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Visual Studio 2016 For Mac



Essentially, Visual Studio for the Mac is Xamarin Studio plus a Visual Studio look and feel, along with Roslyn-based C# IntelliSense, refactoring, analyzers, and code fixes; NuGet-based package. Visual Studio delivers a versatile work space where you can start developing code, build, and test apps for various platforms without having to rely on multiple tools. The Visual Studio IDE can be used to work on projects for Mac, iOS, Android, and other wearables, or for apps running is the cloud.

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Click the button to download the latest version of Visual Studio 2017 for Mac. For instructions on setup and install, see the Setup and Install Visual Studio for Mac documentation.

To learn more about Visual Studio 2017 for Mac, see Mac System Requirements and Mac Platform Targeting and Compatibility.

To learn more about other related downloads, see the Downloads page.

What's New in 7.8

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8 Releases

  • May 13, 2019 – Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8.4
  • March 12, 2019 – Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8.3
  • February 28, 2019 – Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8.2
  • February 22, 2019 – Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8.1
  • February 20, 2019 – Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8

Release Highlights

This release focuses on improving the quality in Visual Studio for Mac through bug fixes, performance improvements, and reliability improvements.

We also updated the version of NuGet to 4.8, .NET Core SDK to 2.1.504, and .NET Core Runtime 2.1.8

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8 (7.8.0.1624)

Colibri 1 8 1. released February 20, 2019

Shell

  • We fixed an issue where custom key bindings for Remove Unused and Sort (Usings) don't work.
  • We fixed an issue where switching from the application and returning, does not focus on the editor correctly.
  • We fixed an issue where the cursor in editor window is lost when switching applications.
  • We fixed an issue where focusing out/into Visual Studio changes the default focused element on the UI.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac would fail to track file changes for files in certain folders.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac doesn't remember opened files.
  • We fixed an issue where the Toolbar selector for build configuration is disabled.
  • We fixed an issue where adding a new folder to a project does not allow instant renaming.
  • We fixed an issue where Start Debugging after Start without Debugging results in an exception for ASP.Net projects.
  • We fixed a performance issue with build output search.
  • The Run Item command on the Solution Explorer has been renamed to Run Project.
  • We fixed an issue where the welcome page is shown when loading a solution from finder.

.NET Core

  • We updated to .NET Core 2.1.8 to include a security update.
  • We fixed an issue where the create button doesn't create new project for .NET Core 3.0 preview 2.
  • We fixed an issue where .NET Core 3.0 can be selected in the New Project dialog when it is not supported.
  • We removed the VB.NET option from .NET Core projects.

ASP.NET Core

  • We fixed an issue where the Folder profile would be created with 'Default' configuration instead of 'Release'.

Web Tools

  • We fixed an issue where Publish to Azure creates a profile with the wrong name.
  • We fixed an issue where application arguments are not passed to the Azure Functions host.
  • We added the following additional Azure Functions templates
    • CosmosDB trigger
    • EventHub trigger
    • IoT Hub trigger
    • SendGrid trigger
    • ServiceBus Queue trigger
    • ServiceBus Topic trigger
  • We fixed an issue where it was not possible to publish to Azure API App instances.

Xamarin

  • We updated the Xamarin Test Cloud agent NuGet version.
  • We fixed an issue where the View Archives command would appear in .NET Core projects.

Xamarin.Forms

  • IntelliSense in Xamarin.Forms XAML files for FontFamily is now available.

Designers

  • We fixed an issue where the toolbox regressed Android designer usage.
  • We fixed an issue when attempting to drag and drop controls to iOS storyboards from the Tool Box after searching for controls does not work.

Xamarin.Android

  • We fixed an issue where the JDK notification was shown on the welcome page, even for non-Android projects.
  • We fixed an issue where launching Visual Studio for Mac without any Java installed shows 2 system prompts to install Java.
  • We fixed an issue where the Android resource update could occur at the same time as a build which could then cause build issues.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac would fail to upload APK to Acer Chromebook R11.
  • We fixed an issue where new Android apps have uppercase letters in the package name.
  • We fixed an issue where 'Your project is not referencing the 'Mono.Android.Version=v8.1' framework' when AndroidUseLatestPlatformSDK is true.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac does not recognize AndroidManifest in specific build configurations.
  • We fixed an issue where opening the Report A Problem dialog also displays 'Install JDK' dialog.
  • We fixed an issue where the Google Play SDK warning is shown even when publishing Ad-Hoc.

