VS 2015 Crashes When open *.axml files using Android Designer Xamarin

Introduction

I create a project using Xamarin with VS2015, and everything was great. I did update for VS2015, Xamarin, Java JDK and the new Android SDK API.

After that, I open the project that I have worked on it for many months (which contains MVC5 WebApp , iOS Xamarin App and Android App), all the projects work as expected but if I open any *.axml file, the VS2015 stuck for a while, then crashes with no errors or any log data in the Xamarin Log or System log.

If I try to open the *.axml file with any other editor, the file is OK and VS2015 is happy, only Android Designer encounters this problem!!

I explain the situation below:

Solution

To solve this issue, I follow these steps:

1. Delete all the Android virtual machines
2. Do not put theme for the toolbar if the layout contains one and make theme global for all layouts
3. Install Xamarin components from nuget source
4. Do not install Android 6.0 N Preview
5. Java jdk 1.7.0_71 is the most stable JDK with Xamarin until now, so don't update java JDK

Some addition steps and recommendations:

6. Make all your resource names as small case
7. Do not add '-' in any resource name