Xamarin Forms Exported Needs to Be Explicitly Specified for Element

Xamarin.Forms: android:exported Needs to Be Explicitly Specified

Recently, while working on an older Xamarin.Forms app, I decided to add a splash screen but kept encountering the following error:

android:exported needs to be explicitly specified for element <activity>

I spent several hours trying to figure out what was wrong since my Android manifest file seemed correct. All the activity sections had the android:exported="true" or android:exported="false" attribute, which is a newer requirement for apps targeting Android 12+.

The Problem

The key to resolving this issue was checking the generated debug manifest file. Although everything looked fine in my main AndroidManifest.xml, I discovered that the problem stemmed from an intent filter that I had declared using the [IntentFilter] attribute in my C# code.

What I had missed was that when using the [IntentFilter] attribute, the android:exported attribute was not automatically added. This caused the error. Since the android:exported attribute cannot be set directly in the [IntentFilter] attribute, I had to remove the attribute from the C# code and manually declare it in the manifest instead. Once I did that, the issue was resolved, and I could move on to the next (unrelated) bug.

Steps to Fix:

1. Check the Generated Debug Manifest: Compare the generated manifest file with your original manifest file to see if anything is missing.
2. Ensure android:exported is Set: If you are targeting Android 12+ and using intent filters, make sure the android:exported attribute is explicitly specified in the AndroidManifest.xml.
3. Avoid Using [IntentFilter] for Exported Components: If necessary, remove the [IntentFilter] attribute and declare the intent filter directly in the AndroidManifest.xml.

Additional Tips:

• If none of the above steps work, try removing intent filters one by one until the project builds successfully, then add them back gradually to isolate the error.
• As always, make sure to clean out the bin/obj folders and perform a fresh build to ensure you’re not working with old or stale files.

Let me know if you’d like further edits!

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Last modified on 2024-09-15