NETSDK1139: The target platform identifier android was not recognized on windows-2022 image version 20241113.3.0

[jamescrosswell]

Describe the bug

We started getting this error when running dotnet restore on our Windows runners for any projects targeting net8.0-android 2 days ago:

C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\8.0.404\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.TargetFrameworkInference.targets(117,5): error NETSDK1139: The target platform identifier android was not recognized. [D:\a\sentry-dotnet\sentry-dotnet\src\Sentry\Sentry.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-android]

To Reproduce

We don't consistently get this error for the same commit. For example in this build run you can see that in Attempt 1, dotnet restore succeeded. However dotnet restore failed a second attempt on exactly the same commit.

As @bdach pointed out, the difference appears to be in the specific image version:

	Successful Run	Failed Run
Runner image version	20241021.1.0	20241113.3.0

Expected behavior

I'd expect the build runs to be deterministic. If we run the same GitHub Actions workflow with the same commit on the same runner, we should get the same result.

.NET 8 is definitely installed on the runner as are the maui workloads. So the error itself seems erroneous and misleading.

Runner Version and Platform

windows-latest version: '2.320.0'`

What's not working?

Here's an example of a run that (would have) succeeded... you can see the Restore .NET dependencies step has succeeded. This just runs dotnet restore against our solution (which has some projects that target net8.0-android).

After I saw that step had succeeded, I cancelled the run and tried again. Here's a retry of exactly the same commit that failed:

And here's a small sample of the log output for that step on the failed attempt:

Run dotnet restore Sentry-CI-Build-Windows.slnf --nologo
  dotnet restore Sentry-CI-Build-Windows.slnf --nologo
  shell: C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\pwsh.EXE -command ". '{0}'"
  env:
    XCODE_VERSION: 16
    DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT: 1
    DOTNET_NOLOGO: 1
    JAVA_HOME: C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Java_Temurin-Hotspot_jdk\11.0.[2](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:2)5-9\x64
    JAVA_HOME_17_X64: C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Java_Temurin-Hotspot_jdk\17.0.1[3](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:3)-11\x64
    ANDROID_HOME: C:\Android\android-sdk
    ANDROID_SDK_ROOT: C:\Android\android-sdk
    JAVA_HOME_11_X6[4](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:4): C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Java_Temurin-Hotspot_jdk\11.0.2[5](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:5)-9\x64
    DOTNET_ROOT: C:\Program Files\dotnet
    JAVA_HOME_11: C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Java_Temurin-Hotspot_jdk\11.0.25-9\x[6](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:6)4
  Determining projects to restore...
  Downloading from "https://downloads.sentry-cdn.com/sentry-cli/2.38.2/sentry-cli-Windows-x86_64.exe" to "D:\a\sentry-dotnet\sentry-dotnet\tools\sentry-cli\2.38.2\sentry-cli-Windows-x86_64.exe" (8[7](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:7)79264 bytes).
  Downloading from "https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/io/sentry/sentry-android-core/7.17.0/sentry-android-core-7.17.0.aar" to "D:\a\sentry-dotnet\sentry-dotnet\src\Sentry.Bindings.Android\obj\sdks\Sentry\Android\7.17.0\sentry-android-core-7.17.0.aar" (279716 bytes).
  Downloading from "https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/io/sentry/sentry-android-ndk/7.17.0/sentry-android-ndk-7.17.0.aar" to "D:\a\sentry-dotnet\sentry-dotnet\src\Sentry.Bindings.Android\obj\sdks\Sentry\Android\7.17.0\sentry-android-ndk-7.17.0.aar" (1632731 bytes).
  Downloading from "https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/io/sentry/sentry-android-replay/7.17.0/sentry-android-replay-7.17.0.aar" to "D:\a\sentry-dotnet\sentry-dotnet\src\Sentry.Bindings.Android\obj\sdks\Sentry\Android\7.17.0\sentry-android-replay-7.17.0.aar" (253397 bytes).
  Downloading from "https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/io/sentry/sentry/7.17.0/sentry-7.17.0.jar" to "D:\a\sentry-dotnet\sentry-dotnet\src\Sentry.Bindings.Android\obj\sdks\Sentry\Android\7.17.0\sentry-7.17.0.jar" (924646 bytes).
Error: C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\[8](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:8).0.404\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.TargetFrameworkInference.targets(117,5): error NETSDK113[9](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:9): The target platform identifier android was not recognized. [D:\a\sentry-dotnet\sentry-dotnet\samples\Sentry.Samples.Maui\Sentry.Samples.Maui.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-android]
Error: C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\8.0.404\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.TargetFrameworkInference.targets([11](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:11)7,5): error NETSDK1139: The target platform identifier android was not recognized. [D:\a\sentry-dotnet\sentry-dotnet\test\Sentry.Testing\Sentry.Testing.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-android]
Error: C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\8.0.404\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.TargetFrameworkInference.targets(117,5): error NETSDK1[13](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:13)9: The target platform identifier android was not recognized. [D:\a\sentry-dotnet\sentry-dotnet\src\Sentry.Maui\Sentry.Maui.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-android]
Error: C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\8.0.404\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.TargetFrameworkInference.targets(1[17](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-dotnet/actions/runs/11883719343/job/33112101638#step:11:18),5): error NETSDK1139: The target platform identifier android was not recognized. [D:\a\sentry-dotnet\sentry-dotnet\src\Sentry\Sentry.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-android]

[bdach]

For example in this build run you can see that in Attempt 1, dotnet restore succeeded. I assumed at that point that the most recent change I had made was significant. This turned out to be false - dotnet restore failed a second attempt on exactly the same commit.

