Xamarin VS2019 cannot test iOS app using paired mac

Question

I have a xamarin project in VS2019 on a windows pc, that I am trying to test on a paired mac.

When I try to start testing the app in the simulator I get the following message:

Xamarin Simulator

Failed to install //Users/administrator/Library/Caches/Xamarin/mtbs/buildsxxx.Touch/c186893d4554f91f3322b4d0409a1518/bin/iPhoneSimulator/Debug/xxxTouch.app to D18C5658-ECBB-4492-A7B9-14710340A89F. The app directory '/Users/administrator/Library/Caches/Xamarin/mtbs/builds/xxx.Touch/c186893d4554f91f3322b4d0409a1518/bin/iPhoneSimulator/Debug/xxxTouch.app' does not exist.

What is meant by this? Does it mean there are no built files on the mac? Is there a folder missing in the iPhone simulator?

Sometimes I do also get the following error:

Could not find any available provisioning profiles for ApplicationName on iOS.

Is it really necessary to have this provisioning since I just want to test it on a virtual device? I am running the app using the debug profile and the iPhoneSimulator

Thanks for any help!

Make sure that the version of IDE (VS and Xcode) are up to date . — Lucas Zhang
VS has the latest version (Version 16.6.3) and XCode is a fresh install (11.5). Is this sufficient? I see there is also a v12 for xcode now — bluedot
Make sure that you had created a provisioning profiles in your apple account and download it to local mac . — Lucas Zhang

bluedot bluedot · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-13T09:33:33

Thank you for the suggestions!, Finally I was able to get it to work simply by using the automatic provisioning in the IOS bundle signing project properties tab.

I read that you could not use this option without a apple developer program account. I don't have a developer program account, but it seems to work nonetheless.

Xamarin VS2019 cannot test iOS app using paired mac

1 Answers