Visual Studio 2015 + Xamarin > Select a valid device before running the application

Question

I have the latest alpha builds of xamarin recently uninstalled everything on both mac and pc (windows 8). I get the error "select a valid device" when trying to run the ios sample application.

I have set the platform to iphonesimulator, i am connected to the mac. The following is the log when building

Starting Agent IDB 4.0.0.1566... Connected to the MacBook-Pro.local (192.168.1.120) with Limited support. An error occured starting the IDB 4.0.0.1566 agent: The operation has timed out.

Starting Agent Build 4.0.0.1566... Agent IDB 4.0.0.1566 is running Agent Build 4.0.0.1566 is running Starting Agent Designer 4.0.0.1566... An error occured starting the Designer 4.0.0.1566 agent: The operation has timed out.

The Xamarin Mac Agent could not be fully started. Agents not started: Designer 4.0.0.1566. Please check the logs for more details. Agent Designer 4.0.0.1566 is running Connected to the Mac MacBook-Pro.local (192.168.1.120) with Full support.

The application works fine when run on the mac and the simulator works fine. I have the latest xcode and can run an application from xcode as well.

Properties of IOS project - i do see this error "failed to obtain profile information from the build server. Please, check the connectivity with the mac build host' > i have done this an everything looks connected.

Ideas??

Answer 1

For those that end up here in April 2018, there is currently an issue with Xamarin and xcode 9.3.

ensure that your mac has xcode 9.2 (I also had to completely remove 9.3), which you can download from the apple developers site.

• un-install xcode 9.3 on mac
• install xcode 9.2 on mac
• restart mac
• in visual studio - forget mac connection, re-connect when mac back up.

update*

Apparently this is fixed in Visual studio update 15.6.5, although not personally test myself yet

Answer 2

XCode 9.3 was recently released by Apple, that version is not compatible with the current Xamarin SDK. Xamarin has released updates to their SDK that fix the issue on both the Mac and PC. You can get them here: https://releases.xamarin.com/preview-xcode-9-3-beta-2-ios-11-3-macos-10-13-4-support-preview-2/

Answer 3

Sounds like your root issue is that the Xamarin Mac Agent isn't connecting. Without this connection, most all iOS development cannot be run.

I can suggest two things. 1) reboot the mac - sometimes when you uninstall/reinstall or something goes wrong processes can be orphaned which cause problems, simple reboot might resolve your problem.

2) try the troubleshooting steps here: https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/ios/getting_started/installation/windows/connecting-to-mac/troubleshooting/

Answer 4

You should have development certificate installed on your MAC. Also your device should be provisioned for development. For details check here