Upgrading .NET MAUI from .NET 7 to .NET 8

To upgrade from .NET 7 to 8:

• Install .NET 8 and the .NET MAUI workload with Visual Studio 17.8+, or with the standalone installer and dotnet workload install maui command.
• Change your target framework references from net7.0-* to net8.0-*

We recommend also adding explicit package references to .NET MAUI NuGet packages:

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Maui.Controls" Version="$(MauiVersion)" />
  <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Maui.Controls.Compatibility" Version="$(MauiVersion)" />
</ItemGroup>

The $(MauiVersion) variable is referenced from the version of .NET MAUI you have installed. You may override this by adding <MauiVersion></MauiVersion> to the csproj like this:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFrameworks>net8.0-android;net8.0-ios</TargetFrameworks>
    <UseMaui>True</UseMaui>
    <MauiVersion>8.0.0-preview.6.23329.7</MauiVersion>
...

This is useful when using ad-hoc builds from the Nightly Feed or builds downloaded from pull requests.