ASP.NET Core 5.0 Web App - published out of the box app to IIS Server 404 on static files from wwwroot - http-status-code-404

Question

Created an out-of-the-box ASP.NET Core 5.0 Web App - runs locally just fine.
Published the project to a folder and copied contents to Windows Server 2019 running IIS.
Installed ASP.NET Core 5.0 Runtime (v5.0.5) - Windows Hosting Bundle.
Application Pool: .NET CLR version: to No Managed Code Manage, pipeline mode: to Integrated
Project File contains:
public static IHostBuilder CreateHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
.ConfigureWebHostDefaults(webBuilder =>
{
webBuilder.UseStartup<Startup>();
webBuilder.UseStaticWebAssets();
});
Startup contains:
app.UseStaticFiles();
When referenced, all content under the wwwroot folder throws a 404 error:
https://servername.test.com/subapplication/css/site.css
The default page does get loaded, just with no styling because of the files not found.

Answer 1

I ran into the same issue when trying to setup my app. You just have to manually copy over the the wwwroot/ folder into your build folder. So if you ran dotnet build, just copy the wwwroot/ folder into bin/Debug/net5.0/.
I'm sure there's some way to do this automatically, but I am currently unaware since I am relatively new to ASP.NET Core.
Here's some relevant Microsoft documentation about why this solution works:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/?view=aspnetcore-5.0&tabs=windows#web-root
The web root path defaults to {content root}/wwwroot.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/static-files?view=aspnetcore-5.0
Static files are stored within the project's web root directory. The default directory is {content root}/wwwroot, but it can be changed with the UseWebRoot method.
Hope this helps you as much as it helped me!

Answer 2

I ran into this problem and it took me quite a while to find the answer at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/static-files?view=aspnetcore-6.0.
"ASP.NET Core apps hosted in IIS use the ASP.NET Core Module to forward all requests to the app, including static file requests. The IIS static file handler isn't used and has no chance to handle requests.
Complete the following steps in IIS Manager to remove the IIS static file handler at the server or website level:
Navigate to the Modules feature.
Select StaticFileModule in the list.
Click Remove in the Actions sidebar."
Problem solved