.Net 9 iOS Wrong XCode (workload?) Resolved

[epsmae]

Description

Seems like the workloads are not correctly resolved, .Net 9 picks up the latest XCode 26.0
Used global json

{
  "sdk": {
    "version": "9.0.304",
    "allowPrerelease": false,
    "rollForward": "disable"
  }
}

Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net9.0_26.0/26.0.9752/targets/Xamarin.Shared.Sdk.targets(2346,3): error : This version of .NET for iOS (26.0.9752) requires Xcode 26.0. The current version of Xcode is 16.4. Either install Xcode 26.0, or use a different version of .NET for iOS. See https://aka.ms/xcode-requirement for more information.

Two weeks ago the same build used to work.
I also tried the 9.0.305, it only happens if I freshly install it.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Add global json as above
2. delete current dotnet version, including workloads
3. Install dotnet 9.0.304 again
4. dotnet new maui
5. ensure xcode 16.4 is selected
6. try build and deploy

Link to public reproduction project repository

No response

Version with bug

9.0.110 SR11

Is this a regression from previous behavior?

Yes, this used to work in .NET MAUI

Last version that worked well

9.0.110 SR11

Affected platforms

iOS

Affected platform versions

No response

Did you find any workaround?

No response

Relevant log output

[TedMobile]

I have the same issue - Pipeline was working yesterday, but not today . Any ideas anyone? @rolfbjarne - any suggestions? I am meant to deliver to a client today and I cannot build now

[bcaceiro]

Facing the same issue

[gabsamples6]

Facing the same issue

[rolfbjarne]

Try adding this to your global.json:

{
  "sdk": {
    "workloadVersion": "9.0.305"
  }
}

This will pin the workloads to the previous ones (which for iOS is the last one with Xcode 16.4 support: https://github.com/dotnet/macios/releases/tag/dotnet-9.0.1xx-xcode16.5-9219).

Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/dotnet-workload-sets#use-globaljson-for-the-workload-set-version

[TedMobile]

@rolfbjarne that worked! thank you - saved the day! totally missed that link

[epsmae]

@rolfbjarne I expected to stay this the same as I use a global json with roll forward disabled. Is my assumption wrong?

Would you suggest that we always use global json like that in order to have deterministic builds?

{
  "sdk": {
    "version": "9.0.304",
    "workloadVersion": "9.0.304",
    "allowPrerelease": false,
    "rollForward": "disable"
  }
}

If it helps my last successful build was with manifest "9.0.300-manifests.993c7b89".

17:39:11 [DBG] Id      Date                             Command           Workloads                               Global.json Version      Workload Version          
17:39:11 [DBG] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17:39:11 [DBG] 1       1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM +00:00      InitialState                                                                       9.0.300-manifests.70d87660
17:39:11 [DBG] 2       9/25/2025 5:38:15 PM +02:00      restore           maui-tizen, maui-ios, maui-android                               9.0.300-manifests.993c7b89

[maroy1986]

Pinning workloadVersion didn't work for me, it breaks further down the line. I made a successful build last Friday, but this morning it doesn't work anymore, and nothing has changed since last Friday. In fact, I'm trying to build the same branch that was built last week. It also use the same image on my Azure DevOps pipeline that it used last Friday which is 20250928.1958 for MacOS-15 image.

My global.json file looks like this (with the added workloadVersion from this morning) :

{
    "sdk": {
      "version": "9.0.305",
      "workloadVersion": "9.0.305",
      "allowPrerelease": false,
      "rollForward": "disable"
    }
  }

I got multiple builds failing this morning because of something that changed during the weekend on Microsoft's end. I don't know what it is, but I found this very frustrating and unacceptable to wake up to broken builds like this because something changed in the dependencies.

Here's the logs my pipelines are throwing this morning

Finished external tool execution dotnet/maui#2 in 00:00:01.6633040 and with exit code 1.
  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
  <plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
  	<key>com.apple.ibtool.errors</key>
  	<array>
  		<dict>
  			<key>description</key>
  			<string>Unrecognized commandline options: "16.4" and "/Users/runner/work/1/s/src/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor/obj/Release-Mobile/net9.0-ios/ios-arm64/resizetizer/sp/MauiSplash.storyboard". Either unrecognized options were passed, or multiple input documents were passed when only one was expected.</string>
  		</dict>
  	</array>
  </dict>
  </plist>
  
  
##[error]/Users/runner/hostedtoolcache/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net9.0_18.5/18.5.9219/tools/msbuild/Xamarin.Shared.targets(847,3): Error : /usr/bin/xcrun exited with code 1
        
/Users/runner/hostedtoolcache/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net9.0_18.5/18.5.9219/tools/msbuild/Xamarin.Shared.targets(847,3): error : /usr/bin/xcrun exited with code 1 [/Users/runner/work/1/s/src/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor.csproj::TargetFramework=net9.0-ios]
/Users/runner/hostedtoolcache/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net9.0_18.5/18.5.9219/tools/msbuild/Xamarin.Shared.targets(847,3): error :          [/Users/runner/work/1/s/src/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor.csproj::TargetFramework=net9.0-ios]
##[error]/Users/runner/hostedtoolcache/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net9.0_18.5/18.5.9219/tools/msbuild/Xamarin.Shared.targets(847,3): Error : ibtool exited with code 1
        