Xamarin.iOS

  • It is now possible to choose .pdf files for image assets that do not support vector images.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac erroneously indicates that a Xamarin.Mac property is unavailable.
  • We fixed an issue where it is not possible to choose devices for named colors in the asset catalog.
  • We fixed an issue where the iOS simulator is no longer brought to front when starting a debug session.
  • We fixed an issue where Native References not working in iOS library projects and appear to be ignored.
  • We fixed an issue where deleting a Native Reference does not delete the the file on disk.
  • We fixed an issue where the Debugger doesn't connect to a keyboard extension on any device.

Xamarin.Mac

  • We fixed an issue where .xib templates seem to need customObjectInstantitationMethod='direct' added.
  • We fixed an issue where it is not possible to change the target framework version for Xamarin.Mac full on re-opening project options.
  • We fixed an issue where the project options for a Mac build (classic) shows incorrect UI.

Code Editor

  • We fixed an issue where the code fix preview window is too small.
  • We fixed an issue where error squiggles were not up to date.
  • We fixed an issue where the editor would freeze while typing
  • We fixed an issue where Changing the tab would not allow you to search a file
  • We fixed an issue where Using statement indenting is incorrect.
  • We fixed an issue where Roslyn throws a fatal exception (System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException).
  • We fixed an issue where formatting of parameters across multiple lines is incorrect.
  • We fixed an issue where the constructor generator would cause Visual Studio for Mac to crash.
  • We fixed an issue where smart semicolon placement causes incorrect semicolon placement.
  • We fixed an issue where typing can be slow in large files when accessibility is enabled.
  • We fixed an issue where a fatal error can occur when trying to navigate inside the editor using VoiceOver.
  • We fixed an issue where the caret location in quick fix margin is incorrect.
  • We fixed a performance issue where indent correcting is taking up too much time on large files.
  • We fixed an issue where Intellisense soft-selection is confusing.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac can't open .targets files.
  • We fixed an issue where the display updates partially when commenting a collapsed method.
  • We fixed an issue where C# syntax highlight doesn't work for some of the keywords.
  • We fixed an issue where invoking some snippets from the toolbox in .cs files leads to poorly formatted code.
  • We fixed an issue where pressing Down to choose the closing tag completion in XAML IntelliSense closes the completion window.
  • We fixed an issue where the file 'redacted' could not be opened.
  • We fixed an issue where sometimes pasting fails in XAML files.
  • We fixed an issue where, when adding an attribute via Intellisense, it does not trim 'Attribute' from the name.
  • We fixed an issue where code suggestion does the wrong thing when ( is pressed after a stray arrow key.

NuGet

  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac crashes after 'Could not add packages' error.
  • We updated the version of NuGet to 4.8.
  • NuGet package diagnostic warnings are now shown in the Solution Explorer. Any diagnostics warnings will be rendered with a warning icon and the full text of the warning available as a tool tip.
  • We fixed a set of issues with NuGet:
    • problem while restoring NuGet packages which don't have stable version.
    • The VS4Mac bundle nuget version is too old: 4.3.1.
    • Referencing packages conditionally using variable does not work correctly.
    • Xamarin.Forms app with multi target framework library referenced fail to build.
    • Visual Studio Mac Csproj build not support Item contidion.
    • Support conditional NuGet PackageReferences in multi-targeting projects.
    • Show per-framework dependencies when multi-targeting.
    • VS cannot build F# dotnet core solution.
    • Nuget restore ignore build targets.
    • NuGet restores the wrong version of Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.

Debugger

  • We fixed an issue where the debugger would fail when running on an external console on Mojave.

Test Tools

  • We fixed an issue where xUnit Fact 'DisplayName' not shown in test explorer if the name has a period at the end.
  • We fixed an issue where the text editor unit test integration ('Unit test 'name' could not be loaded') would fail.
  • We fixed a performance issue where the 'Test Results' pane has bad performance when very large amounts of text are shown.
  • We fixed an issue where the unit test integration in the editor does not properly trigger test cases.
  • We fixed an issue that could cause xunit to fail to restore.

F#

  • We fixed an issue where open statements for F# must be manually added when pasting/writing code.
  • We fixed an issue where new F# projects shows IntelliSense errors.
  • We fixed an issue for F# projects where Visual Studio for Mac overwrites the project GUID to be lowercase instead of uppercase.

Project System

  • We fixed an issue where the copy & paste of a XAML file causes a disassociation between the .xaml and .xaml.cs files.
  • We fixed an issue where files are being added to ItemGroup.Compile(Remove) and this related issue - Error type of namespace not found.
  • We fixed an issue where an invalid C# file is created with a new library project.
  • We fixed an issue where it is not possible to create a culture specific .resx file through the 'New File .' menu in the Solutions Explorer context menu.

