Xamarin Forms build generates several errors

Question

I am trying to get started with Xamarin Forms, so I started creating a simple app. Everything looks fine, until I attempt to build it. After few minutes I get several errors looking like this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\Xamarin.Android.Common.targets(2,2): Error XA5209: Unzipping failed. Please download https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/android_m2repository_r15.zip and extract it to the C:\Users\James\AppData\Local\Xamarin\Android.Support.v4\22.2.0\content directory. (XA5209) (App.Droid)

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\Xamarin.Android.Common.targets(2,2): Error XA5209: Reason: C:\Users\James\AppData\Local\Xamarin\Android.Support.v4\22.2.0\android_m2repository_r15.zip is not a valid zip file (XA5209) (App.Droid)

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Xamarin\Android\Xamarin.Android.Common.targets(2,2): Error XA5207: Please install package: 'Xamarin.Android.Support.v4' available in SDK installer. Java library file C:\Users\James\AppData\Local\Xamarin\Android.Support.v4\22.2.0\embedded\classes.jar doesn't exist. (XA5207) (App.Droid)

This error is replicated several times with different files. I do not believe that the issue is with my code, but there always is that possibility. What is going no and how do I fix it?

Answer 1

The IDE tries to download the Xamarin.Andriod.Support.v4 but fails depending on network error. Download the zip file from https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/android_m2repository_r15.zip and put it in C:\Users\James\AppData\Local\Xamarin\Android.Support.v4\22.2.0\ Then rebuild the project and you should be good.

Answer 2

As Jason mentioned, based on the output it would appear that you are missing some required files. I would suggest opening the Android SDK Manager and updating all of the available items as well as ensuring you have the latest version of Xamarin.Android