xamarin-android-nuget-m2repository-issues

xamarin-android-nuget-m2repository-issues.md

Xamarin.Android Support Library NuGet m2repository manual download

1. Investigation

You may run into issues with downloading the m2repository when referencing a NuGet package of the Android Support Libraries / Google Play Services.

Example error:

Download failed. Please download https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/android_m2repository_r25.zip and put it to the C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Xamarin\{SUPPORT LIBRARY NAME}\{VERSION NUMBER} directory."

Mac Directory: /Users/[Username]/.local/share/Xamarin/

Windows Directory: C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Xamarin\

2. Folder Contents

This example will be using Windows paths. This can be applied to either OS.

• Given the following: C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Xamarin\

• A folder for each of the respective Android Support Libraries / Google Play Services will be shown.

• Each library should have a collection of versions:

Note: In this example I'm showing all of the versions of Android.Support.v4

• We will then investigate the respective version we're interested in. We should see two folders inside, content and embedded:

1. content - Contains the m2repository
2. embedded - Contains the respective .aar contents

3. Automatic Fix

• Delete the versioned library folder that is giving you errors:

Mac Directory: /Users/[Username]/.local/share/Xamarin/{SUPPORT LIBRARY NAME}/{VERSION NUMBER}

Windows Directory: C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Xamarin\{SUPPORT LIBRARY NAME}\{VERSION NUMBER}

• Rebuild your project (Which will kickoff a Build Task to re-download the library).

Note: You may already have this zip in your directory, but it could be partial or become corrupted. Please ensure you fully wipe the existing libraries as mentioned above.

4. Manual Fix

• Delete the versioned library folder that is giving you errors:

Mac Directory: /Users/[Username]/.local/share/Xamarin/{SUPPORT LIBRARY NAME}/{VERSION NUMBER}

Windows Directory: C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Xamarin\{SUPPORT LIBRARY NAME}\{VERSION NUMBER}

Note: You may already have this zip in your directory, but it could be partial or become corrupted. Please ensure you fully wipe the existing libraries as mentioned above.

There are two steps to manually fixing this error.

1. Adding the m2repository folder to the /content folder.
2. Adding the respective Android Support Library / Google Play Services .aar contents to the /embedded folder.

1. Adding the m2repository to the /content folder

Download the respective m2repository from google.

https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/android_m2repository_r25.zip

Note: This version number will vary based on your error message.

• Extract that .zip to any directory. There should now be a android_m2repository_r25 folder.
• Inside the android_m2repository_r25 folder, we have a m2repository folder.
• Place the m2repository into the {VERSION NUMBER}/content folder

2. Adding the .aar contents to the /embedded folder

• Inside the m2repository folder, there is an .aar for the support library to be resolved. It can be found in the com\android\support directory:

Example:

m2repository\com\android\support

• There should be a support-v4\{VERSION NUMBER} which will contain the .aar file.
• Extract the .aar and put the contents into the embedded folder.

Example:

• m2repository\com\android\support\support-v4\23.1.1\support-v4-23.1.1 will contain items such as a aapt, aidl, assets, libs, res, AndroidManifest.xml, annotations.zip, and classes.jar.
• Place all of the contents into the {VERSION NUMBER}/embedded folder.

5. New Manual Fix

• Get the URL of the missing m2repository download
• Use a MD5 hash on the download URL
• Rename the file to {MD5HASH}.zip (Where MD5HASH is the hashed download URL)
• Place the new hashed .zip file in your Xamarin\zips directory