For reference, the difference between the two seems to be the "runner image" specifically. The fail happened on 20241113.3.0, while the pass happened on 20241021.1.0.

This is visible both in the "setup job" step after you expand the "Runner Image" subhead, or when viewing the raw logs.

See also: actions/runner-images#10978

[jamescrosswell]

For reference, the difference between the two seems to be the "runner image" specifically. The fail happened on 20241113.3.0, while the pass happened on 20241021.1.0.

Awesome, thanks @bdach - I didn't spot that. That at least gives me a path to explore.

As is pointed out in the other issue you referenced, it's a bit frustrating that the runners aren't versioned and we can't pin a specific version to ensure deterministic builds. Ideally I'd like every change in the build system to be reflected by a corresponding change in our repository. The runners themselves seem to change frequently and in major ways however, so sometimes things work and sometimes things break, without our having made any changes.

[albyrock87]

Does anyone have a workaround for this?

I even tried using a specific version of dotnet SDK, but it still complains about android not being recognized.

https://github.com/nalu-development/nalu/actions/runs/11950637082/job/33312535560

      - name: "Setup .NET SDK"
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v3
        with:
          dotnet-version: '8.0.401'
      - name: "Ensure all workloads are installed" # https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/3578
        run: dotnet workload install maui
        shell: pwsh

[enclave-marc-barry]

This is breaking our android builds too.

[twofingerrightclick]

Does anyone have a workaround for this?

I even tried using a specific version of dotnet SDK, but it still complains about android not being recognized.

https://github.com/nalu-development/nalu/actions/runs/11950637082/job/33312535560

      - name: "Setup .NET SDK"
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v3
        with:
          dotnet-version: '8.0.401'
      - name: "Ensure all workloads are installed" # https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/3578
        run: dotnet workload install maui
        shell: pwsh

You might try manually specifying the dotnet version via the --version flag to the workload install command. Or specify the version in a global.json file for your solution.

[dpvreony]

it's not enough to do an sdk install of 8.0.x as 9.0.x is already on the build image

you can workaround this by pinning the .net sdk version by doing the following

1. create a global.json file (somewhere like src/global.json)

{
    "sdk": {
        "version": "8.0.404",
        "rollForward": "disable",
        "allowPrerelease": false
    }
}

2. set the working-directory to the workload install and restore task that point to global.json file (the dotnet workload tool MUST use global.json or it will restore v9 versions of the android package, which don't work for 8.0)

    - name: Install DotNet workloads
      shell: bash
      run: |
        dotnet workload install android aspire ios tvos macos maui
        dotnet workload list
      working-directory: src

    - name: Restore Packages
      run: |
        dotnet restore ${{ env.solutionpath }} -- /bl:artifacts\\binlog\\restore.binlog
      working-directory: src

[frenzibyte]

Turns out the direct reason behind this (at least in our repos which target .NET 8) is that the dotnet workload install command installs .NET 7 workloads, which cannot be used to build .NET 8 projects.

See: dotnet/sdk#45204

[enclave-marc-barry]

Similar story here.

GitHub Actions runs-on: windows-latest puts us on windows-2022 with image version 20241125.1.0.

As GitHub gradually transitioned to this latest image version, we started seeing intermittent platform identifier android was not recognized failures that eventually failed on every run, as the older image versions were retired.

We were originally setup with global.json as follows:

{
    "sdk": {
        "version": "8.0.204",
        "rollForward": "latestFeature"
    }
}

And the following GitHub Action steps:

  - name: Setup .NET 8 (SDK)
    uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
    with:
      dotnet-version: '8.0.404'

  - name: Install dotnet workloads
    working-directory: src/
    run: dotnet workload restore

  - name: Add additional workloads
    run: dotnet workload install maui maui-android maui-ios

When we started seeing platform identifier android was not recognized messages, dotnet restore was also installing packages like microsoft.net.sdk.android at version 33.0.95 (from .NET 7.0, it seems).

The fix (workaround) that worked for us is as follows:

1. Update GitHub actions dotnet workload install to include a --version argument:

     - name: Add additional workloads
       run: dotnet workload install maui maui-android --version (dotnet --version)
   

   This restores microsoft.net.sdk.android and other workloads at the correct version, 34.0.145.

2. Update global.json to explicitly point to 8.0.100 (not 8.0.404 as we previously had) - although not too sure if this made any difference to the overall outcome:

   {
       "sdk": {
           "version": "8.0.100",
           "rollForward": "latestFeature",
           "allowPrerelease": false
       }
   }
   

3. We also reversed the order, running dotnet workload install before dotnet workload restore. Also not sure if this made any difference to the overall outcome.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in this thread, you've really helped us out.

[Kebechet]

any update on this issue ? We tried workarounds mentioned and they didnt work for us