Windows Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio for Mac do not appear to be using the same Xamarin.iOS version or mono SDK version

Question

I have a Xamarin Forms app which has an iOS and Android project in the solution I have made sure there are not updates available for VS 2019 on Windows. When I go to the Mac, launch VS for Mac and select Check for updates from the menu, it says there are two updates as follows:

Mono Framework MDK 6.4.0.208 Xamarin.iOS 13.6.0.12

However, if I install those updates on the Mac, the next time I connect to it from Visual Studio on my windows box, I receive an error message the version of the Mono Framework and Xamarin.iOs installed on the Mac are not compatible with my project and I have to reinstall the older versions on the Mac.

Here is all the information from what is running on my PC:

Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2019 Version 16.4.2 VisualStudio.16.Release/16.4.2+29613.14 Microsoft .NET Framework Version 4.8.03752

Installed Version: Professional

Visual C++ 2019 00435-20050-31374-AA182 Microsoft Visual C++ 2019

ADL Tools Service Provider 1.0 This package contains services used by Data Lake tools

ASP.NET and Web Tools 2019 16.4.457.38025 ASP.NET and Web Tools 2019

ASP.NET Web Frameworks and Tools 2019 16.4.457.38025 For additional information, visit https://www.asp.net/

Azure App Service Tools v3.0.0 16.4.457.38025 Azure App Service Tools v3.0.0

Azure Data Lake Node 1.0 This package contains the Data Lake integration nodes for Server Explorer.

Azure Data Lake Tools for Visual Studio 2.4.1000.0 Microsoft Azure Data Lake Tools for Visual Studio

Azure Functions and Web Jobs Tools 16.4.457.38025 Azure Functions and Web Jobs Tools

Azure Stream Analytics Tools for Visual Studio 2.4.1000.0 Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics Tools for Visual Studio

C# Tools 3.4.1-beta4-19610-02+c4e5d138903b899477649a17f197abd2bcb22f9e C# components used in the IDE. Depending on your project type and settings, a different version of the compiler may be used.

Common Azure Tools 1.10 Provides common services for use by Azure Mobile Services and Microsoft Azure Tools.

Extensibility Message Bus 1.2.0 (d16-2@8b56e20) Provides common messaging-based MEF services for loosely coupled Visual Studio extension components communication and integration.

Fabric.DiagnosticEvents 1.0 Fabric Diagnostic Events

IntelliCode Extension 1.0 IntelliCode Visual Studio Extension Detailed Info

Microsoft Azure HDInsight Azure Node 2.4.1000.0 HDInsight Node under Azure Node

Microsoft Azure Hive Query Language Service 2.4.1000.0 Language service for Hive query

Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Tools for Visual Studio 16.0 Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Tools for Visual Studio

Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics Language Service 2.4.1000.0 Language service for Azure Stream Analytics

Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics Node 1.0 Azure Stream Analytics Node under Azure Node

Microsoft Azure Tools 2.9 Microsoft Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 - v2.9.21016.1

Microsoft Continuous Delivery Tools for Visual Studio 0.4 Simplifying the configuration of Azure DevOps pipelines from within the Visual Studio IDE.

Microsoft JVM Debugger 1.0 Provides support for connecting the Visual Studio debugger to JDWP compatible Java Virtual Machines

Microsoft Library Manager 2.0.87+gbb515bf382 Install client-side libraries easily to any web project

Microsoft MI-Based Debugger 1.0 Provides support for connecting Visual Studio to MI compatible debuggers

Microsoft Visual C++ Wizards 1.0 Microsoft Visual C++ Wizards

Microsoft Visual Studio Process Editor 1.0 Process Editor for Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Containers 1.1 Develop, run, validate your ASP.NET Core applications in the target environment. F5 your application directly into a container with debugging, or CTRL + F5 to edit & refresh your app without having to rebuild the container.

Microsoft Visual Studio VC Package 1.0 Microsoft Visual Studio VC Package

Mono Debugging for Visual Studio 16.5.24 (1fafd7e) Support for debugging Mono processes with Visual Studio.

NuGet Package Manager 5.4.0 NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio. For more information about NuGet, visit https://docs.nuget.org/

ProjectServicesPackage Extension 1.0 ProjectServicesPackage Visual Studio Extension Detailed Info

SQL Server Data Tools 16.0.61912.09160 Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools

ToolWindowHostedEditor 1.0 Hosting json editor into a tool window

TypeScript Tools 16.0.11031.2001 TypeScript Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio

Visual Basic Tools 3.4.1-beta4-19610-02+c4e5d138903b899477649a17f197abd2bcb22f9e Visual Basic components used in the IDE. Depending on your project type and settings, a different version of the compiler may be used.

Visual C++ for Cross Platform Mobile Development (Android) 16.0.29428.195 Visual C++ for Cross Platform Mobile Development (Android)

Visual F# Tools 10.4 for F# 4.6 16.4.0-beta.19556.5+e7597deb7042710a7142bdccabd6f92b0840d354 Microsoft Visual F# Tools 10.4 for F# 4.6

Visual Studio Code Debug Adapter Host Package 1.0 Interop layer for hosting Visual Studio Code debug adapters in Visual Studio

Visual Studio Container Tools Extensions (Preview) 1.0 View, manage, and diagnose containers within Visual Studio.

Visual Studio Tools for Containers 1.0 Visual Studio Tools for Containers

Visual Studio Tools for Kubernetes 1.0 Visual Studio Tools for Kubernetes

VisualStudio.DeviceLog 1.0 Information about my package

VisualStudio.Foo 1.0 Information about my package

VisualStudio.Mac 1.0 Mac Extension for Visual Studio

Xamarin 16.4.000.307 (d16-4@e031886) Visual Studio extension to enable development for Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android.

Xamarin Designer 16.4.0.464 (remotes/origin/d16-4@4abf337c3) Visual Studio extension to enable Xamarin Designer tools in Visual Studio.

Xamarin Templates 16.4.25 (579ee62) Templates for building iOS, Android, and Windows apps with Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms.

Xamarin.Android SDK 10.1.1.0 (d16-4/f2c9364) Xamarin.Android Reference Assemblies and MSBuild support. Mono: bef1e63 Java.Interop: xamarin/java.interop/d16-4@c4e569f ProGuard: xamarin/proguard/master@905836d SQLite: xamarin/sqlite/3.28.0@46204c4 Xamarin.Android Tools: xamarin/xamarin-android-tools/master@9f4ed4b

Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac SDK 13.8.3.0 (0d8fe21) Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac Reference Assemblies and MSBuild support.

Any one have any idea why this is happening?

Answer 1

I receive an error message the version of the Mono Framework and Xamarin.iOs installed on the Mac are not compatible with my project and I have to reinstall the older versions on the Mac.

Not a older version but a newer version.

If you have Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2019 Version 16.4.2, it requirs Mono 6.6.0.155 which is newer than Mono Framework MDK 6.4.0.208 Xamarin.iOS 13.6.0.12 you saw in you visual-studio for mac:

In the Visual-Studio for mac, Mono 6.6.0.155 exist in the Preview Channel, so you can update to the latest Mono and Xamarin.iOS there. I updated just now and the both Visual-Studio-for-Windows and Visual-Studio-for-Mac use the same Mono and Xamarin.iOS version.

Release note:

mono/releases/6.6.0

xamarin/ios/release-notes/13/13.8