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Missing Visual Studio extensions after installation

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Error Message: This project is incompatible with the current edition of Visual Studio

Ensure Visual Studio 2017 (Community, Professional or Enterprise) or newer is installed.

See also the Windows requirements.

Possible Fix 1: Change the installation to make sure the Visual Studio extensions are installed

In certain situations, the Xamarin installer might automatically un-check the install options for the Visual Studio extensions. If that's the cause of the problem, install the missing Visual Studio extensions using the installer's Change command. For example, to install the extensions for Visual Studio 2013:

  1. Open the Windows Programs and Features Control Panel.

  2. Right click the Xamarin entry, and select Change.

  3. Click Next, then Change.

  4. Make sure the Xamarin for Visual Studio 2013 option is set to install:

    Enable Xamarin for Visual Studio 2013 installation option

  5. Proceed through the rest of the installer wizard.

Possible Fix 2: Ask Visual Studio to set up the extensions again

  1. Check if the Xamarin extensions have been copied into the Visual Studio extensions folder:

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Xamarin\Xamarin\3.1.228.0

    If the extensions are properly installed (for version 3.1.228), there will be 60 items in the folder:

    List of Xamarin\3.1.228.0 folder contents in Explorer

  2. After you have confirmed that this folder looks correct, tell Visual Studio to try setting up the extensions again:

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /setup

Possible Fix 3: Try a fresh reinstall of Xamarin

  1. From the Windows Control Panel, uninstall any of the following that are present:

    • Xamarin

    • Xamarin for Windows

    • Xamarin.Android

    • Xamarin.iOS

    • Xamarin for Visual Studio

  2. In Explorer, delete any remaining files from the Xamarin Visual Studio extension folders (all versions, including both Program Files and Program Files (x86)):

    C:\Program Files*\Microsoft Visual Studio 1*.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Xamarin

  3. Also check in the "VirtualStore" directory to see if there might be any "overlay" copies of any of the extension directories:

    %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore

  4. Open the registry editor (regedit).

  5. Look for this key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDlls

  6. Find and delete any entries that match this pattern:

    C:\Program Files*\Microsoft Visual Studio 1*.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Xamarin

  7. Look for this key:

    HKEY\_CURRENT\_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\1\*.0\ExtensionManager\PendingDeletions

  8. Delete any entries that look like they might be related to Xamarin. For example, here's one that used to cause trouble in older versions of Xamarin:

    Mono.VisualStudio.Shell,1.0

  9. Reboot.

  10. Reinstall the current stable version of Xamarin from visualstudio.com.

Possible Fix 4: Repair Visual Studio installation

  1. Open the Windows Programs and Features Control Panel.

  2. Right click the relevant Microsoft Visual Studio entry, and select Change

  3. Click the Repair button in the Visual Studio dialog that opens.