Having problems seeing xamarin forms previewer on Visual Studio for Mac

Steve M 96 Reputation points
2021-03-26T00:06:33.967+00:00

Hi all,

I have been working on learning Xamarin using Visual Studio for Mac 8.9.3
It has the following packages installed:

  • NetStandard.Library 2.0.3
  • Xamarin.Essentials 1.6.1
  • Xamarin.Forms 5.0

I have been working on some Xamarin tutorials and the Xamarin Forms Previewer was showing at the bottom bar where I can look at code, design or split so I can see changes I make within the XAML file.

Recently there was a Visual Studio crash and I selected repair to fix and bring it back up. After I reopened my project in VS I noticed I no longer had the Xamarin Forms Previewer available.
I have searched the internet to see if I can find and fix my issue but so far nothing seems to work.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled and updated the above packages to no avail.

At this point I am thinking of reinstalling VS for Mac but wanted to ask if there is anything else that can be done.

Thank you!

Xamarin
Xamarin
A Microsoft open-source app platform for building Android and iOS apps with .NET and C#.
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  1. JessieZhang-MSFT 7,706 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2021-03-26T06:57:25.52+00:00

    Hello,

    Welcome to our Microsoft Q&A platform!

    The XAML Previewer has been deprecated in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8 and Visual Studio for Mac version 8.8, and replaced by the XAML Hot Reload feature in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.9 and Visual Studio for Mac version 8.9. Refer : XAML Previewer for Xamarin.Forms

    XAML Hot Reload plugs into your existing workflow to increase your productivity and save you time. With Hot Reload, when you save your XAML file the changes are reflected live in your running app.

    Learn more about XAML Hot Reload in the documentation.

    Best Regards,

    Jessie Zhang

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