.NET 8.0 not showing in Visual Studio 2022 (General Release)

Question

I am encountering an issue with Visual Studio 2022 on my Mac, and I hope someone can help me resolve it. I am unable to use .NET 8, even though I have followed the usual steps for enabling preview features.I cannot find the option to enable .NET 8 preview features in Visual Studio 2022 for Mac. The option mentioned in the documentation doesn't appear to be available in my version. If anyone has successfully configured .NET 8 on Visual Studio 2022 for Mac or has insights into resolving this issue, I would greatly appreciate your guidance. Are there any additional steps or settings that I might be missing?

Thank you in advance for your help!

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• Updated Visual Studio to the latest version (currently version [Your Visual Studio version]).

• Checked under "Tools > Options > Environment > Preview Features," but the option "Use previews of the .NET SDK" is not visible.

  • I have ensured that my Visual Studio is up-to-date.

  • I have checked online resources and documentation, but I couldn't find a solution.

Answer 1

in order to use the .NET 8 SDK with Visual Studio for Mac you have to enable this feature in Preferences - Other - Preview Features - Use the .NET 8 SDK if installed.

Also note that the .NET 8 support in Visual Studio for Mac is still in preview and some things may not work or be fully implemented.

https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/Net-8-not-working-on-VS-for-mac/10516623?ftype=problem&stateGroup=active&sort=newest

Answer 2

From the What's happening to Visual Studio for Mac? doc:

Microsoft doesn't plan to add support for .NET 8 or C# 12 to Visual Studio for Mac. We won't extend to any other workloads before retirement either.

You can try using C# Dev Kit for Visual Studio Code (or Rider). If you want to still try using Preview Features you might need to install preview/release candidate version of SDK.