How to change the .NET framework of a Xamarin project in Visual Studio

Question

I am working on an app and I would like to change its .NET framework. Normally that would be under Properties->Application but I couldn't find it anywhere for Android or iOS applications.

I am aware that I can create a new project and specify it then (as can be seen in the picture), but there must be a different way to change it.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It's Xamarin's decision to lock down Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android projects to use .NET 4.5 profile by default, which enables huge benefits to be compatible with Microsoft. Unless Microsoft creates 4.6 or 5.0 profile, there is never a need for you to switch.

You can read from multiple locations the similar statements, such as "Now our class libraries are based on the .NET 4.5 profile",

http://docs.xamarin.com/releases/ios/xamarin.ios_6/xamarin.ios_6.3/

That's the obvious evidence.

Answer 2

The reason is that neither Android or iOS offer different versions of the .NET framework, there is only one profile, that we call the "Mobile Profile".

The Mobile Profile is basically .NET 4.5 without System.Configuration and its dependencies and has been further tuned to work on mobile devices.