In Visual Studio 16.9.0 Android "deploy to device" error - Command too long

Question

in my xamarin Android project everything worked until I have updated to Visual Studio 2019 v16.9.0.

Since the upgrade, I am able to successfully build the project but if I try to deploy or debug to device or emulator I receive the following error:

[final part of build log]

  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Firebase.Analytics.Impl, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Firebase.Common, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Firebase.Iid, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Firebase.Iid.Interop, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Firebase.Measurement.Connector, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Firebase.Messaging, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Forms.Core, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Forms.Platform.Android, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Forms.Platform, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Forms.Xaml, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Google.Android.Material, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Google.AutoValue.Annotations, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.Google.Guava.ListenableFuture, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Ads.Identifier, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Analytics, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Analytics.Impl, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Base, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Basement, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Location, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Maps, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Measurement.Api, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Measurement.Base, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Places.PlaceReport, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Stats, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.TagManager.V4.Impl, recursively...
  Adding assembly reference for Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Tasks, recursively...
Skipping target "_CopyConfigFiles" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_ConvertPdbFiles" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_LinkAssembliesNoShrink" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_AndroidXCecilfy" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_GenerateJavaStubs" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_ManifestMerger" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_ConvertCustomView" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_AndroidXJetifyManifest" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_AddStaticResources" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_GeneratePackageManagerJava" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_GenerateAndroidAssetsDir" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_PrepareCreateBaseApk" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_CreateBaseApk" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_CompileJava" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_CompileNativeAssemblySources" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_CreateApplicationSharedLibraries" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_AndroidXJetifyJavaLibraryRules" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_AndroidXJetifyProguardRules" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Skipping target "_CompileToDalvik" because all output files are up-to-date with respect to the input files.
Copying file from "C:\temp\100\android\bin\com.caledoslab.runner.apk" to "C:\Caledos\code\Runner\CaledosLab.Runner.Android\bin\Debug\com.caledoslab.runner.apk".
Creating "C:\temp\100\android_debug_keystore.flag" because "AlwaysCreate" was specified.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\build-tools\30.0.2\zipalign.exe -p 4 "C:\temp\100\android\bin\com.caledoslab.runner.apk" "bin\Debug\\com.caledoslab.runner-Signed.apk" 
C:\Program Files\Android\Jdk\microsoft_dist_openjdk_1.8.0.25\bin\java.exe -jar "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\apksigner.jar" sign --ks "C:\Users
icold\AppData\Local\Xamarin\Mono for Android\debug.keystore" --ks-pass pass:android --ks-key-alias androiddebugkey --key-pass pass:android --min-sdk-version 21 --max-sdk-version 29  C:\Caledos\code\Runner\CaledosLab.Runner.Android\bin\Debug\com.caledoslab.runner-Signed.apk 
Signed android package 'bin\Debug\com.caledoslab.runner-Signed.apk'
Using cached value from RegisterTaskObject
Found device: emulator-5554

    Command too long

   at Mono.AndroidTools.Adb.AdbClient.GetCommandBuffer(String command) in C:\A\1\36\s\External\androidtools\Mono.AndroidTools\Adb\AdbClient.cs:line 258
   at Mono.AndroidTools.Adb.AdbClient.BeginWriteCommand(String command, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) in C:\A\1\36\s\External\androidtools\Mono.AndroidTools\Adb\AdbClient.cs:line 227
   at Mono.AndroidTools.Adb.AdbClient.BeginWriteCommandWithStatus(String command, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) in C:\A\1\36\s\External\androidtools\Mono.AndroidTools\Adb\AdbClient.cs:line 274
   at System.Threading.Tasks.TaskFactory`1.FromAsyncImpl[TArg1](Func`4 beginMethod, Func`2 endFunction, Action`1 endAction, TArg1 arg1, Object state, TaskCreationOptions creationOptions)
   at Mono.AndroidTools.Internal.AdbClientTaskExtensions.WriteCommandWithStatusAsync(AdbClient client, String command, TaskCreationOptions options) in C:\A\1\36\s\External\androidtools\Mono.AndroidTools\Internal\AdbClientTaskExtensions.cs:line 62
   at Mono.AndroidTools.AndroidDevice.<>c__DisplayClass62_0.<RunShellCommand>b__0(Task t) in C:\A\1\36\s\External\androidtools\Mono.AndroidTools\AndroidDevice.cs:line 403
   at System.Threading.Tasks.ContinuationResultTaskFromTask`1.InnerInvoke()
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Execute()
Done building project "CaledosLab.Runner.Android.csproj" -- FAILED.
Build FAILED.
12>Deployment failed to pixel_3a_xl.
========== Build: 11 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
========== Deploy: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

any idea?

thank you!

Answer 1

TLDR

I was able to workaround this issue by unchecking Use Fast Deployment from the Android Options tab within the Android project's options.

Detail

I was running Visual Studio 2019 v16.9. Prior to the upgrade I had no issue, but once I upgraded to 16.9 last week I started encountering this issue. This error would occur regardless of the target emulator / device.

Once I enabled diagnostic build output in Visual Studio's Build and Run settings, I could see in the build output that the failure was occurring during Fast Deploy Application Files.

Visual Studio Build Output

Once I unchecked fast deployment, the deployment worked fine. I turned fast deployment back on and attempted a redeploy which still failed.

So now I'm continuing development with with fast deployment disabled and haven't had an issues so far.