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Visual Studio Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.4 Release Notes



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For information on the system requirements see the see Mac System Requirements and Mac Platform Targeting and Compatibility guides.

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


What's New in Visual Studio 2019 for Mac

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac Releases

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac Blog Posts

The Visual Studio Blog is the official source of product insight from the Visual Studio Engineering Team. You can find in-depth information about the Visual Studio 2019 for Mac releases in the following posts:


Release Highlights

  • This release adds support for .NET Core 3.1.100.
  • This release focuses on improving the overall experience using assistive technologies in Visual Studio for Mac.
  • This release brings additional features for .NET Core developers including:
    • Scaffolding support for ASP.NET Core projects.
    • The ability to develop and publish ASP.NET Core Blazor Server applications.
    • Editor refinement, including support for .razor files.
    • Pack support for creating NuGet packages from .NET Core library projects.

Known Issues

Refer to the Known Issues section.


Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.4.8 (8.4.8.2)

released March 3, 2020

This service release fixes the following issues:

  • Templates are missing after updating Azure Functions templates and restarting Visual Studio for Mac.

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.4.7 (8.4.7.17)

released February 25, 2020

This service release addresses a number of additional accessibility issues and also fixes the following issues:

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.4.6 (8.4.6.36)

released February 19, 2020

This service release addresses a number of additional accessibility issues and also fixes the following issues:

  • Can't expand a list item in the Review Solution and Commit page after doing a Update Solution command.

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.4.5 (8.4.5.19)

released February 10, 2020

This service release fixes the following issues:

  • MVC scaffolding doesn't include "MVC Controller with views, using Entity Framework" scaffolder.
  • Scaffolding in a ASP.NET Core project uses LocalDB instead of Sqlite leading to PlatformNotFoundException.

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.4.4 (8.4.4.91)

released February 4, 2020

This release of Visual Studio 2019 for Mac brings a refreshed color palette, new icons, and updated warning and error status messages. Color contrast ratios for text and icons have been increased to improve clarity. Visual Studio for Mac also now fully suports macOS High Contrast Mode.

In addition to the visual changes, this release of Visual Studio 2019 for Mac has made a number changes to increase overall accessibility of the IDE. These include:

  • Improvements to focus order and visibility when using VoiceOver in the debugger, NuGet Package Manager and project options dialog.
  • Areas previously inaccessible by keyboard navigation, such as the pin and eye icon, are now navigable by keyboard.
  • Enhanced feedback from VoiceOver for debugger status.
  • "Project created" was not previously announced and now is.
  • Fixes to the NuGet Package Manager that allow keyboard access to the Browse, Installed, Update and Consolidate tabs.
  • VoiceOver now announces the selected version in the NuGet "New version" dropdown.
  • VoiceOver now announces more information when using version control, the publish to Azure feature, and in a number of additional areas.
  • New PList editor source view implementation with improved keyboard navigation and VoiceOver support.

This service release also fixes the following issues:

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.4.3 (8.4.3.12)

released January 28, 2020

This service release fixes the following issues:

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.4.2 (8.4.2.59)

released January 21, 2020

This service release fixes the following issues:

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.4.1 (8.4.1.2)

released January 14, 2020

This service release fixes the following issues:

  • We fixed an issue where the bottom toolbar in the Xamarin Designer is being cut off.
  • We addressed a high volume crash.

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.4 (8.4.0.2657)

released January 8, 2020

New Features

Accessibility

We made a number of changes to improve the accessibility of Visual Studio for Mac in this release including:

  • Increasing contrast for text and icons throughout the IDE.
  • Improving keyboard navigation and shortcuts.
  • Refining focus order when navigating using assistive technologies.
  • Reducing the number of steps needed to move between certain elements on the Start Page while using VoiceOver.
  • The "Pin button" on the Start Page can now be accessed with VoiceOver.
  • Improving VoiceOver dictation and navigation throughout the IDE in the following areas and more:
    • Recently used templates page
    • Font picker
    • Document view tabs
    • Global Search Results
    • Code editor
    • Code snippets
    • Updater
    • Version control
    • Project options
  • Mitigating keyboard traps in Xamarin designer property panels and made previously inaccessible areas in those property panels accessible.
  • Completely rewriting previously inaccessible IDE components to make them accessible.

