“layout renderer failed” error in xamarin

Question

I have a sample Android project which is working well (can be built and installed on mobile phone). But whenever I double click on any file in the Layout folder in xamarin environment to see the layout in design mode, the following message appears. (my xamarin version is 4.0.13)

I see this question but no answer was provided. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

This same error message now appears for a new issue as of Jan 2015.

"layout renderer failed" error in xamarin

The issue is around Xamarin now expecting a 64 bit JDK and using a 32 bit JDK. The fix is to uninstall JDK 1.6 or 1.7 and install 1.8 64 Bit.

Answer 2

Xamarin team have identified an issue with this in 4.0.13 and are working on a fix for it at the moment

Link

Until this is in place, the only way to get the renderer working is to uninstall 4.0.13 and re-install 4.0.12

Answer 3

There is a temporary solution to this. I closed the layout tab, then removed two processes from task manager: MonoDevelop.Projects.Formats.MSBuild.exe and mandroid.exe and I was able to open layout again. But it doesnt fix the problem :>

Answer 4

Known bug(https://bugzilla.xamarin.com/show_bug.cgi?id=18193). Solution here: http://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/14344/disconnected-from-layout-renderer-error-after-updating-android-sdk-tools-to-version-22-6