How to Resolve File Lock Exceptions When Assigning Images to PictureBoxes?

Resolve file lock exception in PictureBox image assignment

When assigning an image to a PictureBox at runtime, developers may encounter an error stating that the file is locked by another process. This happens when the file is already in use by an Image or Bitmap object. To fix this problem, there are two main ways to unlock files.

Use memory streams

The recommended approach is to load image data into a memory stream and create an Image object from the stream. This method releases the file lock and allows further image processing:

public static Image FromFile(string path)
{
    byte[] bytes = File.ReadAllBytes(path);
    using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(bytes))
    {
        return Image.FromStream(ms);
    }
}

Copy from Bitmap

Another approach is to create a copy of the Bitmap object representing the image and assign it to the PictureBox. This method involves additional memory consumption but preserves the original file lock:

Image imgCopy = new Bitmap(filePath);
pbAvatar.Image = imgCopy;

Performance testing shows that loading images from Bytes is much faster than copying from Bitmap. However, if you specifically need the Bitmap object, you can use the copy method.

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