Forms based authentication provider object reference error

Question

I need to confirm something. My Forms based authentication provider has been setup correctly (added in all 3 required web.config files) and registered in the GAC using the gacutil tool. The provider is called PortalSecurityProvder. However, when I attempt to add a forms based user from the PeoplePicker, the log displays the following error:

Error searching for dev from membership provider PortalSecurityProvder: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPMembershipProviderPrincipalResolver.ResolvePrincipal(String input, Boolean inputIsEmailOnly, SPPrincipalType scopes, SPPrincipalSource sources, SPUserCollection usersContainer)

I am assuming that it cannot find my provider. Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Turns out that I used the wrong version of the gacutil tool to register my provider.

The provider version is .net 4, while i used a .net 4.5 version of the gacutil tool to register it with. As a result, the provider was placed within the wrong gac_util folder and my SharePoint could not find it.