Assembly Browser

  • We fixed an issue where the Assembly Browser shows the wrong icon for properties.
  • We fixed an issue where System.DayOfWeek enum (Wednesday) does not appear to be assigned a value.

Accessibility

  • We fixed a number of accessibility issues in this release, including several VoiceOver issues in the Debugger and in creating iOS developer certificates, and Keyboard issues in the Android SDK Manager.

Other

  • We fixed an issue where unchecking the Organize Using > Place System directives first setting does not save.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac is not remembering settings.
  • We fixed an issue where Checking for updates can result in multiple prompts to sign in.

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8.1.4

released February 22, 2019

  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac becomes unresponsive when selecting two column view.

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8.2.1

released February 28, 2019

  • We fixed an issue where Debugger features sometimes don't work as expected with Unity.

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8.3.2

released March 12, 2019

  • This release contains an updated 4.8 NuGet Client, which in turn closes a NuGet Client vulnerability.
  • We fixed an issue where Using Git to publish an existing project to a new remote repository was not working.
  • We fixed an issue where Git remote operations were failing in Visual Studio for Mac:.
  • We fixed an issue where Tooltips not being shown for F# solutions.
  • We fixed an issue where The Report a Problem dialog crashes Visual Studio for Mac when entering details.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac crashes while using Report a Problem if the debugger connection is lost.
  • We fixed an issue where Two sign in popup windows would show if you weren't signed in and tried to Report a Problem.
  • We fixed an issue causing warnings about missing icons to show up in the log files when using Report a Problem.
  • We fixed an issue preventing build messages from displaying in the Build Output window after building Docker Compose projects.

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.8.4.1

released May 13, 2019

  • This release fixes an issue where (Visual Studio for Mac 7.8.3 crashes after loading a second solution)[https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/509716/visual-studio-783-build2-crashes-after-loading-a-s.html].

Feedback & Suggestions

We would love to hear from you! You can report a problem through the Report a Problem option in the Visual Studio for Mac IDE, and track your feedback in the Developer Community portal. For suggesting new features you can use Suggest a Feature, these are also tracked in the Developer Community.

Blogs

Take advantage of the insights and recommendations available in the Developer Tools Blogs site to keep you up-to-date on all new releases and include deep dive posts on a broad range of features.

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac Release Notes History

You can view prior versions of Visual Studio 2017 for Mac release notes on the Release notes history page.

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Get the Preview

Important

Get the Preview of Visual Studio 2019 for Mac by updating to the Preview channel.

Flux 6 0 32 – advanced web design tool. This release is not 'go-live' and not intended for use on production computers or for creating production code.

To learn more about Visual Studio for Mac, see Mac System Requirementsand Mac Platform Targeting and Compatibility.

To learn more about other related downloads, see the Downloads page.

What's New in 8.8 Preview

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview Releases

  • October 27, 2020 – Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 6
  • October 20, 2020 – Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 5
  • October 13, 2020 – Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 4
  • September 14, 2020 – Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 3
  • August 25, 2020 – Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 2
  • August 5, 2020 – Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 1

Release Highlights

  • Visual Studio for Mac 8.8 Preview 4 adds preview support for Custom .NET Core templates added with dotnet new (Preview features can be enabled in Preferences > Other > Preview Features).
  • Visual Studio for Mac 8.8 Preview 2 adds support for debugging Blazor WebAssembly projects.
  • Visual Studio for Mac 8.8 Preview 2 adds support for accessing Azure DevOps NuGet package sources using the signed in account without the need to use a personal access token (PAT).
  • Visual Studio for Mac 8.8 Preview 1 or newer now support running on the macOS Big Sur developer preview. See Known Issues for additional information.
  • We added functionality to Visual Studio for Mac to warn users when low disk space will degrade the experience.

Known Issues

Refer to the Known Issues section.

Feedback & Suggestions

We would love to hear from you! You can report a problem through the Report a Problem option in Visual Studio for Mac IDE.You can track your feedback, including suggestions, in the Developer Community portal.

Release Notes

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 6 (8.8.0.2899)

released October 27, 2020

Project System

  • We updated MSBuild to 16.8 RC2.

Shell and Tools

  • We fixed an issue where it was not possible to type (special) characters in the VS console while pressing the option-key.
  • We fixed an issue where alerts were not clickable with the mouse on macOS Big Sur.

Source Code Editing

  • We fixed an issue with YAML support.

Version Control

  • We fixed an issue where an error was shown after copying a file if Git was not installed.
  • We fixed an issue where deleting a new file under a newly added folder deleted the empty folder as well.

