Xamarin Android Profiler won't start — "Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio"

Question

We're struggling to get the Xamarin Profiler to start with our Android application.

We're using Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise (15.4.3) with Xamarin Profiler v1.6.0.16, Xamarin version 4.7.10.38.

Every time we try to use the profiler, it simply stops and writes to its log file:

Runtime installed on device [...] is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio.

This confuses us since we're not using Xamarin Studio at all.

We've tried:

• checking for VS/Xamarin updates (obviously).
• creating a new empty Xamarin project and attempting to profile it.
• various devices and emulators.
• various combinations of 'Target Framework', 'Minimum Android version' and 'Target Android version'.
• Windows 7 and Windows 10.
• Visual Studio both v15.4.3 and v15.5.0.
• 'Enable developer instrumentation (debugging and profiling)' is checked.
• 'Use Shared Runtime' and 'Use Fast Deployment' checked/unchecked.

But we always get the same result: "Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio".

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated; thanks.

The profiler's log file is as follows:

XamarinProfiler.Core.Profiler Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:34.2416] ##########################################
XamarinProfiler.Core.Profiler Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:34.2416] # Xamarin Profiler version -  1.6.0.16
XamarinProfiler.Core.Profiler Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:34.2416] #  * Arch x86_64
XamarinProfiler.Core.Profiler Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:34.2416] ##########################################
XamarinProfiler.Core.Profiler Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:34.3820] initializing android platform
XamarinProfiler.Core.Profiler Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:34.3820] initializing ios platform
XamarinProfiler.Core.Profiler Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:34.3820] initializing mlpd platform
XamarinProfiler.Core.Profiler Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:34.4600] processing command line = C:\Program Files (x86)\Xamarin\Profiler\XamarinProfiler.exe --type=android --target=au.com.<redacted>|md52635741fd041340e6948a5329c9048f1.MainScreen --device=025b38394ca8478b --options=name:LGE Nexus 5X
XamarinProfiler.Windows.Core.WindowsRunFactory Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:44.6840] Creating android run for au.com.<redacted>|md52635741fd041340e6948a5329c9048f1.MainScreen target on device 025b38394ca8478b
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:44.7152] Initializing profiling...
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:44.7620] Waiting for device 025b38394ca8478b to connect
XamarinProfiler.Windows.MainWindow Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:44.7620] StartRecording for au.com.<redacted>
XamarinProfiler.Core.Platforms.Android.ProfileAndroidRun Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:45.4582] checking runtime version on device LGE Nexus 5X
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Error: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:46.1802] Sorry, something went wrong trying to run au.com.<redacted>: Runtime installed on device LGE Nexus 5X is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Error: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:46.1802] Sorry, something went wrong trying to run au.com.<redacted>: Runtime installed on device LGE Nexus 5X is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:46.1812] Sorry, something went wrong trying to run au.com.<redacted>: Runtime installed on device LGE Nexus 5X is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:46.1822] Stopping application au.com.<redacted>.md52635741fd041340e6948a5329c9048f1.MainScreen
XamarinProfiler.Windows.MainWindow Error: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:46.1892] Error occured on run au.com.<redacted>: Runtime installed on device LGE Nexus 5X is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio
XamarinProfiler.Windows.MainWindow Error: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:46.1892] Error occured on run au.com.<redacted>: Runtime installed on device LGE Nexus 5X is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:46.2812] Application au.com.<redacted>.md52635741fd041340e6948a5329c9048f1.MainScreen stopped
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:46.2852] Stopping session. Please wait...
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:46.2952] Stopped
XamarinProfiler.Windows.MainWindow Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:19:46.2982] CurrentRun.Finished for au.com.<redacted>
XamarinProfiler.Windows.Core.WindowsRunFactory Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:48.4232] Creating android run for au.com.<redacted>|md52635741fd041340e6948a5329c9048f1.MainScreen target on device 025b38394ca8478b
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:48.4232] Initializing profiling...
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:48.4562] Waiting for device 025b38394ca8478b to connect
XamarinProfiler.Windows.MainWindow Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:48.4562] StartRecording for au.com.<redacted>
XamarinProfiler.Core.Platforms.Android.ProfileAndroidRun Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.0302] checking runtime version on device LGE Nexus 5X
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Error: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.7792] Sorry, something went wrong trying to run au.com.<redacted>: Runtime installed on device LGE Nexus 5X is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Error: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.7792] Sorry, something went wrong trying to run au.com.<redacted>: Runtime installed on device LGE Nexus 5X is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.7792] Sorry, something went wrong trying to run au.com.<redacted>: Runtime installed on device LGE Nexus 5X is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.7792] Stopping application au.com.<redacted>.md52635741fd041340e6948a5329c9048f1.MainScreen
XamarinProfiler.Windows.MainWindow Error: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.7802] Error occured on run au.com.<redacted>: Runtime installed on device LGE Nexus 5X is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio
XamarinProfiler.Windows.MainWindow Error: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.7802] Error occured on run au.com.<redacted>: Runtime installed on device LGE Nexus 5X is too old. Deploy your app again with a newer version of Xamarin Studio
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.8902] Application au.com.<redacted>.md52635741fd041340e6948a5329c9048f1.MainScreen stopped
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.8902] Stopping session. Please wait...
XamarinProfiler.Windows.ViewModels.ProgressReport.ReportViewModel Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.8902] Stopped
XamarinProfiler.Windows.MainWindow Information: 0 : [2017-11-15 10:20:50.8912] CurrentRun.Finished for au.com.<redacted>

Answer 1

I suspect that you are all downloading the profiler from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/xamarin/tools/profiler/?tabs=windows

which actually is a link to an older version with a bug, try downloading it from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/xamarin/tools/profiler/release-notes/1.6/1.6.4

with the latest stable version and it should work, at least it did for me. cheers