There is already an open DataReader associated with this Command which must be closed first

This can happen if you execute a query while iterating over the results from another query. It is not clear from your example where this happens because the example is not complete.

One thing that can cause this is lazy loading triggered when iterating over the results of some query.

This can be easily solved by allowing MARS in your connection string. Add MultipleActiveResultSets=true to the provider part of your connection string (where Data Source, Initial Catalog, etc. are specified).

You can use the ToList() method before the return statement.

var accounts =
from account in context.Accounts
from guranteer in account.Gurantors

select new AccountsReport
{
    CreditRegistryId = account.CreditRegistryId,
    AccountNumber = account.AccountNo,
    DateOpened = account.DateOpened,
};

return accounts.AsEnumerable()
       .Select((account, index) => new AccountsReport()
       {
           RecordNumber = FormattedRowNumber(account, index + 1),
           CreditRegistryId = account.CreditRegistryId,
           DateLastUpdated = DateLastUpdated(account.CreditRegistryId, account.AccountNumber),
            AccountNumber = FormattedAccountNumber(account.AccountType, account.AccountNumber)
       })
       .OrderBy(c=>c.FormattedRecordNumber)
       .ThenByDescending(c => c.StateChangeDate)
       .ToList();


public DateTime DateLastUpdated(long creditorRegistryId, string accountNo)
{
    var dateReported = (from h in context.AccountHistory
                        where h.CreditorRegistryId == creditorRegistryId && h.AccountNo == accountNo
                        select h.LastUpdated).Max();
    return dateReported;
}

use the syntax .ToList() to convert object read from db to list to avoid being re-read again.Hope this would work for it. Thanks.

Here is a working connection string for someone who needs reference.

<connectionStrings>
  <add name="IdentityConnection" connectionString="Data Source=(LocalDb)\v11.0;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|\IdentityDb.mdf;Integrated Security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=true;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

In my case, using Include() solved this error and depending on the situation can be a lot more efficient then issuing multiple queries when it can all be queried at once with a join.

IEnumerable<User> users = db.Users.Include("Projects.Tasks.Messages");

foreach (User user in users)
{
    Console.WriteLine(user.Name);
    foreach (Project project in user.Projects)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("\t"+project.Name);
        foreach (Task task in project.Tasks)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("\t\t" + task.Subject);
            foreach (Message message in task.Messages)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("\t\t\t" + message.Text);
            }
        }
    }
}

I dont know whether this is duplicate answer or not. If it is I am sorry. I just want to let the needy know how I solved my issue using ToList().

In my case I got same exception for below query.

int id = adjustmentContext.InformationRequestOrderLinks.Where(
             item => item.OrderNumber == irOrderLinkVO.OrderNumber 
                  && item.InformationRequestId == irOrderLinkVO.InformationRequestId)
             .Max(item => item.Id);

I solved like below

List<Entities.InformationRequestOrderLink> links = 
      adjustmentContext.InformationRequestOrderLinks
           .Where(item => item.OrderNumber == irOrderLinkVO.OrderNumber 
                       && item.InformationRequestId == irOrderLinkVO.InformationRequestId)
           .ToList();

int id = 0;

if (links.Any())
{
  id = links.Max(x => x.Id);
}
if (id == 0)
{
//do something here
}

It appears that you're calling DateLastUpdated from within an active query using the same EF context and DateLastUpdate issues a command to the data store itself. Entity Framework only supports one active command per context at a time.

You can refactor your above two queries into one like this:

return accounts.AsEnumerable()
       .Select((account, index) => new AccountsReport()
       {
         RecordNumber = FormattedRowNumber(account, index + 1),
         CreditRegistryId = account.CreditRegistryId,
         DateLastUpdated = (
             from h in context.AccountHistory 
             where h.CreditorRegistryId == creditorRegistryId && h.AccountNo == accountNo 
             select h.LastUpdated
         ).Max(),
         AccountNumber = FormattedAccountNumber(account.AccountType, account.AccountNumber)
       })
       .OrderBy(c=>c.FormattedRecordNumber)
       .ThenByDescending(c => c.StateChangeDate);

I also noticed you're calling functions like FormattedAccountNumber and FormattedRecordNumber in the queries. Unless these are stored procs or functions you've imported from your database into the entity data model and mapped correct, these will also throw excepts as EF will not know how to translate those functions in to statements it can send to the data store.

Also note, calling AsEnumerable doesn't force the query to execute. Until the query execution is deferred until enumerated. You can force enumeration with ToList or ToArray if you so desire.

In my case, I had opened a query from data context, like

    Dim stores = DataContext.Stores _
        .Where(Function(d) filter.Contains(d.code)) _

... and then subsequently queried the same...

    Dim stores = DataContext.Stores _
        .Where(Function(d) filter.Contains(d.code)).ToList

Adding the .ToList to the first resolved my issue. I think it makes sense to wrap this in a property like:

Public ReadOnly Property Stores As List(Of Store)
    Get
        If _stores Is Nothing Then
            _stores = DataContext.Stores _
                .Where(Function(d) Filters.Contains(d.code)).ToList
        End If
        Return _stores
    End Get
End Property

Where _stores is a private variable, and Filters is also a readonly property that reads from AppSettings.

