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I noticed today after setting up a new Mac and trying to connect with Visual Studio 2015 that visual studio was unable to connect to the default build agent that displayed when detecting Mac build agents for Xamarin.

Here is what exactly I did: Connected new MacMini to network and installed Xamarin.Mac,IOS.

Created new solution to create IOS application using Xamarin in VS 2015.

Attempted to detect a build agent from the list.

Visual studio correctly detected the mac agent on the network(connected through wifi). (see image below, the second item in the list was in the list upon launch) enter image description here However, when trying to enter my credentials in the "Connect to Mac" modal, it failed. Oddly enough as well the spinner with caption "Retreiving SSH fingerprint" took quite a while to resolve.

I noticed that I could workaround the issue by clicking "Add Mac" in the Xamarin Mac Agent modal and manually entering the IP. This was the only way to workaround it. (see the image for that one in the list as well)

Also, Visual Studio is UNABLE to remove this default item from the list as well which seems rather odd. Why is this issue happening?

Judy007
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  • Might be useful to take a look at the official troubleshooting guide as well: https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/ios/getting_started/installation/windows/connecting-to-mac/troubleshooting/ – Dominic Apr 10 '16 at 00:06

3 Answers3

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I encountered this exact same issue 2 days ago when bringing out my old Visual Studio/Xamarin build combo from financially induced coma, courtesy of Xamarin now being free:

My solution was to make sure that every single component was up to date on the latest versions:

  • Visual Studio 2015 with Xamarin

  • Xamarin Studio on the build Mac

  • Xcode 7.3 on the build Mac.

Only when those download/installs were done and the usual reboot dance had been finished, did the connection go smoothly.

However, I too still see the <build Mac> and <build Mac>.local in my choices. I simply chose the first one and stopped worrying about it.

Marakai
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  • This was my case as well. My Xamarin in Mac was 15.2 and on my Windows was 15.1. After I have upgraded my Xamarin in Windows everything started working. Just followed [this](https://xamarinhelp.com/troubleshooting-connecting-xamarin-mac-agent/) link – Oybek Jun 27 '17 at 08:44
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I passed two days trying to resolve this problem and finally got it!!!

The solution:

On your Mac:

1) Download the Xamarin Studio for Mac by Xamarin website:

https://www.xamarin.com/download

The Xamarin Studio will install all necessary components.

2) If you already have Xamarin Studio installed on Mac, run it and go to menu "Xamarin Studio Community" and after click in "Check updates". Update all.  ;)

On your Windows

1) Open Visual Studio
Menu Tools => Options => Find option Xamarin in left side of window  => under find the option "Other" and click it

2) On right side, on dropdown field select the option "Stable" and click in "Check now".

Ready! You need only await the downloads on Mac and on Windows to be completed.

My suffering

I tried to change many (MANY!!!!!!) network settings, change files on Mac, change files on Windows, I created an virtual machine with OSX following suggestions in forums.

But in the end was it that resolved.

Good luck for all of us! Hugs!

Rafael Botelho
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Your ssh connection may be slow because the SSH server tries to reverse dns the connecting's machine's name. Using the IP address directly prevents it.

To disable ssh reverse dns lookup in the mac, edit the ssh config file and uncomment the "UseDNS no" line:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config 
CTRL-W UseDNS 
uncomment the line by removing the # 
CTRL-X then Y to save the file. 
Reboot the mac.
Softlion
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  • Thank you SoftLion. I will check to see if this rectifies the issue. I appreciate your response. – Judy007 Apr 12 '16 at 20:24
  • Thank you so much. I have spent the last few days trying everything to get the iOS preview working and this was the only thing that worked. – Bailey S Nov 22 '20 at 15:27