Visual Studio for Mac: Guid should contain 32 digits with 4 dashes (xxxx…)

Question

I'm a noob for Visual Studio for Mac. My intention was to check out Xamarin development. My Visual Studio version is 7.3 (Build 799) Community Edition, I've installed on a MB Pro 2015 Mid model.

When I try to create a project in following way,

• Multiplatform
  • App
    • Games (iOS, Mac)
      • SpriteKit Game (2D)

And then proceeded with the steps until pressing the create button giving project name and all it just gives me the following Alert and I cannot create the project.

Updated: I found following Log by going to "Open Log Directory" menu item.

ERROR [2017-12-14 00:46:07Z]: The project could not be created
System.FormatException: Guid should contain 32 digits with 4 dashes (xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx).
  at System.Guid+GuidResult.SetFailure (System.Guid+ParseFailureKind failure, System.String failureMessageID, System.Object failureMessageFormatArgument, System.String failureArgumentName, System.Exception innerException) [0x00034] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4992/mono-mac-sdk/external/bockbuild/builds/mono-x64/mcs/class/referencesource/mscorlib/system/guid.cs:200 
  at System.Guid+GuidResult.SetFailure (System.Guid+ParseFailureKind failure, System.String failureMessageID) [0x00000] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4992/mono-mac-sdk/external/bockbuild/builds/mono-x64/mcs/class/referencesource/mscorlib/system/guid.cs:184 
  at System.Guid.TryParseGuidWithNoStyle (System.String guidString, System.Guid+GuidResult& result) [0x0000e] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4992/mono-mac-sdk/external/bockbuild/builds/mono-x64/mcs/class/referencesource/mscorlib/system/guid.cs:611 
  at System.Guid.TryParseGuid (System.String g, System.Guid+GuidStyles flags, System.Guid+GuidResult& result) [0x000f8] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4992/mono-mac-sdk/external/bockbuild/builds/mono-x64/mcs/class/referencesource/mscorlib/system/guid.cs:451 
  at System.Guid..ctor (System.String g) [0x00029] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4992/mono-mac-sdk/external/bockbuild/builds/mono-x64/mcs/class/referencesource/mscorlib/system/guid.cs:244 
  at Xamarin.AndroidDesigner.MonoDevelop.AndroidDesignerInitializer+<>c.<SupportsObject>b__1_0 (System.String g) [0x00000] in /Users/vsts/agent/2.126.0/work/3/s/Xamarin.Designer.Android/Xamarin.AndroidDesigner.MonoDevelop/AndroidDesignerInitializer.cs:23 
  at System.Linq.Enumerable.Any[TSource] (System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[T] source, System.Func`2[T,TResult] predicate) [0x0002c] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4992/mono-mac-sdk/external/bockbuild/builds/mono-x64/external/corefx/src/System.Linq/src/System/Linq/AnyAll.cs:38 
  at Xamarin.AndroidDesigner.MonoDevelop.AndroidDesignerInitializer.SupportsObject (MonoDevelop.Projects.WorkspaceObject item) [0x00014] in /Users/vsts/agent/2.126.0/work/3/s/Xamarin.Designer.Android/Xamarin.AndroidDesigner.MonoDevelop/AndroidDesignerInitializer.cs:23 
  at MonoDevelop.Projects.WorkspaceObject.InitializeExtensionChain () [0x00091] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/5402/df590420/source/monodevelop/main/src/core/MonoDevelop.Core/MonoDevelop.Projects/WorkspaceObject.cs:382 
  at MonoDevelop.Projects.WorkspaceObject.EnsureInitialized () [0x00021] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/5402/df590420/source/monodevelop/main/src/core/MonoDevelop.Core/MonoDevelop.Projects/WorkspaceObject.cs:74 
  at MonoDevelop.Projects.MSBuild.MSBuildProjectService.CreateProject (System.String typeGuid, MonoDevelop.Projects.ProjectCreateInformation info, System.Xml.XmlElement projectOptions, System.String[] flavorGuids) [0x00046] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/5402/df590420/source/monodevelop/main/src/core/MonoDevelop.Core/MonoDevelop.Projects.MSBuild/MSBuildProjectService.cs:526 
  at MonoDevelop.Projects.ProjectService.CreateProject (System.String typeAlias, MonoDevelop.Projects.ProjectCreateInformation info, System.Xml.XmlElement projectOptions, System.String[] flavorGuids) [0x00000] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/5402/df590420/source/monodevelop/main/src/core/MonoDevelop.Core/MonoDevelop.Projects/ProjectService.cs:341 
  at MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates.ProjectDescriptor.CreateItem (MonoDevelop.Projects.ProjectCreateInformation projectCreateInformation, System.String defaultLanguage) [0x0012b] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/5402/df590420/source/monodevelop/main/src/core/MonoDevelop.Ide/MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates/ProjectDescriptor.cs:140 
  at MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates.SolutionDescriptor.CreateEntry (MonoDevelop.Projects.ProjectCreateInformation projectCreateInformation, System.String defaultLanguage) [0x001e9] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/5402/df590420/source/monodevelop/main/src/core/MonoDevelop.Ide/MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates/SolutionDescriptor.cs:161 
  at MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates.ProjectTemplate.CreateWorkspaceItem (MonoDevelop.Projects.ProjectCreateInformation cInfo) [0x00000] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/5402/df590420/source/monodevelop/main/src/core/MonoDevelop.Ide/MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates/ProjectTemplate.cs:311 
  at MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates.ProjectTemplatingProvider.ProcessTemplate (MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates.DefaultSolutionTemplate template, MonoDevelop.Ide.Projects.NewProjectConfiguration config, MonoDevelop.Projects.SolutionFolder parentFolder) [0x0000e] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/5402/df590420/source/monodevelop/main/src/core/MonoDevelop.Ide/MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates/ProjectTemplatingProvider.cs:67 
  at MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates.ProjectTemplatingProvider.ProcessTemplate (MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates.SolutionTemplate template, MonoDevelop.Ide.Projects.NewProjectConfiguration config, MonoDevelop.Projects.SolutionFolder parentFolder) [0x00000] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/5402/df590420/source/monodevelop/main/src/core/MonoDevelop.Ide/MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates/ProjectTemplatingProvider.cs:58 
  at MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates.TemplatingService+<ProcessTemplate>d__13.MoveNext () [0x00024] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/5402/df590420/source/monodevelop/main/src/core/MonoDevelop.Ide/MonoDevelop.Ide.Templates/TemplatingService.cs:150 

Has anybody out there encountered this kind of an issue? Any solutions or workarounds you already have worked out?

Answer 1

So the problem seems to be that if one of the project types used by the project template is unsupported then an unknown project type is created with an empty flavor guid. This then causes an exception in the Android designer.

In this case the Xamarin.iOS project type was considered to be unsupported since Xamarin.iOS was not installed.

This seems to be a bug in Visual Studio for Mac. Either the project template should not attempt to create a Xamarin.iOS project if it is not supported, or the unknown project should be created with no flavor guids instead of using an empty string.