[Public] Fixing System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException when using IronOCR with System.Memory version conflict

If you’re encountering the following exception when using IronTesseract().Read() in IronOCR:

System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException (mscorlib.dll)  
"Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation"

and receiving empty OCR results before the crash, this is likely due to a version conflict between different System.Memory assemblies.

This issue often occurs even in clean projects and may be accompanied by a warning similar to:

Found conflicts between different versions of "System.Memory"...
"System.Memory, Version=4.0.1.2" was chosen because it was primary and "System.Memory, Version=4.0.2.0" was not.

Solution

To resolve the crash, you need to explicitly add a binding redirect in your application’s App.config file. This will force your application to consistently use the version of System.Memory expected by the IronOCR library.

Here’s what to add:

<configuration>
  <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Memory" publicKeyToken="cc7b13ffcd2ddd51" culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="4.0.2.0" newVersion="4.0.1.2" />
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
</configuration>

This ensures your application loads version 4.0.1.2 of System.Memory, preventing the crash and restoring correct OCR behavior.