Updating from MAUI .NET 7 to .NET 8

[MouratidisA]

I am currently working on a project in MAUI .NET 7, and I was wondering if it is time to update to .NET 8 to improve various bugs, performance and maybe the overall development experience.

I am using Visual Studio for mac, should I change to Windows pc to use the .NET 8 in Visual Studio, because Visual Studio for mac is scheduled for retirement by August 31, 2024…?

Any advice would be appreciated!

[nikamvd]

I migrated my project from .NET 7 to .NET 8; however for me many things has started breaking. UI is all distorted and feels like I'm again back to step where I migrated project from Xamarin.Forms to .NET 7. Any feedback from experts is appreciated.

[davidortinau]

@nikamvd please share some specifics about the UI breakage you've experienced.

[davidortinau]

@MouratidisA VS Mac works with .NET 8 if you enable the preview feature flag I the preferences, and will continue to work with .NET 8 even after the retirement. I definitely encourage you to use .NET 8.

[MouratidisA]

@davidortinau You're right, there is a preview feature for using .NET 8!
I was wondering if I could work with MAUI .NET 8 from my Mac after the retirement (because sources point that the best approach is to have a Windows pc for the Visual Studio) ?

[MouratidisA]

Just followed, Upgrading .NET MAUI from .NET 7 to .NET 8 and everything works well!!

Useful note:

1. Commit and push everything about your project (safety first)
2. Enable the preview feature flag on your VS Mac preferences, "Use the .NET 8 SDK if installed (requires restart)"
3. Install the .Net 8 for your Mac
4. run sudo dotnet workload install maui on your terminal
5. Delete bin and obj folders from your project
6. Update your NuGet packages

From my experience, I had to:

• Remove <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="24" android:targetSdkVersion="33" /> from my Android manifest.xml to resolve issues with the minSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion.
• Create a new attrs.xml file in "projectName/Platforms/Android/Resources/values" with the following content:

<resources> <declare-styleable name='SKCanvasView'> <attr name='ignorePixelScaling' format='boolean'/> </declare-styleable> </resources>

• Reimport missing images and assets in the .csproj file.

[abdullahraiyyan]

I really appreciate the steps you provided. Upgrading to.NET 8 with.NET MAUI was a breeze because of your guide. As long as I followed your instructions, everything went smoothly.
By the way, you mentioned creating a new attrs.xml file. Could you elaborate on the necessity of this specific step? Just trying to figure out what it's for.

[MouratidisA]

@abdullahraiyyan the attrs.xml file resolves an issue with SKCanvasView :
Could not find Android Resource '@styleable/SKCanvasView'. Please update to add the missing resource.

While searching for a solution, I found this SkiaSharp .Net 8 is supported? , and followed the proposed workaround.

They probably fixed the issue, so after upgrading all your packages, give it a try and remove the file.