Web and Azure

Editor

  • All files should now open in the new editor unless legacy editor is explicitly needed.
  • We fixed some performance leaks in the editor.
  • We updated to use the latest FSharp.CompilerService.
  • We improved support for .csx files.
  • We have added support for TypeScript 3.7, with new features like Optional Chaining and Nullish Coalescing.
  • Blazor support has improved IntelliSense and debugger integration.

Shell

  • We have added a native and fully accessible (keyboard and VoiceOver) property pad control from the Android designer to the shell and enabled it by default for all solution items.

    New editor features Graphic
    New editor features in Visual Studio for Mac

Debugger

  • We have implemented native controls for the debugger tooltips, locals pad and watch pads, and the exception caught dialog which allowed for us to re-enable pinned watches in the editor.

Xamarin

  • XAML Hot Reload for Xamarin.Forms is now on by default and built-in to the IDE. To learn more about XAML Hot Reload, see the XAML Hot Reload documentation.
  • You can now create Android App Bundles when publishing your Android applications in Visual Studio. App Bundles provide users with with optimized APKs per their device specifications when downloading an app from the Google Play Store or various Android App Stores.
  • You can now use an AndroidX migration wizard to convert your existing Android application to AndroidX from the Android Support Library.
  • You are now provided a set of common issues when editing your layouts inside the Android designer.

Installer

  • The installer now supports dark theme.
  • The installer will now clean up older minor versions of .NET Core that were previously installed using the installer.
  • HAXM and AVD creation support have been removed from the installer. Creation of AVDs should be done using Visual Studio for Mac's device manager.
  • The installer, and Visual Studio for Mac, no longer supports macOS Sierra.

Bug Fixes

Shell and Tools

We fixed the following issues with the IDE:

Editor

We fixed the following issues with editing source code:

Web and Azure

We fixed the following issues with .NET Core support:

We fixed the following issues with Azure Functions support:

  • Azure Functions was missing templates for AzureFunctionsVersion, v2.

Version Control

We fixed the following issues with Version Control:

  • Cancelling an SVN checkout can accidentally delete user files.

Project System

We fixed the following issues with Projects:

  • Manually adding DefaultTargets to csproj gets overridden when VS modifies the project.
  • Inconsistent naming for removal on files and projects.
  • Project context menu is missing "Add Reference".
  • Renaming a file in the solution pad does not re-apply nesting rules.
  • Change title of window from "Edit References" to "References".
  • Project model reports wrong references for certain projects.
  • We fixed an issue where Define Constants would not be defined correctly when defined in imported projects.
  • We fixed an issue where Visual Studio for Mac could get stuck in a loop saving a project that was under source control.

Debugging

We fixed the following issues with Debugging:

  • We added a missing "Debug All Tests" command.
  • Hovering over an expression may change the value of variables in the .NET Core debugger.
  • Opening the Exception Caught dialog makes the IDE hang.
  • We fixed an issue where pinning properties in debug doesn't work.

Xamarin

We fixed the following issues with the Xamarin support:

Testing

We fixed the following issues with Testing:

Installer

We squashed a handful of behind-the-scenes bugs in the installer.

Updater

We fixed the following issues with the updater:

  • Progress indicator was empty after an unsuccessful download.
  • Updater does not wait for IDE to exit before installing updates.

Known Issues

  • After adding a new file using the Razor Component file template, the project may fail to build. The issue is caused by some unneeded elements in the project file (.csproj file), remove elements referencing the new file from the project file, and the project should build successfully.
  • When developing ASP.NET Core projects, if .NET Core SDK 3.1 Preview is installed, https connections may be refused. The browser may not launch, or when using docker, certificate errors are shown. To workaround this, run the following commands in the terminal; dotnet dev-certs https —clean and then dotnet dev-certs https —trust.
  • Pressing backspace does not delete a watch from the Watches pad.

Feedback and 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.


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