TargetOfficeVersion in SharePoint .csproj only accepts 19.0 for SharePoint 2019

Hi Adam,

For your concern, the behavior you are seeing is caused by a difference between Visual Studio’s SharePoint 2019 tooling and the information currently shown on the ISharePointProject.TargetOfficeVersion documentation page.

The TargetOfficeVersion value tells Visual Studio which generation of SharePoint tooling the project targets. It is not the SharePoint server’s exact build or assembly version.

For example:

• 14.0 identifies the SharePoint 2010 tooling generation.
• 15.0 identifies an older SharePoint tooling generation associated with SharePoint 2013.
• 19.0 identifies the tooling target used for SharePoint Server 2019 projects.

This explains why Visual Studio reports that the required SharePoint product is not installed when you enter 14.0 or 15.0. By entering either of those values, Visual Studio validates the project against an older SharePoint development environment. Since the server has SharePoint Server 2019 installed instead, that validation fails.

Therefore, for your SharePoint 2019 farm-solution project, you should keep using 19.0. Microsoft also states in SharePoint Server 2019 development platform that Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 and later includes dedicated SharePoint 2019 tooling extensions for SharePoint add-ins, farm solutions, and sandbox solutions.

Hope this information would be helpful. Should you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to share them in the comment below. I'm very happy to help.  

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

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