error System.InvalidCastException Forms (droid builds then crashes, ios is fine)

Question

My app worked fine. no updates... now this error is thrown right at droid simulator launch.

error System.InvalidCastException Forms (droid builds then crashes, ios is fine)

public partial class App : global::Xamarin.Forms.Application {

    [global::System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("Xamarin.Forms.Build.Tasks.XamlG", "0.0.0.0")]
    private void InitializeComponent() {
        global::Xamarin.Forms.Xaml.Extensions.LoadFromXaml(this, typeof(App));
    }
}

tried: clean, build, exit, restart computer, making sure my packages are all the same versions and on main,droid,and ios.

Answer 1

ok sooo. after attempting to find non deprecated packages to handle the issues. re-creating the app with everything updated (sdk, mono, packages, visual studio, etc..) I discovered that many packages have issues with being updated unless you update them in the right order. and with all the matching project focus, etc... xlabs still seems to work even thought it is no longer managed as of 2016.