/Users/runner/hostedtoolcache/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net9.0_18.5/18.5.9219/tools/msbuild/Xamarin.Shared.targets(847,3): error : ibtool exited with code 1 [/Users/runner/work/1/s/src/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor.csproj::TargetFramework=net9.0-ios]
/Users/runner/hostedtoolcache/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net9.0_18.5/18.5.9219/tools/msbuild/Xamarin.Shared.targets(847,3): error :          [/Users/runner/work/1/s/src/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor.csproj::TargetFramework=net9.0-ios]
##[error]obj/Release-Mobile/net9.0-ios/ios-arm64/resizetizer/sp/MauiSplash.storyboard(0,0): Error : Unrecognized commandline options: "16.4" and "/Users/runner/work/1/s/src/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor/obj/Release-Mobile/net9.0-ios/ios-arm64/resizetizer/sp/MauiSplash.storyboard". Either unrecognized options were passed, or multiple input documents were passed when only one was expected.
obj/Release-Mobile/net9.0-ios/ios-arm64/resizetizer/sp/MauiSplash.storyboard : ibtool error : Unrecognized commandline options: "16.4" and "/Users/runner/work/1/s/src/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor/obj/Release-Mobile/net9.0-ios/ios-arm64/resizetizer/sp/MauiSplash.storyboard". Either unrecognized options were passed, or multiple input documents were passed when only one was expected. [/Users/runner/work/1/s/src/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor/**REDACTED**.MauiBlazor.csproj::TargetFramework=net9.0-ios]

Build FAILED.

I insist on the fact that this wasn't an issue last Friday, made multiple builds during the day without any issues.

[rolfbjarne]

@maroy1986 does that happen both locally and on Azure DevOps, or only on Azure DevOps? Could you provide an MSBuild binlog that shows the error?

[gerritCarat]

For us similiar problems. Locally everything works fine since we have that global.json.
But I can't get our pipeline working.

- job:
    displayName: iOS Integration
    dependsOn: pepareParametersIOSCI
    pool:
      vmImage: "macOS-15"
      demands:
        - MSBuild

mac-os-15-readme
The documentation is stating Xcode 16.4 (default). But it's trying to load 26.0.

Users/runner/hostedtoolcache/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net9.0_26.0/26.0.9752/targets/Xamarin.Shared.Sdk.targets(2346,3): error : This version of .NET for iOS (26.0.9752) requires Xcode 26.0. The current version of Xcode is 16.4. Either install Xcode 26.0, or use a different version of .NET for iOS. See https://aka.ms/xcode-requirement for more information. ...

Multiple attempts like this one:

- task: UseDotNet@2
  displayName: 'Install .NET SDK'
  inputs:
    packageType: 'sdk'
    version: '9.0.305'

- script: |
    dotnet workload install maui
    dotnet workload restore
  displayName: 'Install .NET MAUI workloads'

Didn't do the job sadly.

error MSB4242: SDK Resolver Failure: "The SDK resolver "Microsoft.DotNet.MSBuildWorkloadSdkResolver" failed while attempting to resolve the SDK "Microsoft.NET.SDK.WorkloadAutoImportPropsLocator". Exception: "System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Workload version 9.0.305, which was specified in /Users/runner/work/1/s/apps/maui/global.json, was not found. Run "dotnet workload restore" to install this workload version. [/Users/runner/work/1/s/apps/maui/src/KitchenAssembly.MAUI.csproj]

Has the hosted macOS-15 VM changed in anyway?

[TedMobile]

@gerritCarat below worked for me with workloadVersion=9.0.305 and xCode=16.4 - but I have heard people that worked with xcode 26.0.1 without the workload version using the latest.

- task: CmdLine@2
  displayName: Install workload
  inputs:
    script: |
      dotnet nuget locals all 
      dotnet workload install maui --version ${{ parameters.workloadVersion }}
      dotnet workload install ios --version ${{ parameters.workloadVersion }}

[yuriy-lentsevich]

- name: Install iOS workload (pin bundled manifests)
  run: dotnet workload install ios --skip-manifest-update true
  env:
    DOTNET_WORKLOAD_SKIP_MANIFEST_UPDATE: true

[maroy1986]

@maroy1986 does that happen both locally and on Azure DevOps, or only on Azure DevOps? Could you provide an MSBuild binlog that shows the error?

Well, this is very odd, but I was in the process of running the build with more logging details, and the pipeline just went through. I didn't change anything else besides locking the Workload SDK, which I've done before posting here this morning.

I'm kinda lost now, but that works now. I hate not having a logical explanation.

[brunck]

I got AzDO (macos-15 image) to work using this and I specify using Xcode 16.4 specifically in a build task like so:

sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode_16.4.app/Contents/Developer

Try adding this to your global.json:

{
"sdk": {
"workloadVersion": "9.0.305"
}
}
This will pin the workloads to the previous ones (which for iOS is the last one with Xcode 16.4 support: https://github.com/dotnet/macios/releases/tag/dotnet-9.0.1xx-xcode16.5-9219).

Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/dotnet-workload-sets#use-globaljson-for-the-workload-set-version