In addition to Ladislav Mrnka's answer:

If you are publishing and overriding container on Settings tab, you can set MultipleActiveResultSet to True. You can find this option by clicking Advanced... and it's going to be under Advanced group.

I solved this problem by changing await _accountSessionDataModel.SaveChangesAsync(); to _accountSessionDataModel.SaveChanges(); in my Repository class.

 public async Task<Session> CreateSession()
    {
        var session = new Session();

        _accountSessionDataModel.Sessions.Add(session);
        await _accountSessionDataModel.SaveChangesAsync();
     }

Changed it to:

 public Session CreateSession()
    {
        var session = new Session();

        _accountSessionDataModel.Sessions.Add(session);
        _accountSessionDataModel.SaveChanges();
     }

The problem was that I updated the Sessions in the frontend after creating a session (in code), but because SaveChangesAsync happens asynchronously, fetching the sessions caused this error because apparently the SaveChangesAsync operation was not yet ready.

For those finding this via Google; I was getting this error because, as suggested by the error, I failed to close a SqlDataReader prior to creating another on the same SqlCommand, mistakenly assuming that it would be garbage collected when leaving the method it was created in.

I solved the issue by calling sqlDataReader.Close(); before creating the second reader.

As a side-note...this can also happen when there is a problem with (internal) data-mapping from SQL Objects.

For instance...

I created a SQL Scalar Function that accidentally returned a VARCHAR...and then...used it to generate a column in a VIEW. The VIEW was correctly mapped in the DbContext...so Linq was calling it just fine. However, the Entity expected DateTime? and the VIEW was returning String.

Which ODDLY throws...

"There is already an open DataReader associated with this Command which must be closed first"

It was hard to figure out...but after I corrected the return parameters...all was well

I had the same error, when I tried to update some records within read loop. I've tried the most voted answer MultipleActiveResultSets=true and found, that it's just workaround to get the next error 

New transaction is not allowed because there are other threads running in the session

The best approach, that will work for huge ResultSets is to use chunks and open separate context for each chunk as described in  SqlException from Entity Framework - New transaction is not allowed because there are other threads running in the session

Well for me it was my own bug. I was trying to run an INSERT using SqlCommand.executeReader() when I should have been using SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery(). It was opened and never closed, causing the error. Watch out for this oversight.

This is extracted from a real world scenario:

Code works well in a Stage environment with MultipleActiveResultSets is set in the connection string

Code published to Production environment without MultipleActiveResultSets=true

So many pages/calls work while a single one is failing

Looking closer at the call, there is an unnecessary call made to the db and needs to be removed

Set MultipleActiveResultSets=true in Production and publish cleaned up code, everything works well and, efficiently

In conclusion, without forgetting about MultipleActiveResultSets, the code might have run for a long time before discovering a redundant db call that could be very costly, and I suggest not to fully depend on setting the MultipleActiveResultSets attribute but also find out why the code needs it where it failed.

Most likely this issue happens because of "lazy loading" feature of Entity Framework. Usually, unless explicitly required during initial fetch, all joined data (anything that stored in other database tables) is fetched only when required. In many cases that is a good thing, since it prevents from fetching unnecessary data and thus improve query performance (no joins) and saves bandwidth.

In the situation described in the question, initial fetch is performed, and during "select" phase missing lazy loading data is requested, additional queries are issued and then EF is complaining about "open DataReader".

Workaround proposed in the accepted answer will allow execution of these queries, and indeed the whole request will succeed.

However, if you will examine requests sent to the database, you will notice multiple requests - additional request for each missing (lazy loaded) data. This might be a performance killer.

A better approach is to tell to EF to preload all needed lazy loaded data during the initial query. This can be done using "Include" statement:

using System.Data.Entity;

query = query.Include(a => a.LazyLoadedProperty);

This way, all needed joins will be performed and all needed data will be returned as a single query. The issue described in the question will be solved.

The same error happened to me when I was looping and updating data on IEnumerable<MyClass> When I changed the looped-on collection to be List<MyClass>, and filled it by converting by .ToList(), it solved and updated without any errors.

I am using web service in my tool, where those service fetch the stored procedure. while more number of client tool fetches the web service, this problem arises. I have fixed by specifying the Synchronized attribute for those function fetches the stored procedure. now it is working fine, the error never showed up in my tool.

 [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.Synchronized)]
 public static List<t> MyDBFunction(string parameter1)
  {
  }

This attribute allows to process one request at a time. so this solves the Issue.

In my case, I had to set the MultipleActiveResultSets to True in the connection string.
Then it appeared another error (the real one) about not being able to run 2 (SQL) commands at the same time over the same data context! (EF Core, Code first)
So the solution for me was to look for any other asynchronous command execution and turn them to synchronous, as I had just one DbContext for both commands.

I hope it helps you