Pair To Mac M1 Chip From Windows Machine For MAUI iOS Development Using Visual Studio 2022 Preview

Introduction

.Net MAUI is a cross-platform framework for creating native mobile and desktop apps with c# and XAML. You can refer to my previous article for getting started with the Dotnet MAUI application. Building iOS application in Windows machine using Visual Studio 2022, will do following two approaches for debugging and build the iOS application.

1. Remote Host (Required Mac)
2. Xamarin Hot Restart (Without Mac)

In this article, I will show how to pair to Mac M1 Chip from windows machine for MAUI iOS app using Visual Studio 2022 preview. I am going to show a POC app with Visual Studio 2022 preview, you can also use the same steps in Visual Studio 2019 or 2022++ version.

Mac M1 Chip Setup

The Mac system installed Xcode 13.3 ++ and Visual Studio for mac. You have to open Xcode manually after installing so that it can add any additional components.

The mac system installed Xcode 13.3 ++ and Visual Studio for mac, You have to manually open Xcode after installing so that it can add any additional components.

You must follow below steps to enable Remote Host.

1. Select the “System preferences “.
2. Click on Sharing

You must configure remote login and follow the below configuration

1. Remote login Set as “ON”
2. Configured to allow access for all users.
3. If prompted, configure the macOS firewall.

You must connect your mac with same Wi-Fi network or wired network.

You can click on Computer icon to connect mac machine or select Tools > iOS > Pair to Mac.

if it is on the same network as the windows machine, the mac should now be discoverable by Visual studio, if the mac is still not discoverable, try manually adding a Mac.

Provide Mac name or Mac IP address which has in the remote Login preference on the Mac book.

At the prompt, enter your username and password for that machine after the IP address is entered in the above screen.

Pair to Mac uses these credentials to create a new SSH connection to the Mac, Remote Host will take care of automatically checking the connection and verifying the Mac machine setup, if any mismatch you will get the error popup and ask you resolve and retry.

When Visual Studio is connected to a Mac, that Mac's item in the Pair to Mac dialog displays an icon indicating that it is currently connected.

You will be able to see the below screen automatically. All iOS simulators are loaded after the mac connected successfully and also able to see the computer icon indicated with a green icon.

If you have any issue verify in iOS setting a windows machine, On Visual Studio > Tools > options > Select the iOS setting.

1. Verify the XCode path, make sure Xcode installed in the application folder from Mac machine
2. Remote Simulation should be on, otherwise, Simulator won’t be displayed on windows machine

Remote iOS Simulator shows up as black screen

Completely unable to use the iOS Simulator from Windows 10, only happening when using an M1-based Mac. When using an Intel-based Mac, we can successfully use the iOS simulator.

A fix for this issue is implemented by Microsoft and is being prepared for release. Microsoft will update all once it becomes available for download.

There is a workaround to force the simulator to load on the Mac M1, which works, but is certainly not a great solution and isn’t viable for many.

You can go to Tools->Options->Xamarin->iOS Settings and uncheck ‘Remote Simulator to Windows’.

The MAUI application is ready to show on iOS simulator from Mac M1 chip.

Summary

This article showed steps for how to use Pair to Mac M1 chip to connect Visual Studio 2022 preview to a Mac build host, enabling Visual Studio 2022 preview developers to build iOS applications with MAUI