How to Disable Compression while Archiving in Visual Studio

Hello @David Harper ,

Thanks for your question.

Visual Studio does not expose a compression setting in the Archive UI.

In .NET MAUI, you can control which file types are not compressed during packaging by editing the .csproj file.

<PropertyGroup>
<AndroidStoreUncompressedFileExtensions>.png;.jpg;.mp3;.zip;.dat;.obb</AndroidStoreUncompressedFileExtensions>
</PropertyGroup>

Please replace .png;.jpg;.mp3,.. with the actual extensions of the resource files that the store is complaining about.

After making the changes, clean and rebuild the solution, then archive it again.

If this does not work as expected, please provide the following information below:

• Which store are you uploading to?
• What error message does the store give when rejecting the upload?

I hope this addresses your question. If this response was helpful, please consider following the guidance to provide feedback.

Hi David,

Visual Studio does not provide any setting to disable compression during the Archive and Sign process. It is part of the default packaging system and runs automatically.

The way to handle this is to avoid the Archive option and create the package manually instead.

First, build your project in Release mode. Then take the files from the publish or output folder. After that, create the final package using your own method, such as MSBuild or a custom packaging script, where you have full control over how files are packed.

This limitation comes from Visual Studio itself, so it cannot be changed from a setting inside the IDE. If the store does not accept compressed resources, manual packaging is the only practical solution.