Xamarin: Use specific Android Version (Decrease Xamarin Version)

Question

Warning The $(TargetFrameworkVersion) for Xamarin.Forms.Platform.dll (vv8.0) is greater than the $(TargetFrameworkVersion) for your project (v7.1). You need to increase the $(TargetFrameworkVersion) for your project.

What if I don't want to use Android 8 in my Application?

How do I use older Android Versions with Xamarin generally?

I have created a new Xamarin Project and installed/configured the Android 7.1 SDK, but Visual Studio automatically installs Xamarin.Android vv8.0. I know I could upgrade to Android 8.0 and it would work perfectly fine, but since only a few Smartphones support this version, excluding my own phone, I want to work with Android 7.1 or lower.

I have not found a single real solution, only the "just upgrade to Android 8.0" one and a "delete your cache" solution that is really not that handy and does not even work for me.

Answer 1

This warning refers to the target version, setting it to a higher version doesn't prevent you from running your application on older versions.
Generally is always recommended to target and compile against the latest version.

If you want to target an older version, you need to download it from the SDK Manager (if not already installed) and set it as compile version.