Web and Azure

  • We fixed an issue where IntelliSense shows the OpenAPI client after the OpenAPI service was removed.
  • We updated .NET Core to 5.0 RC2.

Xamarin

  • We added support for Xcode 12.1.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 5 (8.8.0.2829)

released October 20, 2020

Shell and Tools

  • We updated NuGet to 5.8 RC.
Download visual studio 2016 professional

Source Code Editing

  • We fixed an issue where EventHandler completion didn't work.

Web and Azure

Visual Studio 2015 For Mac Free Download

  • We fixed an issue where an invalid development certificate caused an unrecoverable hang.
  • We updated .NET Core to 3.1.403 and 2.1.811

Xamarin

  • The Android SDK manager will now prompt to install Android API 28 if it is not already installed to ensure compatibility with the Xamarin.Forms templates.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 4 (8.8.0.2811)

released October 13, 2020

2016 Visual Studio

Debugger

  • We fixed a potential crash/hang after terminating the debugger.
  • We fixed an issue where local variables were not evaluated when debugging a Blazor application with .NET 5.
Visual Studio 2016 For Mac

Project System

  • We fixed an issue where the Android build process never stops.
  • We fixed an issue where renaming a file with 'Show All Files' enabled in the Solution window added the file twice and might have caused a hang.
  • We fixed an issue with VS for Mac setting a different FrameworkSDKRoot.
  • We fixed an issue where creating a new project folder with a single character failed with an error.

Shell and Tools

  • We replaced the 'Pad' terminology with 'Tool Window' throughout the IDE and updated the top-level View menu.
  • We fixed an issue where the content of the 'Reference' dialog was not announced in proper sequence with VoiceOver.
  • We fixed a potential hang in the Assembly Browser.
  • We fixed an issue with encoding inside the integrated Terminal.
  • We fixed an issue where 'Find' in the 'Replace in Files' dialog replaced the found text.
  • We fixed an issue where Searching in a Directory failed after the second use.

Source Code Editing

  • We fixed an issue where Design-time error highlighting and Quick Fix suggestions stopped working.
  • We fixed an issue with Red underlines not being shown on syntax errors.
  • We fixed an issue where inserting code snippets into a C# file failed.

Test Tools

Download Visual Studio 2016 Professional

  • We fixed an issue where Running unit tests from the context menu was way slower than from the Unit Tests pad.

Version Control

  • We fixed an issue where the Git configuration dialog blocked use of the IDE and could not be closed.
  • We fixed an issue where the status of a copied then pasted file was not updated properly.

Web and Azure

  • We have added a preview support for Custom .NET Core templates added with dotnet new.
  • We fixed an issue where a Blazor WebAssembly project was not recognized as such with .NET 5 and the Browser selection was missing.
  • We have updated the .NET Core SDK to 3.1.402.

Xamarin

  • We fixed an issue where the target framework of a Xamarin.Mac full framework project kept switching back to Xamarin.Mac Modern.
  • We fixed an issue where VS for Mac was removing some default properties from Xamarin.Android projects.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 3 (8.8.0.2120)

released September 14, 2020

Shell and Tools

  • We have ported the Assembly Browser to the new Editor.
  • We have reimplemented the Errors pad and moved the build output to a separate pad.
  • We have improved overall performance and reliability.

Source Code Editing

  • We have fixed an issue where an Enum could not be used as a nullable type in generic interfaces.

Version Control

  • We fixed an issue where stashing errors were not handeled properly.
  • we fixed an issue with broken selection buttons in the 'Review and Commit' view.

Web and Azure

  • We fixed an issue with breakpoints not hitting when debugging a Blazor WebAssembly Application.

Xamarin

  • We fixed an issue where Xamarin Forms Hot Reload caused the iOS Simulator to come to foreground.
  • We fixed an issue with the iOS Simulator Window stealing focus multiple times.
  • We fixed an issue with Vector Images not appearing in Assets.xcassets.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 2 (8.8.0.1532)

released August 25, 2020

New Features

Debug Blazor WebAssembly projects

Visual Studio for Mac now includes full support for debugging Blazor WebAssembly projects, giving you the option to set breakpoints, watches, navigate your code using step and skip commands, and more.

For more information on debugging in Visual Studio for Mac, see Debugging with Visual Studio for Mac.

Web and Azure

Visual Studio 2017 For Mac C++

  • We added support for .NET 5 preview 8.
  • We added integrated support for accessing NuGet Azure DevOps package sources using the signed in account without requiring a personal access token (PAT).

Bug Fixes

Debugger

  • We fixed an issue where the debugger would prefer an imported class over a local variable with the same name.

