Xamarin Forms Android Error: Please install package 'Android Support Library'

Question

I recently uploaded my project to Git, and used a auto-generated Xamarin/Windows/MacOS/VisualStudio .gitignore file. I did a lot of work and testing on iOS, but now I\'m com

Answer 1

In order to resolve this issue, I did following:

1) In my Xamarin.Forms project that was failing to build Android project, I removed all packages added by Xamarin.Forms package including Xamarin.forms package itself. In fact, I believe, you have to remove it first in order to remove others. Note you have to play bit to figure out which one will remove until you can remove its dependants. Simple thing to do!

2) Exit Xamarin Studio

3) I then went to my /Users/user_name/.local/share/Xamarin/Xamarin.Android.Support.v4/23.3.0.0/ directory and deleted whole zip folder and all Xamarin.Android.* folders (* is wild card for anyting)

4) Start Xamarin Studio

5) Delete all bin and obj directories in all projects of your solution (in my case Android, IOS and Xamarin.Forms projects)

6) Right click on Packages in your Android project, Add Package..., search for Xamarin.Forms and add it. This will add bunch of other dependant packages. In my case, following were added:

• Xamarin.Android.Support.Animated.Vector.Drawable
  • Xamarin.Android.Support.Design
  • Xamarin.Android.Support.v4
  • Xamarin.Android.Support.v7.AppCompat
  • Xamarin.Android.Support.v7.CardView
  • Xamarin.Android.Support.v7.MediaRouter
  • Xamarin.Android.Support.v7.RecyclerView
  • Xamarin.Android.Support.Vector.Drawable
  • Xamarin.Forms

7) Clean All

8) Rebuild All

Before this, I was getting about 20 errors no matter what I try, all of them relating to Android.Support.Library.v4 and number of files missing in mine /Users/user_name/.local/share/Xamarin/Xamarin.Android.Support.v4/23.3.0.0/content and /Users/user_name/.local/share/Xamarin/Xamarin.Android.Support.v4/23.3.0.0/embedded directories. The error was along the lines "Please install package: 'Android Support Library' available in SDK installer."