller on a model with some string fields and an image. Exact identical code works on MVC4 but in MVC 5 the Request.Files.Count is always 0

My model has byte[] for image rather than HttpPostedFileBase

My View:

@using (Html.BeginForm("Create", "HotelManager", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data", data_ajax = "false" }))
{
    @Html.AntiForgeryToken()
    @Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.Title, new { @class = "form-control" })
    @Html.TextAreaFor(model => model.Description, new { @class = "form-control", @rows = "7" })
    <input type="file" class="form-control filestyle">
    <input type="submit" value="Submit" class="btn btn-block" />
}

I have tried omitting data_ajax = "false" but no use.

My Post Controller is as follows:

    [HttpPost]
    [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
    public ActionResult Create([Bind(Include = "Title,Description,Image")] Hotel hotel)
    {
        if (ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            // deal with the uploaded file
            if (Request.Files.Count > 0)
            {
                HttpPostedFileBase file = Request.Files[0];

                if (file != null && file.ContentLength > 0)
                {
                    // Code to process image, resize, etc goes here
                }
            }

        // Other code to add the hotel to db goes here
    }

In the debugger I see that the Request.Files.Count is always zero, I don't know why? I have copied over both the view and controller code from another MVC4 project where it works fine.

Key Value
Request POST /HotelManager/Create HTTP/1.1
Accept  text/html, application/xhtml+xml, */*
Referer http://localhost:4976/HotelManager/Create
Accept-Language en-US,en;q=0.5
User-Agent  Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; Trident/7.0; Touch; ASU2JS; rv:11.0) like Gecko
Content-Type    multipart/form-data; boundary=---------------------------7de207070a24
Accept-Encoding gzip, deflate
Host    localhost:4976
Content-Length  946
DNT 1

And in the IE Developer window I see that the form body is empty.

Answer 1

One of the reasons why Request.Files.Count becomes 0 is when you try to upload a file larger than the maxRequestLength specified on Web.config file. Make sure to check this value if you are having an issue with Request.Files.Count.

<configuration>
  <system.web>
    <httpRuntime maxRequestLength="4096" />
  </system.web>
</configuration>

UPDATE: This answer might not be directly related to OP's issue, but since google lists this post top for Request.Files.Count=0 issue, posted the answer which worked for me.

Answer 2

I wasted so much time and it turns out that all I needed to do was to use the name attribute as well

 <input type="file" name="somename"> 

the name attribute was missing in my new project.

Answer 3

To add on You need to change the post method.

Need to add:

new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }

Here is complete form tag

@using (Html.BeginForm("Cars", "Expense", FormMethod.Post, 
      new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))

Those lines are essential; without them, you will not be able to save an input of type file. I sat for 6 hours trying to figure that out.

Answer 4

You need to change the post method

Need to add:

new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }

Here is complete form tag

@using (Html.BeginForm("Cars", "Expense", FormMethod.Post, 
      new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))

See how can you post multiple files