Project System

  • We fixed an issue that prevented users from canceling a solution load operation.

Visual Studio For Mac Review

Shell and Tools

  • We improved the performance of the Assembly Viewer.

Editor

  • We fixed a problem where new F# projects would not restore and build due to the FSharp.Core NuGet package being unavailable.

Web and Azure

  • We fixed an issue with solution file generation that caused a compatibility problem with Visual Studio on Windows.
  • We fixed an issue where .razor files would incorrectly show a “Using directive is unnecessary' error.
  • We fixed an issue where IntelliSense for classes from a new Razor class library project were not available in .razor files.
  • We fixed an issue preventing Azure subscriptions being found when publishing to Azure Publish to Azure.
  • We fixed an issue where Azure subscriptions were not found.
  • We fixed a crash in the Razor editor.

Xamarin

  • We updated the Android SDK Tools path to support the new 'cmdline-tools' path.
  • Hot reload updated the minimum required Xamarin.Forms version to 4.6.0.923 when using incremental.

Other

  • We improved startup performance of the IDE.
  • We improved the performance of closing a solution.
  • We fixed an issue where vstool would not return the exact id of an extension which can then be used for disabling/enabling the extension.

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8 Preview 1 (8.8.0.493)

released August 5, 2020

Note

This release of Visual Studio for Mac now supports running on the macOS Big Sur developer beta builds. If you're already on Big Sur and can't use the updater, visit the Visual Studio for Mac website and download the installer. Mainstage 3 4 4 x 2.

Editor

  • The F# editor and language service have been updated to use the same backend as Visual Studio (Windows). This fixes a number of issues previously reported on Developer Community including:
    • F# multiply operator as a function wrongly affects color of code after.
    • F# 4.7 language features don't work.
    • Undo doesn't work.
    • Three double quotation marks are placed instead of two.
    • F# 4.7 isn't supported.
    • Editor fails on matching quote insertion.
  • We fixed an issue causing the default key binding for 'Navigate To.' to no longer work with the French keyboard.

Project System

  • We fixed an issue that resulted in an empty properties pad for files when loading AddIn projects.

Shell and Tools

  • We increased the speed of the find in files functionality.
  • We fixed an issue causing erroneous exceptions to be logged when deleting unsaved files from a project.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in multiple searches and unresponsiveness in the search experience.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio is unable to find files/classes included into a multi-target SDK style project.
  • We fixed an issue where the directory path for find in files was not set correctly.
  • We fixed an issue that prevented users drom opening assemblies in the Assembly Browser.
  • We fixed an issue that caused files to open in Visual Studio Code instead of in the hex editor when choosing to open in the hex editor.

Source Control

  • We fixed an issue where there was odd behavior when copying files under source control.
  • We fixed an issue that could cause hangs when using Git version control.
  • We fixed an issue causing version control commits to fail if Git reported fatal: LF would be replaced by CRLF.
  • We fixed an issue that disabled view history when a file that's not tracked or a project is selected in the solution pad.
  • We fixed an issue where Git integration on Visual Studio for Mac is not working.
  • We fixed an issue where deleting a file from project rolls back messing up the Source control.
  • We fixed an issue where openinig a project or switching branches on console does not always update the current branch in the project browser.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in a doesn't point at a valid Git repository or workdir. error message when working with Git.

Web and Azure

  • We fixed an issue where a new F# test project will display errors and warnings.

Xamarin

  • We fixed an issue that erroneously changed the simulator to iPad Pro for the designer if Xcode was used to open and add layouts to the Storyboard file.
  • We fixed an issue where users were unable to load Storyboards in Visual Studio for Mac.
  • We fixed an issue that resulted in Storyboard errors.
  • We fixed an issue where adding an Apple account for Xamarin.iOS is broken.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in failure to add an Apple developer account with two step authentication.
  • We fixed an issue preventing pairing with Visual Studio.
  • We fixed an issue where the Storyboard editor would not start.

Known Issues

The following is a list of all existing known issues in Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.8:

  • After installing the latest .NET 5 SDK, developers of .NET Core 3.1 apps might see an error indicating 'The ASP.NET Core developer certificate is in an invalid state.'. Running dotnet dev-certs https --clean then dotnet dev-certs https --trust from the Terminal will fix the issue.
  • Loading Blazor WebAssembly projects with .NET 5.0 RC1 is not yet supported.
  • In rare cases, it's possible to be up to date with everything but the .NET Core 3.1.300 SDK. If you enter into this configuration and update to .NET Core 3.1.300 using the updater, the notification to update the .NET Core SDK will not disappear until the IDE is restarted.
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